Porsche Design recently opened a watch manufacturing facility in Grenchen, Switzerland, combining tradition, extreme customization, and an immersive customer experience. This major milestone underscores, with surgical precision, the group’s commitment to uniting automotive engineering with fine watchmaking.
A reimagined legacy at the heart of the Jura Mountains
For this new chapter, Porsche Design has taken over a building steeped in history: the former headquarters of the Eterna brand, meticulously transformed to house the production of high-precision mechanical watches. This strategic location in Grenchen, a true historic hub of the industry, anchors the brand within an ecosystem of excellence, just a stone’s throw from prestigious manufacturers such as Swatch, Rolex, and Rado.
Automotive philosophy applied to the workshop
The manufacture’s exacting standards are based on the “Porsche production principle.” This sequential approach, designed to optimize logistics while ensuring absolute quality control, sets the pace. Assembly takes place in an ISO 7-classified cleanroom, with specific workstations meeting ISO 5 standards. The ventilation system renews the air five times per hour, while humidity is strictly maintained between 40 and 50%. Technical feats that the brand elevates, on a micromechanical scale, to the same level of uncompromising precision as the standards applied in Zuffenhausen, the birthplace of its supercars.
The Art of Bespoke Craftsmanship and Presentation
Far from the race for volume, this manufactory cultivates rarity. Buyers have the privilege of crafting a unique timepiece via a digital configurator or within a dedicated “Fitting Lounge” on-site. Materials, colors, finishes: every detail draws directly from the rich vocabulary of the Porsche automobile. A pioneer in this approach, the brand offered a concept as early as 2020 featuring over 1.5 million combinations. A range that is now staggering, numbering in the millions of possible options.
The highlight of this approach? The opportunity for customers to drive their own Porsche into the factory grounds to take possession of their watch. A spectacular setting that masterfully blends the thrill of buying a car with the refinement of acquiring a timepiece.
Independence as the driving force behind precision
Each piece is entirely hand-assembled, powered by COSC-certified movements—a guarantee of chronometric precision unmatched in the industry. The current collections pay such meticulous attention to detail that they complement Porsche Cayenne models.
This approach clearly distinguishes Porsche Design from a simple licensing strategy: the brand has chosen integrated manufacturing. By building a true factory designed as a long-term investment, it weaves a common thread of rare consistency between the road and the wrist. It now remains to test this promise of innovation and absolute customization against the true challenge of haute horlogerie: maintaining uncompromising quality to appeal to an increasingly demanding clientele of connoisseurs.