Where Watches Tick All the Boxes
Some of the finest and most expensive watches money can buy are
made one thousand meters above sea level, far from Switzer- land's
major business centers. What makes them so impressive is their
quality and precision - just like the Baudat print shop, which
counts virtually all the famous high-end watch manufacturers in the
Vallée de Joux among its customers.
Snow as far as the eye can see - the thick flakes just keep on falling, transforming parked cars into white blobs and making the Vallée de Joux resemble a huge cake covered with sugar frosting. The snow lies nearly one and a half meters deep on roofs, trees and the frozen lake fringed by rolling hills. Surprisingly, though, this winter paradise only attracts a small number of tourists who come here to ski. Although the valley situated at an altitude of 3,280 feet (1,000 m) not far from Geneva is well known for its many crosscountry ski routes, its real fame comes from a completely different source. Several of the world's most famed luxury watchmakers are based here. Together with around 40 other manufacturers and suppliers to the watch industry, they draw a special kind of tourist to the region - the kind who are prepared to spend as much money on a watch as others would pay for their dream car, an impressive property in a top location or a trip around the world. These people are real connoisseurs who far prefer to call the Vallée de Joux by its more colloquial name - Watch Valley.
Time is a real factor in the value added chain. Watch Valley - the name says it all. More than 6,000 people live in the Vallée de Joux, and around 85 percent of the workforce make their living in the watch industry that has developed over the past 200 years in the villages located on the shores of the Lac de Joux. Philippe Baudat and his son Cédric also owe a great deal to this lucrative business that provides perhaps the finest way of measuring time. Many customers of Baudat SA in the little village of L'Orient are local watchmakers, including such famous names as Audemars Piguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre and three luxury brands from the Swatch Group, which makes its finest watches here. Philippe estimates that customers from the watch industry account for a good 40 percent of the print shop's sales. But that's not all. "The luxury manufacturers place the highest demands on their products and expect the same quality and precision from their service providers. The fact that we can satisfy such high demands opens doors to other customers. They know they can get top quality from us since we have the client list to prove it," explains the skilled typesetter.
Sustained growth. Based on his many years of experience, Philippe has a very clear picture of precisely which other customers this should be. The 66-year-old has now been running the Baudat Printshop for 32 years. For 20 years, he was general manager of the print shop founded in 1840. It was owned by the Dupuis family for four generations before it was sold to a new owner from Fribourg in the early 1990s. In 1998, Philippe took over the print shop and has been running it with his son Cédric. Upon graduating from high school with a business certificate, Cédric initially worked as a tennis coach in the U.S. and Switzerland.
For a long time, the family business benefited from the booming watch industry, but the print shop has also experienced the downside of the kind of economic monoculture that exists in the Vallée de Joux. In the 1980s, when cheap digital watches flooded the world market, the Swiss watch industry faced its biggest crisis, bringing a number of the valley's manufacturers to their knees. The industry only picked up again with the highly successful arrival of Swatch watches and the subsequent "counter-trend" towards expensive and, above all, mechanical watches. Philippe learned his lesson from the hard times. "At times, customers in the watch industry accounted for up to 60 percent of our sales. In order to lessen the impact of another potential crisis in the industry, we now focus our customer acquisition activities on companies and institutions working in other sectors, both in the valley and beyond," he explains.
In 2000, for example, the company opened a sales office in Lausanne (which now has three employees) to approach potential customers based to the north of Lake Geneva and in the western part of Switzerland. The result of these many different acquisition activities is a well-mixed and relatively crisis-resistant customer base. The print shop also works for local suppliers to the watch industry and numerous small local companies in other sectors. It also supplies print media to Lausanne's university, the city's main hospital, and a number of municipalities, theaters and other cultural institutions. The print shop's clientele even includes the Yverdon-les-Bains soccer team. These smaller customers now account for around 45 percent of the total volume of business. The print shop generates additional revenue with its own publishing house - called Edition Baudat - and the Feuille d'Avis de la Vallée de Joux. Baudat has been producing this newsletter and advertising supplement every Wednesday since 1840, and it now has a circulation of 3,500 copies. The publishing activities make up the remaining 15 percent of the total annual sales, which have risen from 4.1 million dollars (3 m. euros) to 6.7 million dollars (5 m. euros) since the print shop changed hands.
