23 October

The day in brief

Zenith has opened a consultation on collective redundancies that could eliminate around 100 of the 200 jobs at its Le Locle manufacture, as it leaves the mid-range to concentrate on haute horlogerie.

Among the launches, Yema combines a flying tourbillon with a sidereal time display in the Spacegraf, Ochs und Junior presents a year-end edition of its gear-driven perpetual calendar, and Breitling moves the Navitimer Cosmonaute and a new hand-wound B09 chronograph into its permanent collection.

Zenith leaves the mid-range and puts half the jobs in Le Locle at risk

On 22 October, Zenith opened a staff consultation on collective redundancies at its manufacture in Le Locle, in the canton of Neuchâtel. According to Le Temps and AFP, around 100 of the roughly 200 jobs at the manufacture are affected. Outside Switzerland, a reduction of the international distribution network and boutiques could affect another 100 jobs, bringing the possible total to around 200.

The LVMH-owned brand confirmed to AFP a “project of strategic repositioning of the Maison” and will not disclose further details until the consultation ends. According to 20 minutes, the consultation lasts three weeks, until 12 November, and the final number of redundancies may still change.

The direction of the change is clear. Zenith wants to leave the mid-range, where most of its current offer sits, between 8,000 and 15,000 Swiss francs, and concentrate on haute horlogerie pieces made in smaller volumes and sold at much higher prices. Le Temps points to the G.F.J. with Calibre 135, priced from just under 50,000 francs, as the reference.

Chief executive Benoît de Clerck, quoted by 20 minutes, attributes the decision to the strong franc, US customs tariffs and the decline of key markets in the Middle East and Asia. In his view, the market for mid-range brands has “changed durably” and is not simply going through a difficult phase. The industry figures point the same way: Swiss watch exports fell by 2.8% in 2024 and by 1.7% in 2025, while the most expensive segment kept growing.

For a manufacture founded in 1865 by Georges Favre-Jacot, and best known for the El Primero, the automatic chronograph calibre presented in 1969, the change means redesigning the collection and reducing production. The LVMH group could absorb part of the impact through internal staff transfers.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Yema combines a flying tourbillon and sidereal time in the Spacegraf

On 22 October, Yema, the brand from Morteau in Franche-Comté, presented the Spacegraf Heure Sidérale Tourbillon Volant, the top model of its Millésime 2026 series, limited to 150 numbered pieces. The case is grade 5 titanium, 42 mm in diameter and 12.15 mm thick, and water-resistant to 100 metres.

The CMM.32 calibre (Calibre Manufacture Morteau) displays hours, minutes, seconds on the flying tourbillon at 6 o'clock, and sidereal time on a celestial disc at 12 o'clock. A sidereal day lasts 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds: the time the Earth takes to complete one rotation relative to the stars, rather than to the Sun. Because the disc turns once per sidereal day, it gains about four minutes a day on civil time and shows, at any moment, the part of the sky above the wearer.

The brand drew on the meridian circle of the Besançon Observatory, where star observations were used to set the reference time for the region's watchmakers. In a flying tourbillon the cage is supported only from below, with no upper bridge, which leaves the entire regulating organ visible on the dial.

According to Yema, the escapement uses micro-components made by the LIGA process to reduce friction, the movement resists magnetic fields of up to 2,000 gauss, and a large off-centre barrel provides 105 hours of power reserve. The movement is designed in Switzerland and assembled in France. The dial is black, PVD-treated and sandblasted, and the bridges, visible through the sapphire caseback, are engraved with constellations.

The price listed on the brand's website is 16,000 dollars, with deliveries expected in December.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Ochs und Junior closes its 20th year with a gear-driven perpetual calendar

Ochs und Junior, based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, has presented the Perpetual Calendar Holiday Edition 2026, which closes the brand's 20th anniversary year. The two-part case is grade 5 titanium, 42 mm, weighs 62 grams without strap and is water-resistant to 100 metres.

The perpetual calendar is by Ludwig Oechslin, the brand's co-founder, who developed the principle for Ulysse Nardin's Perpetual Ludwig in 1996. Instead of the levers, springs and cams of traditional perpetual calendars, it uses gears: it adds nine parts and modifies three on the base movement, Ulysse Nardin's automatic UN-118 with a 60-hour power reserve. Every indication is set with the crown, and the date moves forwards or backwards without auxiliary pushers. The calendar accounts for leap years until 2100.

The display is the brand's own. The date appears on a spiral of 30+1 holes around the dial, behind which a white gold dot travels; a central disc with four holes shows the month and the type of year, and an orange dot marks the leap year. A control dot, between 1 and 2 o'clock, shows when the date can be set safely.

The price is 15,000 Swiss francs, excluding tax. Orders are open until 6 January 2027 with a 50% prepayment, and those placed by 15 November will be delivered before Christmas.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Breitling adds the Navitimer Cosmonaute and the hand-wound B09 to its permanent collection

On 22 October, Breitling added two hand-wound chronographs to the permanent Navitimer collection, both with a 41 mm by 13 mm steel case, a bidirectional slide-rule bezel and water resistance to 30 metres. According to the brand, neither had previously been part of the permanent collection.

The Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute keeps the 24-hour dial of the Cosmonaute that Scott Carpenter wore on the Aurora 7 orbital flight in 1962, now in steel, with a black dial and white sub-dials. The in-house B02 calibre is hand-wound, with a column wheel, vertical clutch and 273 components, COSC-certified, running at 28,800 vibrations per hour with a power reserve of about 70 hours.

The column wheel controls the start, stop and reset of the chronograph from a single part. The vertical clutch connects the chronograph to the going train by friction, between two stacked discs, and avoids the small jump of the hand that a horizontal, toothed-wheel clutch can cause on starting. In the United Kingdom, the price is 7,950 pounds on a leather strap.

The Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41 uses the B09 calibre, also hand-wound with a column wheel, with 244 components, COSC certification and a 70-hour power reserve. It has no date and comes with a black or blue dial.

Find out more on the brand's website.

What deserves attention

Zenith's decision confirms a trend that export figures were already showing: growth is concentrated in the most expensive watches, while the band between a few thousand and 15,000 francs is losing ground. When a manufacture more than 160 years old, with a historic calibre such as the El Primero, leaves that segment, the question becomes which other mid-range brands will follow and with what effect on employment in the Jura Arc. The consultation ends on 12 November.

Among the launches, Yema and Ochs und Junior show two ways of bringing an astronomical display and a perpetual calendar to prices close to 15,000 Swiss francs and 16,000 dollars. Breitling, for its part, is betting on hand winding in a collection best known for automatic chronographs.