obilis in Mobile” was Captain Nemo’s motto. It could well have been coined for the watchmaker - the mobile man who devotes his life… to moving parts. And yet the profession is steeped in paradox: while most recruiters are wary of candidates prone to job-hopping, watchmakers are all the more sought-after when their careers span multiple experiences. Moving between roles, companies and specialties is almost a prerequisite to attaining the profession’s Holy Grail: the “complete” watchmaker. A figure that, by definition, does not exist - yet remains relentlessly pursued.

Mobility in watchmaking is rarely addressed. It is neither actively promoted nor discouraged. In short, it is a blind spot. And yet, in the age of LinkedIn and a highly volatile market, knowing how - and when - to pivot has become essential. Most watchmakers still learn this on their own, by trial and error, with all the risks that entails.

One man, one trajectory

Nicolas Delaloye embodies this singularity. It was through conversations with him that this grey area of watchmaking mobility first came into focus. For good reason: he is a chameleon. Upon graduating from the Geneva Watchmaking School, he joined Patek Philippe straight away. Many of his peers would still be there 35 years later. Not him. He stayed less than four years, before crossing paths with Roger Dubuis, F.P. Journe and DeWitt. He then founded his own company, Garde-Temps SA, which led to a collaboration with Franck Muller.

In 2004, he launched under his own name. He later put his brand on hold and returned… to Patek Philippe - this time at the museum - where he remained for eight years before resigning and… relaunching his brand.

Nicolas Delaloye, the watchmaker of many lives

Some would call his path erratic. Yet what stands out is how enriching it has been - and how little it has cost him. Quite the opposite: when he returned in 2025, he reconnected with all the clients he had left 20 years earlier, none of whom held it against him. Collectors came back, commissioning new pieces.

Joséphine Helfer Russo, Head of Development at Ferdinand Berthoud, sums it up neatly: learning watchmaking “by contact.” “There is nothing specifically designed to foster mobility among watchmakers. You have to seize every opportunity that comes your way,” she says.

A view shared by Jean-Baptiste Viot, who has worked extensively for Breguet and the Château de Versailles: “We navigate by sight. We don’t choose our careers.” Peter Speake adds: “It took me forty years in watchmaking to finally define a professional project for the next ten. Until then, I had no clear vision of my future. Encounters, opportunities, an insatiable desire for change, and the urge to leave London and explore other horizons all proved decisive.”

Jean-Baptiste Viot: “You navigate by sight. You don’t choose your career.”

Market forces

What, then, is the market’s view? At Job Watch, its director Benoît Fontaine notes: “Mobility is positive - it builds experience - but it all depends on how frequently one moves.” He adds a useful nuance: “Some roles don’t lend themselves to rapid mobility. Finishing trades, for instance, require time and practice. By contrast, a good production technician masters their position in two or three years and can afford greater flexibility.” He also points out that age plays a role: “When you’re young, with fewer family responsibilities, it’s easier to move.”

Carole Kasapi, Director of Movements at TAG Heuer, adds a generational perspective: “Today, quality of life is what matters most to younger people. In my day, work dictated our choices. Our generations work very well together, but priorities - and therefore mobility patterns - have shifted.”

Carole Kasapi, TAG Heuer: “In my day, work guided our choices.”

Finally, some professions involve only a handful of specialised players - the market is highly concentrated. “A gem-setter won’t hesitate to move every three years on average, making the rounds of the five or six key companies, then returning to their starting point for a second cycle,” explains Sergio Marfil at Adecco.

Group policies

Then come broader factors that either encourage or restrict mobility—first and foremost, corporate policies. “At LVMH, internal mobility is very strong and actively encouraged - it’s a textbook case,” says Sergio Marfil. “At Swatch Group, much also happens internally. At Rolex, they pay close attention to each candidate’s current position: they never hire someone coming from one of their partners.”

Cultural differences also play a role. In Switzerland, the reflex when leaving is often to look just across the street, within a dense industrial ecosystem. In Japan, however, a kind of gentleman’s agreement exists between major brands. It is extremely rare to see managers - or even factory workers - move directly to a competitor. Many still spend decades within the same company.

Johann Kunz-Fernandez, Director of Wostep, an institution that has trained 650 watchmakers since 1966

Switzerland concentrates the majority of qualified candidates for Swiss Made watchmaking. But what about after-sales service across global markets? This is where WOSTEP comes in. Since 1966, it has trained some 650 watchmakers in Neuchâtel. “We are very much service-oriented,” says its director, Johann Kunz-Fernandez. “In the countries we work with, when a graduate lands the right job from the outset, they tend to stay.” He concedes, however, that beyond an alumni association, the institute has no data on the long-term mobility of its graduates.

That said, he points to frequent cases of career shifts between seemingly unrelated fields. “We see quite a few reconversions, including candidates coming from the medical sector.” Some profiles even step beyond watchmaking altogether to explore entirely different horizons.

Wostep headquarters

“They put blinkers on them”

Florian Preziuso is one such case. Having worked with Philippe Dufour, Franck Muller and his own father, he is highly critical of the current barriers to mobility: “We are not training entrepreneurs - far from it. The education system is governed by a federal ordinance in Bern that responds to very specific demands. Young people are given blinkers - and it’s deliberate. We train operators and nothing more, whereas mobility helps you find yourself. You need to move, test, and understand who you are before identifying the right opportunity.”

Florian Preziuso

©Gaël Slettenhaar

Sébastien Chaulmontet would agree. Now Head of Innovation at Sellita, he originally trained as… a lawyer. It was while defending La Joux-Perret that his clients realised he “really understood watches.” He was eventually hired and stayed for ten years.

Sébastien Chaulmontet, from the courtroom to the watchmaker’s bench

He nonetheless highlights the difficulty of such a transition between two unrelated fields - law on one side, a movement manufacturer’s technical office on the other: “The first year was particularly tough. I was under scrutiny. Everyone knew I wasn’t an engineer. I read technical journals every night and had to acquire a huge amount of mechanical knowledge before eventually managing a team of eight. That said, my dual background worked in my favour: I was hired as an interface between management - who spoke law and finance - and the teams, who spoke product. It worked. I filed eight patents at La Joux-Perret.”

He concludes with a wry twist: “Honestly, I would never have hired myself.”