{September 2009} In three years, the 150th anniversary. Let’s hope that the Locle-based brand, born in 1862, which was somewhat deprived of its past and its historical wealth by several years of “easy” concentration on the US market that worked best, will rise. et us hope that it will start to reopen all the countries in which it was deeply rooted. With about 40 million watches and alarm clocks sold during its history, let’s imagine that the lands to be regained cover the whole planet, from Northern Europe to South Africa. By the way, in Mandela’s Country, a profit-maker appropriated the name not so long ago.

So what are they planning for us on the Rue des Billodes? Let’s hope that a caliber is on the menu, that would be the least. Remember the 8-day alarm clock that woke up three out of four Swiss households. It was equipped with a caliber that could suddenly become a myth if it was adapted to the wrist. The ingredients are there, and the thirty or so employees (at one time there were 2,500), deserve to have prospects that are equal to the heritage treasure on which they are sitting. Already, the entire American team has been changed, or even rehired on a Swiss basis. Perhaps the number of references, too high for the time, will also be reduced. The old factory, linked to the history of Tavannes Watch (because the Jews were not allowed to settle in Le Locle), deserves a resurrection that its current volumes could allow it to finance…