Grovana
The Grovana watch factory AG in Tenniken is one of the last three existing watch manufacturers, in the Swiss canton of Basel-Country -house development and production of watches operate.
history
Founded in 1924
The brothers Walter and Hans Gröflin from Tenniken founded the Fabrique d'Horlogèrie W. & H. Groeflin, Tenniken / Bâle in 1924 .
In the first few years the company limited itself to the production of pocket watches. In the course of time, the first editions of wristwatches were made. These proved to be of high quality and sophisticated design. Encouraged by the success, the production of wristwatches was steadily expanded. Finally, Gröflin specialized in the production of watch movements.
Takeover in 1970
In 1970, the businessman Werner Bitterli acquired the watch factory now trading under the name of Hans Gröflin AG . He changed the company name to Grovana Uhrenfabrik AG .
The production of watch movements was gradually reduced and the assembly processes restructured. At the same time, the development of our own watches began under the name Grovana. The first Grovana watch collection was presented as early as 1971.
From 1970 to around 1988, the watch industry was put under great pressure by the wave of cheap quartz watches from the Far East, known as the quartz crisis . In the canton of Baselland, many companies had to stop production. In the middle of this crisis, Grovana launched its first analogue quartz collection in 1980 and in 1985 was able to expand the company's headquarters with an extension for customer reception and additional office space.
The development of the Eastern European market began in 1990 and efforts were made towards global expansion.
Under the name of Private Label Watches, Grovana watchmakers create customized watches from the current range of models as one-off production or in large numbers for promotional gifts.
In 1999 the storage capacities for watch components had to be expanded.
In 2001, Christopher Bitterli was able to get out of the bankruptcy estate of Manufactures d'Horlogèrie Suisses Réunies SA. (MSR-Holding) not only acquire construction plans, but also thousands of work, small and accessory parts, including special tools for the production of mechanical Revue Thommen movements. In the same year, a long-term, exclusive license agreement for the production and worldwide sales of Revue Thommen watches was signed with Revue Thommen AG Waldenburg .
Since the Revue Thommen brand appeals to a different clientele than the house brand, activities were split up internally into the Grovana and Revue Thommen divisions. The Revue Thommen division was supposed to further develop the Airspeed pilot's watches and the watches with their own classic manufacture movements.
This required a further expansion at the headquarters. The existing production building was extended in 2003. This enabled space to be made available for the manufacture, assembly and inspection of the Revue Thommen watches.
As early as 2003, with the movement parts from the bankruptcy estate, the production of manufacture movements could begin. The mechanical movements, which were initially made from the individual parts that were taken over, had to be replaced by replicas over time. These proved to be better accuracy. By building the mechanical movements in-house, Grovana Uhrenfabrik AG has achieved the status of a manufactory.
The first Revue Thommen watch with a completely in-house manufactured caliber was presented at “BaselWorld 2006” . Grovana calls the manufacture caliber GT 60 . The watch has a date disc, at 5 o'clock the power reserve, at 9 o'clock the seconds and at 12 o'clock the position of the moon phase is displayed.
In 2008 Christopher Bitterli took over the management of the company.
On the occasion of the watch and jewelry fair in Basel, BaselWorld 2012 , Grovana presented itself with a new two- story fair sales booth.
In 2014, Grovana Uhrenfabrik AG celebrated its 90th anniversary. Over 100,000 watches have been produced and delivered to more than 70 countries worldwide.
In 2014, Grovana surrendered its license for the production and worldwide sales of Revue Thommen watches to GT Thommen Watch AG , which was newly founded in 2012 .
photos
Head office. On the left is the extension for customer reception and offices built in 1985
Head office. On the right is the extension built in 1999 with storage rooms for watch components
Head office. On the right is the renovation and new construction of the existing production rooms, which was completed in 2003
Web links
References and comments
- ↑ Company name according to "Mikrolisk" The horlogikal trade mark index. Retrieved November 2, 2016
- ↑ Swiss watch edition Grovana. Retrieved June 1, 2015
- ↑ Company history
- ↑ Private Label by Grovana ( Memento of the original from November 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ son of Werner Bitterli
- ↑ Handelszeitung , November 16, 2005. Accessed June 1, 2015
- ↑ Company in which specialized products are made by hand. Latin manus = hand and factura = to make
- ↑ GT stands for G rovana T enniken
