Arogno

Arogno is a village in Ticino in Italian-speaking Switzerland. It has had a watch factory since 1873 and continues to be a low cost producer of watches to the present time.

Manzoni & Cie.

Italian Switzerland saw its first watch factory in the form of an ebauche factory established in 1873 in Arogno by Manzoni and Cie. This firm was founded in Porrentruy a few years earlier but established the operation in Arogno to exploit the hydraulic power and low-cost labor there. As of 1897 it employed 50 workers, half of whom were women.