The Pro View
An In-house Movement is Essential For a 21st-century Watchmaking House.
The motion–that in the 21st century every watchmaking company should have an in-house movement– is one that I whole-heartedly support. I will put forward my side of the argument with the following three points: in-house movements ensure independence in the watchmaking industry; the ability to produce in-house movements demonstrates a watchmaking company’s technical skills; and in-house movements enable companies to control the quality of the timepieces they produce.
Firstly, in-house movements have now become essential for a company’s independence in the watchmaking industry. For example, when the 2015 uncoupling of the Swiss franc and Euro currencies negatively impacted all the watchmaking companies that source parts or entire watch movements from Switzerland, Nomos Glashütte remained relatively unaffected. This is because we produce our own movements and indeed almost all the parts for them and, therefore, do not depend on third-party suppliers. Another recent case is when Nivarox started to reduce deliveries of essential watchmaking parts in 2012, which has shown just how important this self-reliance can be for the health and future growth of watchmaking companies.
Nomos Glashütte’s independence in production has a strong foundation in our company’s independent ownership. We are not part of any corporate group but instead owned by five partners, who are personally responsible for strategic decision-making. While we are in the minority with this independent approach to business, it has certainly served us well to date. In 2016, we once again enjoyed growth of well over 20 per cent–this simply would not have been possible had we been restricted by parts quotas from monopoly suppliers in the watchmaking industry.
Secondly, the development and production of our own calibers shows that Nomos Glashütte is capable of the finest mechanical watchmaking and outstanding engineering.