Watchmaking in France

Watchmaking in France

THE WATCH FILES

Watchmaking in France

A curated selection of Europa Star articles on the French watch scene.

France Ebauches rises from its ashes

France Ebauches rises from its ashes

Early 1994, France Ebauches filed for bankruptcy. This was, according to the headline in La Chaux-de-Fonds daily L’Impartial, the “end of French (...)

Yema: aiming for independence

Yema: aiming for independence

As of this year, the Calibre CMM.20 will equip selected Yema watches, including the Yema Wristmaster Traveller Micro-Rotor Limited Edition, and is (...)

Pequignet and Calibre Royal

Pequignet and Calibre Royal

Now with the automatic Calibre Royal, the manual-winding Calibre Royal Manuel (2017) and the Calibre Initial (2021) under its belt, the brand was in need (...)

French movement-making: a pragmatic renewal

French movement-making: a pragmatic renewal

It’s still early days but the ball is rolling: mechanical movement production is returning to France. The likes of Pequignet, Yema, France Ebauches, (...)

Francéclat: a map of France's watch industry

Francéclat: a map of France’s watch industry

This French trade body has as its remit the defence of a robust national watch industry and has identified some 80 domestic brands. Francéclat has also set (...)

Watch Q&A with... Hugues Souparis – Pequignet

Watch Q&A with... Hugues Souparis – Pequignet

“What makes us exclusive: automatic movements designed and assembled in France”

Pequignet: new ambitions for the French watch industry

Pequignet: new ambitions for the French watch industry

FRANCE

The Pequignet factory in Morteau has been taken over by French investment fund Enowe, which aims to revitalise national “houses of excellence”. Although it (...)

Semper & Adhuc: watchmaking in the circular economy

Semper & Adhuc: watchmaking in the circular economy

PORTRAIT

It is by no means limited to watchmaking: the return to the local, the artisanal, the human, has been perceptible for years now, as the limitations of (...)

Bell & Ross: the art of disruption

Bell & Ross: the art of disruption

INTERVIEW WITH CARLOS-A. ROSILLO

The proudly independent Franco-Swiss brand has brought the aeroplane cockpit to the wrist. It has followed a very precise trajectory. A pioneer in the XXL (...)

Merci: the trendy Paris watchmakers

Merci: the trendy Paris watchmakers

FRANCE

The LMM-01 designed by Paris boutique Merci soon gained an illustrious customer – the president of France, Emmanuel Macron. No doubt he saw something of (...)

Introducing French watchmaker Phenomen

Introducing French watchmaker Phenomen

Based out of Besançon, the young brand has launched its debut timepiece: the Axiom. It’s bold and it’s distinctive, but does it have what it takes to make a (...)

France, not optimistic yet

France, not optimistic yet

2017: -1.4%

After a good start, the French watchmaking sector is poised for a gloomy end to 2017. The business climate is dominated by geopolitics and a growing (...)

Besançon: the next generation

Besançon: the next generation

FRANCE

In a watchmaking region that has struggled since the 1990s and been severely affected by the crisis currently gripping its Swiss neighbour, several new (...)

Alain Silberstein: the musings of a lifelong visionary

Alain Silberstein: the musings of a lifelong visionary

PORTRAIT

If the most expert Japanese collectors or Singaporean aficionados know of Besançon, it’s without doubt the ‘fault’ of Alain Silberstein. And yet the watchmaker (...)

2015 results for the French watch market

2015 results for the French watch market

INTERVIEW

Lower volumes but higher values: the French market holds a mirror to global trends, with a few Gallic peculiarities, such as the importance of the Asian (...)