Industrial Adventures Seminar: French watchmaking: the genesis of a revival
Heir to exceptional expertise, the French watchmaking industry was one of the world’s great pioneers in the measurement of time. However, this historic prestige almost fell into oblivion. The industry’s production base was decimated by a series of crises, from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which led to the exile of Protestant watchmakers to Switzerland, to the wave of deindustrialization in the 1970s, exacerbated by the quartz revolution. The watchmaking industry gradually transformed into an assembly industry dependent on foreign countries. But in recent years, an unexpected revival has begun. Faced with a new crisis, that of Covid-19, the industry has decided to take back control of its destiny. It is through entrepreneurial drive, with an unprecedented mobilization of academic models of innovation management, that the reindustrialization of French watchmaking has come about.
Registration closes on Thursday, February 19, 2026, at 12:00 p.m.