We already have the distribution there.” Right now, about half of the company’s sales come from the U.S. “If you compare Fossil with other groups like the or, the share of the business we’re doing in Asia is still pretty low. It plans to extend the Swiss-made label to other marques, including its new Tory Burch line.įossil signed a licensing agreement with that brand early last year and plans to introduce the watches before the end of this year.Why would the king of Asian-made quartz fashion watches want to make watches in Switzerland? The reason is simple, says Martin Frey, managing director for Fossil Group Europe. Last year, the company launched a Swiss-made collection within its Fossil brand. It also has a big building in Basel, within walking distance of the Baselworld fairgrounds, which houses the headquarters for all its European operations. The Fossil Group now has Swiss movement-assembly, case-making, design and prototyping facilities. STP, purchased in 2012, is the latest step in the company’s campaign to increase its portfolio of Swiss-made products, which until recently contained only the Burberry and brands. Now Fossil is moving on a second front: Switzerland. Fossil’s movement assembly factory in the Swiss canton of TicinoFossil, which is publicly owned, was founded in 1984 at the start of the fashion-watch boom, and grew to its current formidable size largely on the strength of fashion watches made in southern China.
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(The company also sells accessories total Fossil Group sales for 2012 were $2.9 billion.). (It was added to the S&P 500 index two years ago.) In 2012, the latest year for which figures are available, Fossil had watch sales of $2.2 billion, sold under 14 different brand names: the flagship Fossil brand, DKNY, Skagen, Michael Kors, Emporio Armani, and on and on. Fossil, based in Richardson, Texas, is the fourth-biggest watch company in the world. It isn’t huge, but it isn’t to be sneezed at, either: this year it will turn out some 100,000 automatic movements. While most people don’t know of STP, they certainly know its owner, the Fossil Group.
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It’s called STP, for Swiss Technology Production. It’s in the small town of Manno, in the canton of Ticino, near the Italian border and far from the Jura watchmaking region. Norma Buchanan tells us in this feature article from the February 2014 issue of WatchTime.There’s a movement maker in Switzerland that even most savvy watch fans have never heard of. The fashion-watch company, a giant of the Hong Kong watch industry, is making more watches in Switzerland.