WatchTime - August 2012

... and at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new movement-making factory in Chevenez this spring
Babin believes he has solved the component
problem, or at least the knottiest
part of it, by nailing down a reliable supply
of escapement assortments to use in
TAG’s in-house movements (see sidebar).
His challenge now is ensuring a steady
supply of finished movements.
“THE TAG HEUER
CHALLENGE IS
TO GET TO 100,000
MOVEMENTS
AND MORE.”
He believes he can. He buys movements
from Sellita, Switzerland’s secondlargest
supplier of finished movements
(the Swatch Group’s ETA is, of course,
number one). Even though Sellita does
not have enough manufacturing capacity
to fill orders for all the brands that need
movements, TAG Heuer will get much of
what it needs, Babin says. “[Sellita] will
supply primarily those clients that have
been supporting them from the very beginning.
And there are two brands that
have been extremely supportive: Breitling
and TAG Heuer. We know that we
will be on the ‘A’ list in terms of supply
priority. Obviously, if I were on the ‘C’
list I would be much more nervous.”
In the meantime, Babin is working to
expand and improve TAG’s in-house
movement-making capability. In 2010,
TAG introduced its first in-house movement,
the 1887. Babin must now bring
production costs down for both the 1887
and for the more expensive movements
like those used in the Mikrotimer and
Mikrograph.
TAG Heuer is planning to introduce
another chronograph movement at the
end of next year or the beginning of 2014
(Babin aims to unveil it at the next Basel-
world show). Unlike the 1887, which has
subdials at 6, 9 and 12 o’clock, the new
movement will have them at 3, 6 and 9
o’clock. “We will have the two architectures
that make up 100 percent of the
chronograph market,” Babin says.
All TAG’s in-house movements will
be manufactured at a new, 2,400-squaremeter
factory the company is building in
the village of Chevenez in the Jura. The
movement-component production that
had taken place at TAG’s Cortech facility
in Cornol will be moved to the new site
and all of Cortech’s factory space will be
dedicated to case making.
“The TAG Heuer challenge is to get
to 100,000 movements and more,”
Babin says. Over time, the company will
be able to cut production costs so that inhouse
movements no longer take an excessive
chunk out of profits, he believes.
Nonetheless, they will never be as cheap
as ETA’s: “Making it yourself costs more
than buying from outside. That’s for
sure.”
August 2012 WatchTime 81