Watch suppliers

Watch suppliers

Les Fils d’Arnold Linder SA: an introduction

PORTRAIT

Español Français

By Pierre Maillard

December 2020

As part of our latest report, we met several suppliers who form the very weft of the Swiss watchmaking fabric. Here is a short portrait of Les Fils d’Arnold Linder SA.

Les Fils d’Arnold Linder SA: an introduction

PORTRAIT

Español Français

By Pierre Maillard

December 2020

Les Fils d'Arnold Linder SA: an introduction

As part of our latest report, we met several suppliers who form the very weft of the Swiss watchmaking fabric. Here is a short portrait of Les Fils d’Arnold Linder SA.

L

es Fils d’Arnold Linder SA, a self-styled “Meticulous Dials Manufacture”, is a perfect example of the transformation taking place in the watchmaking supply sector.

The two founders of the company in 1946, Albert and René Linder, were initiated into the manufacture of artisanal dials by their father, a paysan horloger – a farmer in summer, a watchmaker in the winter. In 1957 they expanded the business and built up a reputation for excellence in their field.


Jean-Paul Boillat, managing director of dial-maker Les Fils d’Arnold Linder SA

One of their longstanding principal customers was Piaget. At its instigation, Jean-Paul Boillat bought the company in 1984, modernised it, expanded it and relocated it from Le Locle to Les Bois. In 2000, he was approached by Franck Muller who, with Vartan Sirmakes, personally acquired one-third each of the company. One-third he kept himself – a kind of shared vertical integration.


Dial plans and blanks

Today, the company employs 110 people. It masters all the technology and arts of dial-making, from mechanics, stamping, creation of blanks, drilling, micro-milling, machining, electro-erosion, laser machining, surface treatments, electroplating and decals right through to R&D. The company handles fifteen new references a day, with up to 180 operations for one single dial.

EXPLORE ALL OUR EDITIONS SINCE THE 1930s ONLINE

Les Fils d'Arnold Linder SA: an introduction

WATCH FILES
Watch suppliers

Perspectives on dialmaking

Perspectives on dialmaking

Over the past few months, we met with dozens of professionals in the dialmaking sector: the company bosses, managers and independent craftspeople whose (...)

Special report: Dialmaking in the Arc Jurassien

Special report: Dialmaking in the Arc Jurassien

Dialmaking is a complex profession. One that requires the mechanical engineer’s precision as much as the artistic sensitivity of the artisan. Europa Star (...)

Spotlight on luminous dials

Spotlight on luminous dials

More than a century after the first applications of radioluminescent paint, a book and a film – The Radium Girls – commemorates the tragic fate of these (...)

Jérôme Boutteçon, the first master craftsman in marquetry on dials

Jérôme Boutteçon, the first master craftsman in marquetry on dials

PORTRAIT

As a young man, he dreamed of becoming a sculptor. Alarmed at the idea of having an artist son, his father forced him to train as a cabinetmaker. An (...)

Behind the scenes of a decorative art: Guilloché

Behind the scenes of a decorative art: Guilloché

Disenchanted professionals sometimes choose radically different work orientations, often worlds away from the career for which they studied. Such is the (...)

“The Dial”: a bestselling blockbuster

“The Dial”: a bestselling blockbuster

In the small world of auctioneers, Dr Helmut Crott is a legend. A watch auction expert for more than half a century, his expertise has been at the service (...)

Agenhor: poetry in motion

Agenhor: poetry in motion

Established by Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, who passed the mantle to his two sons, Agenhor is a family affair that specialises in custom-designed modules and (...)

Le Cercle des Horlogers: by appointment only

Le Cercle des Horlogers: by appointment only

Le Cercle des Horlogers doesn’t do off-the-peg. Only “extensively personalised” movements whose inventiveness and prestige have earned the company an (...)

Schwarz Etienne's grand ambitions

Schwarz Etienne’s grand ambitions

Schwarz Etienne movements are built on a fully modular concept, enabling evolution of both manual-winding and micro-rotor equipped automatic movements (...)

Chronode: made-to-measure

Chronode: made-to-measure

Chronode is not your run-of-the-mill mechanical movement-maker. The company, based in Le Locle, offers contemporary, innovative solutions and provides (...)

LTM: good things come in small packages

LTM: good things come in small packages

From its base in Fleurier in Val-de-Travers – a region whose reputation for excellence could soon rival that of Vallée de Joux – Le Temps Manufactures (...)

Dubois Dépraz: more than additional modules

Dubois Dépraz: more than additional modules

A renowned specialist manufacturer with an impressive line-up of additional modules, including numerous options for chronographs, and a long list of (...)

La Joux-Perret: a vigorous turnaround

La Joux-Perret: a vigorous turnaround

Owned by Citizen Group since 2012, La Joux-Perret has been helmed by CEO Jean-Claude Eggen since 2020. Under his stewardship, the Manufacture has increased (...)

Kenissi: the whizz kid

Kenissi: the whizz kid

Inaugurated earlier this year but operational since 2022, the Kenissi Manufacture is the latest in the lineup of movement manufacturers and is already (...)

Soprod: integration, independence and Newton®

Soprod: integration, independence and Newton®

Small (compared to some), fully (96-97%) integrated and fiercely independent, Soprod’s ambition is to offer not only calibres that are interchangeable with (...)

Sellita: strength in numbers

Sellita: strength in numbers

From a high-volume assembler of ETA movements to an “indispensable component of Swiss industry”, to quote its discreet but charismatic CEO Miguel Garcia, (...)

