Biel/Bienne
6 manufactures in this region of Switzerland.
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6 pins in Biel/Bienne. Hover or focus a pin for the brand name; click through for the brand’s catalog page.
Brands in Biel/Bienne
Founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1892 as the Hamilton Watch Company; acquired by SSIH (now Swatch Group) and consolidated into Switzerland in 2003, with the modern manufacture in Biel/Bienne alongside Omega.
Hermes established La Montre Hermes in Biel/Bienne in 1978 as its watch manufacturing subsidiary. The facility produces in-house calibers including H1837 (Cape Cod), H1912 (Arceau), and H1950 (Slim d'Hermes), making Hermes a genuine manufacture brand within its fashion-house identity.
Founded 1881 by Achilles Ditesheim in La Chaux-de-Fonds; the brand moved to Biel/Bienne in the 1970s under Zenith ownership and is now part of Movado Group. Nathan George Horwitt's Museum Watch design (1947) remains the brand's defining visual identity.
Louis Brandt's workshop moved to Biel in 1880, where Omega still operates the manufacture that produces the Co-Axial Master Chronometer calibres.
Founded 1917 by three Schlup brothers in Lengnau, in the Biel/Bienne district of Bern canton. Rado became an early pioneer of hardmetal (tungsten carbide) case construction, launching the first commercially available scratchproof watch in 1962, the DiaStar, and has remained focused on advanced materials ever since. High-tech ceramic, sapphire crystal cases, and plasma-hardened steel are now central to the catalog. Rado has been part of the Swatch Group since 1984.
Swatch Group was founded in Biel/Bienne in 1983 to rescue Swiss watchmaking from the quartz crisis. The SISTEM51 automatic (2013) and MoonSwatch collaboration with Omega (2022) are the two most technically and commercially significant Swiss watch launches of the past 40 years.