Snow as far as the eye can see - the thick flakes just keep on falling, transforming parked cars into white blobs and making the Vallée de Joux resemble a huge cake covered with sugar frosting. The snow lies nearly one and a half meters deep on roofs, trees and the frozen lake fringed by rolling hills. Surprisingly, though, this winter paradise only attracts a small number of tourists who come here to ski. Although the valley situated at an altitude of 3,280 feet (1,000 m) not far from Geneva is well known for its many crosscountry ski routes, its real fame comes from a completely different source. Several of the world's most famed luxury watchmakers are based here. Together with around 40 other manufacturers and suppliers to the watch industry, they draw a special kind of tourist to the region - the kind who are prepared to spend as much money on a watch as others would pay for their dream car, an impressive property in a top location or a trip around the world. These people are real connoisseurs who far prefer to call the Vallée de Joux by its more colloquial name - Watch Valley.
Time is a real factor in the value added chain. Watch Valley - the name says it all. More than 6,000 people live in the Vallée de Joux, and around 85 percent of the workforce make their living in the watch industry that has developed over the past 200 years in the villages located on the shores of the Lac de Joux. Philippe Baudat and his son Cédric also owe a great deal to this lucrative business that provides perhaps the finest way of measuring time. Many customers of Baudat SA in the little village of L'Orient are local watchmakers, including such famous names as Audemars Piguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre and three luxury brands from the Swatch Group, which makes its finest watches here. Philippe estimates that customers from the watch industry account for a good 40 percent of the print shop's sales. But that's not all. "The luxury manufacturers place the highest demands on their products and expect the same quality and precision from their service providers. The fact that we can satisfy such high demands opens doors to other customers. They know they can get top quality from us since we have the client list to prove it," explains the skilled typesetter.
Sustained growth. Based on his many years of experience, Philippe has a very clear picture of precisely which other customers this should be. The 66-year-old has now been running the Baudat Printshop for 32 years. For 20 years, he was general manager of the print shop founded in 1840. It was owned by the Dupuis family for four generations before it was sold to a new owner from Fribourg in the early 1990s. In 1998, Philippe took over the print shop and has been running it with his son Cédric. Upon graduating from high school with a business certificate, Cédric initially worked as a tennis coach in the U.S. and Switzerland.
For a long time, the family business benefited from the booming watch industry, but the print shop has also experienced the downside of the kind of economic monoculture that exists in the Vallée de Joux. In the 1980s, when cheap digital watches flooded the world market, the Swiss watch industry faced its biggest crisis, bringing a number of the valley's manufacturers to their knees. The industry only picked up again with the highly successful arrival of Swatch watches and the subsequent "counter-trend" towards expensive and, above all, mechanical watches. Philippe learned his lesson from the hard times. "At times, customers in the watch industry accounted for up to 60 percent of our sales. In order to lessen the impact of another potential crisis in the industry, we now focus our customer acquisition activities on companies and institutions working in other sectors, both in the valley and beyond," he explains.
In 2000, for example, the company opened a sales office in Lausanne (which now has three employees) to approach potential customers based to the north of Lake Geneva and in the western part of Switzerland. The result of these many different acquisition activities is a well-mixed and relatively crisis-resistant customer base. The print shop also works for local suppliers to the watch industry and numerous small local companies in other sectors. It also supplies print media to Lausanne's university, the city's main hospital, and a number of municipalities, theaters and other cultural institutions. The print shop's clientele even includes the Yverdon-les-Bains soccer team. These smaller customers now account for around 45 percent of the total volume of business. The print shop generates additional revenue with its own publishing house - called Edition Baudat - and the Feuille d'Avis de la Vallée de Joux. Baudat has been producing this newsletter and advertising supplement every Wednesday since 1840, and it now has a circulation of 3,500 copies. The publishing activities make up the remaining 15 percent of the total annual sales, which have risen from 4.1 million dollars (3 m. euros) to 6.7 million dollars (5 m. euros) since the print shop changed hands.
You will find the complete article in Heidelberg News issue 269.
Please use the pdf download on the top right-hand side.
Please use the pdf download on the top right-hand side.
