Production was just a few thousand movements in 2012 but climbed to 60,000 last year and is projected to reach 100,000 this year.В STP makes a single movement: a three-handed, 11ВЅ-ligne automatic much like the ETA 2824 (but with a longer power reserve вЂ“ 46 hours, Fossil says). Eventually, there will be three work shifts (there are now two). STP assembles movements components are made by outside suppliers, mostly mid-sized, independent companies in the Jura, Frey says.В Since then, Fossil has doubled the size of the Manno facility and installed new assembly lines, says Christian Stegemann, CFO of Fossil Europe.

Martin Frey (above),В managing director of the Fossil GroupвЂ™s European operations, At the mid-price level and above, they want Swiss-made, and put more importance on that label than do, say, Americans. (It recently purchased a 20-percent interest in the luxury-watch brand Bovet, which is also working to increase its business there.)В But Asians donвЂ™t go for Asian-made watches, at least not above a certain, rather low, price point. It is certainly not a coincidence that FreyвЂ™s previous job, before he moved to Fossil in 2006, was with DKSH Ltd., a Zurich-based company that specializes in helping brands market their products in Asia. We already have the distribution there.вЂќ Right now, about half of the companyвЂ™s sales come from the U.S. вЂњIf you compare Fossil with other groups like the Swatch Group or Richemont, the share of the business weвЂ™re doing in Asia is still pretty low. 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.

Fossil signed a licensing agreement with that brand early last year and plans to introduce the watches before the end of this year. It plans to extend the Swiss-made label to other marques, including its new Tory Burch line. 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 companyвЂ™s campaign to increase its portfolio of Swiss-made products, which until recently contained only the Burberry and Zodiac brands. Now Fossil is moving on a second front: Switzerland. (The company also sells accessories total Fossil Group sales for 2012 were $2.9 billion.)ДЇossilвЂ™s movement assembly factory in the Swiss canton of TicinoДЇossil, 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. (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 isnвЂ™t huge, but it isnвЂ™t to be sneezed at, either: this year it will turn out some 100,000 automatic movements.В While most people donвЂ™t know of STP, they certainly know its owner, the Fossil Group. ItвЂ™s called STP, for Swiss Technology Production. ItвЂ™s in the small town of Manno, in the canton of Ticino, near the Italian border and far from the Jura watchmaking region. ThereвЂ™s a movement maker in Switzerland that even most savvy watch fans have never heard of. Why? Norma Buchanan tells us in this feature article from the February 2014 issue of WatchTime. The fashion-watch company Fossil, a giant of the Hong Kong watch industry, is making more watches in Switzerland.

Fossil watch serial numbers