Ernest Dubois

Paul-Ernest Dubois (1896-1968) was the head of the Fabriques de Spiraux Réunies.

Paul-Ernest Dubois was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1896 and lived there most of his life. He attended the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and considered himself a scientist and engineer throughout his life. He researched the properties of various balance spring materials and developed many improvements in the field.

A watchmaking operation was established in La Chaux-de-Fonds at Rue de Bel-Air 14 on August 1, 1901 by Paul-Ernest Dubois in his own name. This was the father of Ernest Dubois. The company was located at Rue du Doubs 1 by 1908. Paul-Ernest Dubois the elder died by 1929, leaving the firm to his son of the same name. At this same time the firm began using the name "Fabrique de Spiraux Stella" and was located on Rue des Terreaux 33. It would remain there through 1958.

Dubois was particularly a follower of the work of Charles-Edouard Guillaume, who developed the alloys known as Invar and Elinvar. He founded a firm, Stella, in La Chaux-de-Fonds to produce balance springs based on these alloys.

Dubois was adamantly independent through the 1920s, resisting the control of manufacturers organizations and quotas. His firm was a dissident to the control of Ebauches SA and Fabriques de Spiraux Réunies, the last balance spring factory to resist. But finally in 1929 he was persuaded by Eugène Péquignot (secretary general of département fédéral de l'Économie publique) to allow Stella to be acquired by FSR on the condition that he be made an administrator of the trust. The economic crisis of 1931 changed his opinion and he spent the remainder of his life leading various consolidated firms. The FSR fell under UBAH in 1930 and was acquired by ASUAG in October 1931.

In 1931, Ernest Dubois was a founding board member of ASUAG and replaced Charles-Albert Vuille on the board of Fabriques Suisse de Balanciers. The following year he joined the board of Fabriques de Spiraux Réunies.

Dubois worked with Gustave Ulrich and Louis Huguenin at FSR and the three (along with Bernard Gabus and Georges Gabus) founded an assortiment workshop in Le Locle in 1931 known as Fabrique Génia. The company was liquidated in 1936.

The only spring factory to remain outside the trust was W. Ruch in Saint-Imier, and this only because they made non-watchmaking hairsprings. This company was used by ASUAG to leverage control over dissident watchmakers in the 1930s by becoming the focus for production of Nivarox hairsprings. Dubois was the founding secretary of Nivarox SA, founded in 1937 by ASUAG to exploit Reinhard Straumann's work. In 1952 he became vice president of the company. He became vice president of FSR in 1939 and president of W. Ruch in 1944. He retained most of these roles, including running his own Stella factory, through his death.

Dubois was also involved in the formation of the Laboratoire Suisse de Recherches Horlogères in 1945 along with many other members of the Swiss Chamber, FH, UBAH, and Ebauches SA.

In 1947, Dubois revealed his secret work to develop an alternative hairspring material based on Elinvar. He had been working with dégrossissage d'or in Geneva on the technology through the war. This shifted the balance of production to Geneva for a time and solidified Dubois position in the industry.

Ernest Dubois "Fabrique de Spiraux Stella" remained in operation and relocated to Rue Jardinière 33 in 1958. But the company ceased operation in 1963.

Ernest Dubois died suddenly at 72 years of age on December 27, 1968 at his home in Mies near Versoix.