The Swiss parliament passed a bill on Friday morning confirming that watches will only be able to use the term Swiss made if 60% of the value originates in Switzerland.
WatchPro recently reported that Switzerland’s upper house of parliament had agreed, by a slim majority, with the lower house’s position on the draft bill.
The bill has now been passed, which means that the authorities will be able to drive forward plans to strengthen the Swiss-made label in the watch industry.
The "Swissness bill" has been six years in the making, involving numerous discussions and adaptations, and has now finally been passed as law in both parliament houses.
The legal framework includes other industries too and sets at 60% the minimum rate of Swiss value for industrial products.
Talking about the law, Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) president Jean-Daniel Pasche said that the FH has been consistently involved in the process and applauds the decison.
"The bill as passed will bolster Switzerland’s industrial marketplace and employment, as well as the reputation of Swiss products abroad," he said. "Above all it answers the wishes of consumers, who rightly expect that products marked ‘Swiss made’ should be manufactured for the most part in Switzerland."
The FH said that it will now move forward with preliminary discussions that have been held over the past six years with the Swiss authorities and ask the Federal authorities to resume work on its draft ordinance so that it can be adopted by the Federal Council as soon as possible.
To date, the watch industry complies with a 40-year-old directive that says that at least 50% of the value of the watch movement, not including the strap, case, glas and dial, must be Swiss.
