The broad historical background as I understand it is that the French Huguenots fled to Switzerland during the wars of religion in France - you'll notice that watchmaking is not distributed throughout Switzerland, but concentrated almost exclusively in the french speaking portion (excepting odd-man-out companies, like American-originated IWC in Schaffhausen). The Huguenots were predominantly craftsmen and tradesmen and included a large number of jewelers. Geneva and environs came into the grip of Calvinism shortly afterwards, putting jewelers out of work as conspicuous displays of wealth were explicitly banned by Calvinist sumptuary laws and custom. They naturally gravitated towards the emerging craft of watchmaking.

The cabin fever bit that Stewart mentions is a factor behind the particular Swiss organization of the industry in witch parts manufacture was pieced out to individuals and then assembled at the factory. THis work was largely taken in by smallholders and farmers in the area of the watch companies who had nothing to do in the winter months and were pleased to have a revenue-generating activity to which to turn their hands. The American system of standardized manufacture with interchangeable parts put paid to all that in the late 19th & early 20th century.

That is a very crude summary full of generalizations. I'd welcome anyone who can put more detail to it and correct any errors I've made.

: This may seem like an odd question to ask as i've been collecting
: watches for some time but ....

: WHY SWITZERLAND ?

: Why have the Swiss become so renowned for quality watches ?
: I'm certain there are many historical reasons which have combined
: to have helped Switzerland evolve into the premier producers of
: watches.
: I can instantly offer up some ideas under the following headings :
: - GEOGRAPHY
: - TAXES
: - TECHNOLOGY
: - POLITICAL ASSISTANCE

: Add in some other major influences such as the fact that
: Switzerland has remained neutral throughout 2 world wars and had
: political stability for some hundreds of years we can see they
: have had furtile ground to build up the watch making industries.

: There are still further questions i have to the above.
: I dont want to stir up a hornets nest here but in terms of
: simplicity i think of Switzerland as a tri-culture country,
: divided along the lines of the 3 major spoken languages (
: German, French , Italian ). Which one of these 3 cultures has
: the bulk of watch production (or perhaps even the major labels)
: within Switzerland?

: I'm hoping to provoke some thoughtful responses from the forum
: readers here.

: Have a think and i look forward to reading your idea's.

: - Darren