Oil, metal and noise

Oil, metal and noise

EDITORIAL

You will indulge me in my use of the first person, for once. For two months, my sole occupation has been visiting the factories that make watch movements – (...)

The guardians of watchmaking diversity

The guardians of watchmaking diversity

EDITORIAL

Our new issue contains probably one of the most comprehensive dossiers on watch movements that you’re likely to find in a publication of this size. While (...)

Salin: 70 years and counting

Salin: 70 years and counting

A specialist manufacturer of cases and bracelets in precious metal, the Italian firm is ideally placed to serve the watch sector as it continues its move (...)

Leather straps: when competitors agree to partner

Leather straps: when competitors agree to partner

While watch brands sometimes find it difficult to unite for causes that go beyond their individual interests, some suppliers are setting an example. (...)

H-Development, portrait of a horological laboratory

H-Development, portrait of a horological laboratory

INDUSTRY

The Biel-based company specialises in delivering components, but also in solving technical challenges. Its customers are mainly independent brands and (...)

Aeronautical principles applied to watch cases

Aeronautical principles applied to watch cases

INTERVIEW

Canadian brand Charles Simon is a luxury luggage manufacturer that started designing cases for watches after the outbreak of the pandemic. Founded by two (...)

Watch straps: a new generation takes over at Hirsch

Watch straps: a new generation takes over at Hirsch

INDUSTRY

Austrian company Hirsch, one of the leading suppliers of straps to the watch industry, is undergoing a generational transition. From digital innovation to (...)

Should watch suppliers go into direct sales?

Should watch suppliers go into direct sales?

EDITORIAL

This somewhat provocative and paradoxical question is prompted by the birth of watch incubator Watch Angels, backed by subcontracting group FM Swiss (...)

Fogged up

Fogged up

EDITORIAL

We’re all of us, all fogged up. Literally, because wearing a mask makes your glasses steam up, and metaphorically because the horizon is looking very murky (...)

SIHS: the “Red Cross” of watch industry suppliers

SIHS: the “Red Cross” of watch industry suppliers

PORTRAIT

Founded in August 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, SIHS – the French acronym for Subcontractors to the Swiss Watch Industry – is the first non-profit (...)

Acrotec: vertical integration in the supply sector

Acrotec: vertical integration in the supply sector

INDUSTRY

Acrotec is probably one of the most important players in the watch supply industry. Operating in the watchmaking, medtech and precision high-tech sectors, (...)

A decade lost, or a decade won for watchmaking?

A decade lost, or a decade won for watchmaking?

EDITORIAL

The watch industry is going through its sharpest decline ever recorded over the last 80 years. How to make a “lost decade for watchmaking” a decade won in (...)

The Swiss watch suppliers are in the fog

The Swiss watch suppliers are in the fog

REPORT

There’s nothing better than a tour of the mountains of the watchmaking Jura region to meet the suppliers, sub-contractors or cocontractors – call them what (...)

Salon EPHJ: an introduction

Salon EPHJ: an introduction

PORTRAIT

As part of our latest report, we met several suppliers who form the very weft of the Swiss watchmaking fabric. Here is a short portrait of the Salon (...)

Zürcher Frères: an introduction

Zürcher Frères: an introduction

PORTRAIT

As part of our latest report, we met several suppliers who form the very weft of the Swiss watchmaking fabric. Here is a short portrait of Zürcher (...)

Arrigoni-Laufer: an introduction

Arrigoni-Laufer: an introduction

PORTRAIT

As part of our latest report, we met several suppliers who form the very weft of the Swiss watchmaking fabric. Here is a short portrait of (...)

Dubois Dépraz: an introduction

Dubois Dépraz: an introduction

PORTRAIT

As part of our latest report, we met several suppliers who form the very weft of the Swiss watchmaking fabric. Here is a short portrait of Dubois (...)

A fragile fabric

A fragile fabric

EDITORIAL

When the fabric of a dress dries out, it is weakened, unravels and tears, becomes shapeless and rapidly falls apart.

Soprod's bet: a new entry-level Swiss mechanical calibre

Soprod’s bet: a new entry-level Swiss mechanical calibre

MOVEMENTS

With both volumes and demand falling, the pandemic crisis has somewhat overshadowed the long-standing debate on the supply of Swiss mechanical movements to (...)

Salin: the recovery of an ancient technique

Salin: the recovery of an ancient technique

BRACELETS

Inspired by the techniques and knowledge of the past, in recent years, Salin has put old equipment back into business. With tools used since the 1970s, (...)

The control-freakery of the luxury business

The control-freakery of the luxury business

OPINION

How a traditional culture of trust in the Swiss watch industry is changing over time. Are artisans being replaced by bean-counters precisely when the word (...)

A new integrated chronograph by Dubois Dépraz

A new integrated chronograph by Dubois Dépraz

EPHJ 2019

Dubois Dépraz will exhibit its novelties at the EPHJ fair from 18 to 21 June 2019 in Geneva. Among other developments, the Vallée de Joux manufacture will (...)

The clasp that says a lot about your watch

The clasp that says a lot about your watch

INDUSTRY

Not always intuitive to fasten, the clasp is often a stumbling block for the owner of a new watch. So the best thing is to be prepared. But why are there (...)

Automation: towards human obsolescence?

Automation: towards human obsolescence?

INDUSTRY

The Encyclopédia Universalis defines automation as the act of rendering automatic operations which previously required human intervention. So we can see a (...)