A mechanical watch is an extremely complex item, and requires a number of quite different skills to take it from the designer's brain to the wearer's wrist.

The structure of the industry in Switzerland

In some cases, the work required is all carried out in-house by the same company. A company which works in this way is known by the French term as a manufacture. A manufacture sells its products under its own brand name. In general manufactures operate at the top-end of the market.

But traditionally much of the work involved has been subcontracted out to workshops and small factories which make the components and to others where they are assembled.

A company which buys in the basic parts, assembles them, and sells the final product under its own name is known by another French word as an "établisseur".

A "termineur", on the other hand, is an independent workshop or watchmaker who assembles watches for a company which supplies the components and which markets the final product.

Central to the organisation of the modern watch industry is production of the ébauche (another French term). This is a set of about 60 loose parts, making up most of the internal mechanism of the watch.Factories specialising in the production of ébauches are nothing new. The main producer of ébauches today is ETA SA Fabriques d'Ebauches, a member of the Swatch group, based in Grenchen in Canton Solothurn. ETA is the result of the amalgamation of a number of independent factories, the oldest of which was founded back in 1793.