Yearly Archives: 2019

Party of 300 opens 3000 m²

Yesterday, we celebrated the opening of extended facilities of the Frederique Constant Manufacture in Geneva. feca29ef-e0a0-44ea-9a31-5329f7ef07a2

We needed two years to finish the construction of an additional 3000 m² space, bringing the Frederique Constant Group’s headquarters up to 6200 m², enabling to completely re-organise the different working spaces.

On the ground floor, the visitors will find an exclusive dedicated space where guests will have the chance to go through a Manufacture Experience and discover each brand’s universe and history. Amongst many displays and settings, the visitors will be able to discover heritage timepieces, the manufacturing process of the brands’ in-house calibres, details of some of the most iconic watches, innovative savoir-faire, specific watchmaking functions, connected watches and more.

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We are optimistic and continue to implement our sales-focused strategy by defining strong guidelines for the two flagship brands: extending accessible luxury for Frederique Constant, developing key markets and distribution channels while developing growth for Alpina (especially after the huge success of the AlpinerX outdoors smartwatch launched in 2018).

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Frederique Constant has been producing watches in the heart of Plan-les-Ouates since 2006. We continue to innovate in the Swiss watch industry and worldwide thanks to the first Swiss Made Horological Smartwatch and Hybrid Collection. The strong tradition of investing in new technologies, new in-house mechanical movement at an affordable price tag reflects our commitment to Let more people enjoy luxury.

The overall goal is to increase the production capacity from 160,000 to 250,000 watches per year within the next 5 years.

MMT’s Health Focus

We’re going now into more health-related [apps]. It will become very interesting and very dangerous. You’re going to get a watch that is indispensable.

Biomedical functions in a watch. First, detection of cardiac arrhythmia (AFib). People who have it, and perhaps don’t realise, have an 18% chance of suffering an attack in the next four years. Over four million people in Europe are affected without knowing it. Then there’s blood glucose. Hypodermis tests are proper medical procedures, and we still need more years of development, patents and certifications, but we’ve already come quite a long way. We have patents, and we’ve formed partnerships with universities. Finally, geriatric care: fall detection, emergency calls, location tracking, etc., all contained in a simple watch that doesn’t need a mobile phone connection, because we know that not all older people have them. We therefore need to create Narrowband-IoT and LTE-type communication protocols that have a greater range than Bluetooth, while remaining independent of a mobile phone. We hope to be able to unveil this in the second half of 2020.

Royal Huisman Expands

Sailing, my other passion. Still involved as advisor for Royal Huisman, the shipyard that makes these beautiful sailing yachts:

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On 14th May 2019, the Port of Amsterdam finalised the acquisition of the former Holland Jachtbouw shipyard in Zaandam. Subsequently, Dutch builder Royal Huisman has moved into the facilities on a long-term agreement, strengthening its business position in Amsterdam.

Jan Timmerman, CEO of Royal Huisman: Extending our facilities in the Amsterdam region, we will be able to properly meet the growing demand among current and new customers. This second shipyard will, over a longer period of time, serve as an excellent addition to our existing site in Vollenhove, both for new builds and for refits.

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Founded in 1884 Royal Huisman has evolved from modest builder of wooden workboats to multiple award-winning creator of some of the finest superyachts in the world. Read more at Royal Huisman.