Canton Berne

Berne or Bern is a German and French-speaking canton in central western Switzerland that includes many important watchmaking towns.

Perhaps the most important watchmaking center in Berne is the multi-lingual town of Bienne/Biel at the end of Lake Biel where the rivers Suze and Aare exit. This is home to Omega and is the site for much of Rolex production. Other important watchmaking activities take place in the Bernese Jura, including the Vallon de Saint-Imier and the Franches-Montagnes.

Watchmaking in Canton Berne

Most watchmaking activity is focused in the north of the canton in the areas of the French-speaking Bernese Jura and bilingual Bienne/Biel. Some is also present in German-speaking Oberaargau, Bern-Mittelland, and Thun areas.

Within the canton, most watchmaking occurs in the following areas:

• Bernese Jura
  • Vallon de Saint-Imier
  • Vallée de Tavannes
  • Grandval
  • Tramelan
• Bienne/Biel

These areas are closely associated with the bordering Canton Jura to the north, and Canton Vaud and Canton Neuchâtel to the west.

History of Watchmaking in Canton Berne

Hardly more than twenty years ago, watchmaking took on a regular and serious extension in Bienne. A milder climate, an advantageous and agreeable position near a lake, were bound to attract the attention of neighbors subjected to the hard regime of the mountains; moreover, Bienne, a small town, presented at the beginning of the conditions of housing and food at advantageous prices which were not to be scorned. Once the watch colony began, it soon grew and provided this town with a new and important element of prosperity. Now Bienne, favored moreover by the railway lines, communicating by them with all the watchmaking localities of the Jura chain, has become an important center which will probably develop further. Through its new districts and its suburbs, the city is now linked to the villages of Boujean and Madretsch, as well as to Nidau, a small medieval town which is also undergoing its transformation. In including these three localities, the number of manufacturers and manufacturers of watches can be estimated at nearly one hundred, and the number of watchmakers at 2,500; there are about twenty workshops for fitters of cases, either in gold or in silver; in the latter is a steam-powered factory. The various decorative parts of the case, of the bowl, of the movement, are represented by about twenty-five workshops, so that watchmaking manufacture in Biel can be completely self-sufficient for the majority of its products. At Madretsch is the important factory of MM. Aeby and Landry, who manufacture in their workshops the complete watch, including the case, of standard but regular quality, at relatively very low prices. It is now also involved in the manufacture of chronographs, repeaters and alarm watches. This factory employs gas-powered machines as the driving force. In one of the new quarters we find the hairspring factory of MM. Baehni frères, which we see appearing in exhibitions in Vienna, Philadelphia and Paris. This workshop, created in 1864, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, then transported, a few months later, to. Bienne, employs perfected machine tools moved by a gas engine, and annually produces 12,000 gros; it manufactures everything from the smallest hairsprings to pendulum hairsprings, as well as sausage hairsprings. In the direction of Boujean there is still a special industry which deserves to be mentioned: it is the drilling of precious stones of MM. Schneider and Perret-Gentil, with steam engine. This development of the industry was bound to give rise to the idea of ​​completing the whole by creating a watchmaking school; this is what happened, in fact, several years ago. This school is already known to our readers through the reports we have published. It is in its premises that the transmission devices for the astronomical time received from the Neuchâtel Observatory are located, devices that the public can consult and see in operation. Finally, watchmakers still have the support of several mechanics' workshops in Bienne, which offer advantages of real value to them. According to the answers given to our questionnaires, we note that there, as in the other localities already mentioned, they are very much in favor of a uniform system of screws, metric measurement, of the unification of the magnitudes of movements, of the final adoption of the metric system for all measuring tools, as well as good control laws, trademarks, patents of invention; finally, some houses strongly recommend the creation of trade union chambers of commerce in all the industrial centers of Switzerland. Before leaving the plain, we must still visit a few localities which provide their contingent to. our industry: in Lyss (district of Aarberg), two workshops of movements in white with hydraulic power, that of MM. Farny, which employs about 120 workers, and manufactures the key and winding movements, standard quality; and that of Messrs. Verdan and Rentier, which produce a slightly more careful quality; their products offer quality conditions that are appreciated. In Douanne (district of Nidau), several workshops for box fitters; in Teuffelen (same district), manufacturers of watchmaking supplies; in Cellier, two workshops for box fitters and one for pierrists. Let us also point out, at Sumiswald, factories of regulating clocks enjoying a certain reputation. At Neuveville we find the hydraulic works of MM. Favre brothers, supplying the complete watch, and employing, for the various parts of the manufacture, several perfected machines; a factory of movements in white remontoir; various workshops for box fitters, as well as other spare parts. In addition, the surroundings of these various localities provide, as happens throughout the Jura, a fairly considerable number of workers working at home in the finishing, planting of exhausts, ironing, etc., which thus complete the whole Biel production