No matter where in the world you are – Paris, Geneva, New-York, Shanghai or Sao Paulo – and regardless of cultural differences, the act of buying a Swiss mechanical watch everywhere meets the same criteria of brand image, function, style and, of course, price. Secular traditions and Helvetian hegemony in the luxury watchmaking market are closely linked to the notion of quality. Indeed, “reliability” was often overlooked as it was considered to be intrinsic to the product. This is called “customer perception”.
Isn’t the only politeness of a watch to tell the (correct) time?
However, this fact did not take into account an increasingly informed clientele. Like in other industries, the advent of blogs, social networks and trade journals have highlighted certain shortcomings and especially shown customers what they have a right to expect. After decades of product innovation and evolving marketing concepts, reliability and customer experience have therefore (once again) become major topics for Swiss watchmaking. To paraphrase Mr. François-Paul Journe, “isn’t the only politeness of a watch to tell the (correct) time?”
User-centric innovation
It was in this context that H2i (Watchmaking, Innovation and Instrumentation) was born 5 years ago. Aware that quality would be a crucial subject for Swiss watchmaking today and tomorrow, the co-founders Jean-Charles Rousset and Emmanuel Baudet have set themselves the task of creating a new generation of measurement tools for watchmakers and watch enthusiasts alike.
Regardless of who they are designed for: from watch enthusiasts (Accuracy²), to retailers (Accuracy boutique edition), watchmakers (Accuracy Pro & now Accuracy Motion) and to the production lines of the most beautiful Swiss manufactures (HMS Modules), the goal of H2i’s instruments is the same: offer more compact, easier to use, more efficient and more aesthetically refined solutions, with the final aim of improving the overall quality of watches. In two words, “more” and “better”.
To achieve this, H2i voluntarily forgets existing solutions and does not hesitate to create from scratch the technologies that efficiently respond to and even anticipate the needs of its customers. Thus, by placing the customer at the center of its concerns and its developments, the young company quickly becomes a privileged interlocutor for the big Watch Houses sharing the same values. Innovation, yes, but with real benefits for the end customer.
Today, approximately eight million watches are produced each year by Swiss brands, a large proportion of which are released onto the market after having been checked and tested by H2i state-of-the-art solutions.