Unia has until 12 November to propose alternatives to the Zenith job cuts

Zenith G.F.J., with calibre 135. According to Le Temps, this model's prices, starting at almost 50,000 Swiss francs, match the range the brand wants to focus on. © Zenith

The Unia union, mandated by Zenith's employees in Le Locle, has until 12 November to submit proposals to save the roughly 100 jobs the manufacture wants to cut. Management must respond by 16 November; negotiations on a social plan will follow.

The timetable was given by Solenn Ochsner, union secretary at Unia Neuchâtel, to work, the union's newspaper, in a report published on 10 November and translated from Unia's French-language paper, L'Evénement syndical. “We have until 12 November to make proposals to save the jobs,” she said. The first meeting of the consultation procedure took place on 22 October, the day the brand announced the restructuring.

Only very high-end watches by 2029

Zenith, part of the LVMH group since 1999, wants to cut around half of the nearly 200 jobs at its Le Locle manufacture, where it was founded in 1865, and around 100 in other countries, as the Radar reported on 23 October. According to work, the brand intends to sell only watches in the region of 50,000 Swiss francs by 2029; its models currently cost between 8,000 and 15,000 francs. Estimates by industry insiders quoted by the newspaper put Zenith's production down from 22,000 to 8,500 watches over the past seven years.

For Solenn Ochsner, the shift comes as no surprise. “Many watch brands want to sell in the highest price segment because they make a higher profit margin there. They then need fewer staff, because they make far fewer watches, which sell at much higher prices,” she explained. She also fears for the workers' future: “It will be difficult for these people to find work again.”

Cuts at other companies too

According to the trade unionist, the watch industry had not experienced such a situation since the Covid crisis and the mass redundancies at Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin. In recent months there have also been redundancies at Breitling, Chopard and Montblanc, and at suppliers to the Swiss watch industry: Precitrame Machines, a maker of CNC milling machines, has laid off 24 of its 302 employees. “Unfortunately, some of these companies are now also starting to work for the arms industry,” Ochsner added.

Find out more on the union newspaper's website.