Paul Castella

Paul Castella (1920-2019) was an industrialist in Le Locle credited with building Dixi into a major industrial force and saving many Swiss watch companies, notably Zenith.

Paul Castella was born on January 6, 1920 in La Sagne. He was credited as a self-made man, rising to take over Dixi based on his strong work ethic and leadership qualities.

In 1937, Castella went to work for the assortiment factory of Georges Perrenoud in Le Locle. Castella was a sales employee, but his talent quickly won over Perrenoud and he was seen as a successor.

By 1939 he was appointed head of the rocket department at Dixi. Perrenoud entrusted him with the manufacture of advanced weapons systems, including timed fuses manufactured by Zenith, which Dixi acquired in 1941. In 1944, he took over the management of the machine tool department. The firm traded openly with both the Allied and Axis powers during World War II. This put Castella, like Perrenoud, in the spotlight after the war when he was blacklisted by Allied powers for supplying the Nazi regime.

When Georges Perrenoud died in 1952, Paul Castella took over Dixi. He was able to obtain a commercial loan "on my simple good looks" to purchase the firm, which quickly grew in the post-war years. Castella also owned a furniture factory, Segalo, in this period.

Through the 1960s and 1970s, Castella used the financial power of Dixi to acquire many of the Le Locle watchmaking firms, including Paul Buhré, Robert Cart, H. Moser & Cie., and Luxor. But his largest purchase came in 1978 when he acquired Movado-Zenith-Mondia from the American Zenith corporation. He sold Movado to the Grinberg family in 1983 and Zenith to the luxury giant LVMH in 1999.

The Castella family had to sell the Dixi group's machinery division to the Japanese Mori Seiki in 2007. Since then, Dixi has focused on other products.

Paul Castella is the father of three sons and a daughter and was quite involved in local life in Le Locle. He supported FC Le Locle as president and benefactor for many years, employing many of the players and settling conflicts in the locker room. He was a member of the Lions Club and supported many local community activities. In 2001, he donated 500,000 francs to the Moulins Souterrains du Col-des-Roches, enabling the institution to set up an exhibition space. On his 90th birthday in 2010, Castella donated 90,000 francs for the renovation of the Museum of Fine Arts in Le Locle.

Paul Castella died on October 25, 2019, just a few months short of his 100th birthday.