Panerai Breaks Ground on New Manufacture in Neuchâtel

Ten years after opening its manufacture in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Officine Panerai has announced that it will be breaking ground on a new factory at Pierre-à-Bot, on the hills above Neuchâtel. All the company’s development, production and assembly of watches and movements will be transferred to the new production facility, set to open by the end of 2013. The new factory aims to streamline Panerai’s current production process. Currently, all the stages of development — including manufacturing the various components, assembly and quality control — take place at different production sites. The unification of these various stages in a single, significantly larger location is intended to yield higher production capacity, greater independence at all stages of production, and better quality control.

With 10,000 square meters of space, the new manufacture will house 290 employees, including master watchmakers — 130 more than are presently employed at the current manufacture building in the center of Neuchâtel. Panerai will equip its production lines with the most up-to-date technology, and the new manufacture will encompass all activities related to the prototyping, production, assembly and quality control of the components, movements and cases of Panerai watches.

Panerai is also including in the new building an area called the Workshop of Ideas, which will be dedicated to research-and-development initiatives, including materials research, the study and design of new movements, and the continuous refinement of quality control procedures. The company has also stated that the new manufacture will have zero negative environmental impact in terms of carbon dioxide, through careful integration of technologies for the recovery and recycling of resources, as well as devices for reducing emissions and eco-sustainable mobility policies for employees.