THE HISTORY OF BLANCPAIN

IN TIME
The Blancpain Rolls.
The Blancpain Harwood.
JEAN-CLAUDE BIVER, BLANCPAIN CEO 1982-2002.
tion than prevailed in Europe. The opening
which Fiechter found was as a movement
supplier. Over time, Blancpain became a principal
supplier of Gruen, Elgin and Hamilton.
A further blow came with the disappearance
of Fiechter’s co-owner, André Léal, on
the eve of WWII.
Despite these challenges, Betty Fiechter
succeeded enormously. Joined in 1950
by her nephew Jean-Jacques Fiechter the
Blancpain business became a powerhouse,
both in respect of watches sold under the
Blancpain name and as a movement manufacturer.
Their string of triumphs included
the Fifty Fathoms, the world’s first modern
diving watch which debuted in 1953 (see
Issue 3 of “Lettres” for the comprehensive
history of how Jean-Jacques Fiechter developed
this iconic watch in collaboration with
the French combat divers and presided over
not only its widespread adoption by navies
around the world, but its use by Jacques
Cousteau and his team) and the Ladybird
women’s watch appearing in 1956 and featuring
what was then the world’s smallest
round movement. On the back of these
milestones, the Fiechters guided Blancpain
to a production level of over 100,000 watches
per year by 1959.
As Rayville-Blancpain grew it became
increasingly apparent that the Fiechters
needed additional resources to expand production
to the level of demand. Betty Fiechter
found the solution in 1961 via a merger into
Société Suisse pour l’Industrie Horlogère
(SSIH). Joined into SSIH were Rayville-Blancpain,
Omega, Tissot and Lemania. Rayville-
Blancpain became one of the production
bulwarks of the group, building new facilities
and soaring its production to over 220,000
pieces by 1971.
The Fiechter legacy fell solely into Jean-
Jacques’ hands following Betty’s death in
1971. Jean-Jacques would soon be sorely
tested by what some in the industry called
the perfect storm of the mid-70s which
brought together the introduction of compe-
tition by quartz watches, the melting of the
dollar against the Swiss franc (sending the
prices of Swiss watches in the most important
market to unprecedented levels), the oil
crisis and a global recession. In combination
these market forces plunged the production
of SSIH in 1979 to less than half of what it
had been before, generating huge losses and
precipitating a crisis with their banks.
SSIH’s response to this pressure saw both
arrivals and departures in the early 80s.
Arriving in 1980 was the engineer Nicolas
Hayek who later came to found the Swatch
Group under whose ownership Blancpain
now flourishes. Desperate to generate cash
in all ways, SSIH turned to selling its patrimony.
First on the block was the movement
manufacturer Lemania (today Lemania, now
merged into Breguet, is part of the Swatch
Group aside Blancpain). Next was the name
Blancpain which was sold to a partnership of
movement manufacturer Frédéric Piguet, led
by Jacques Piguet, and Jean-Claude Biver,
then an employee of SSIH. Only the name
Blancpain was sold by SSIH; the assets of
Rayville-Blancpain, that is to say its movement
manufacturing facilities and equipment,
remained fully in operation continuously
through the time of the sale.
Together Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques
Piguet opened a new chapter in the two and
a half centuries’ old history of Blancpain.
They transformed Blancpain from a company
that had hidden much of its savoir faire by
emphasising the production of high quality
movements which would be sold under the
names of others and letting sales of watches
under its own name dwindle to but a few
thousand pieces a year, to one which would
keep its creations and inventions for itself.
The chronicle of the remarkable string of
world first accomplishments running through
to today is now memorialised in the Tradition
of Innovation section of Blancpain’s catalogue.
Read our catalogue online:
www.blancpain.ch/e/downloads/catalogues