TZ Tour at Ulysse Nardin page 1

2006 TimeZone Tour

Day 3 - Visit to Ulysse Nardin

by Michael Sandler

September 2006

Day 3 of the 2006 TimeZone Tour tour began with a light breakfast at our hotel, after which we boarded our coach for the ride to Ulysse Nardin's manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Once again we were fortunate to have mostly sunny skies and warm temperatures.

Less than 30 minutes after leaving our hotel we arrived at Ulysse Nardin in La Chaux-de-Fonds. This was the first of two Ulysse Nardin facilities we would visit. The company has a second facility in Le Locle.

As you can see, our visit was not a surprise. :-)

We entered a large conference room where we were welcomed by Pierre Gygax, Executive Vice President of Ulysse Nardin in charge of operations and production.

We were also joined by Thomas Schütz of Ulysse Nardin's International Technical Service group. In addition to his time in Switzerland, Thomas spent several years working for UN service in the United States.

Mr. Gygax told us about the company, its history, and some of its key accomplishments. The La Chaux-de-Fonds facility houses the Research and Development Group, along with some manufacturing functions and a portion of the movement assembly group. Complicated and other special products are produced in Le Locle. Final inspections are performed in Le Locle, and that facility also houses the administrative staff.

Mr. Gygax also provided some interesting information about UN's size and production capacity. Ulysse Nardin employs approximately 150 people at the factory, split roughly equally between La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle. Of the 180 total employees, about 60 are watchmakers. Since the company is located so close to the French border, roughly 30% of the employees commute into Switzerland from France each day. The company also has about 20 employees located outside Switzerland, including the United States (Boca Raton) and Germany.

Ulysse Nardin produces approximately 15,000 pieces per year. Of those, approximately 6,000 are in the "Marine" line, approximately 1,000 are perpetual calendars and 1,000 are Sonatas. They also make approximately 150 repeating/striking watches each year.

With good reason, Ulysse Nardin takes great pride in the very unique watches they have developed, including the Freak, the Sonata, and their striking watches. Mr. Gygax explained that a complicated watch like the Sonata can take as long as five years to develop.

After our introduction to the company, we split into two groups for the tour of the facility. My group's guide for this part of the visit was Thomas Schütz.

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