History

1947: Paul Witschi founds a private company. He develops and manufactures measuring instruments for watches. The company is first located in Gerlafingen, then in Rüttenen.

1952: The family concern moves to Büren an der Aare. The number of employees increases from five to about eighty and remains constant to this day. The team always reacts to new market requirements and builds steadily its product mix.

1969: Paul Witschi’s son Friedrich enters the Company as a graduate in electrical engineering from the Federal Institute of Technology.

1975: The private company becomes a joint-stock company.

1976: Electronic watches are coming, meaning that a new technology is on the move. Witschi Electronic is quick to adapt its control and measurement techniques to this new technology.

1977: Witschi Electronic brings the first test instrument for quartz watches on the market: the compact and user-friendly QT 3000. It is such a strong sales hit that the Company becomes a leading manufacturer of watch control instruments.

1980: Friedrich Witschi becomes head of the company.

1986: Opening of a sales office in Hong Kong.

1987: Purchase and renovation of the former Büren Watch building on the Bahnhofstrasse.

1988: Moving to the new premises.

1989: Introduction of the Watch Expert on the market, a very powerful test instrument for mechanical watches.

1991: Presentation of the QT6000, an advanced instrument for quartz watches.

1992: Introduction of the ALC 2000 on the market, an instrument for testing seal integrity. Manufacturing of a commercial sized installation for testing the torque of electrical toothbrushes.

1993: Affiliated company founded in Rumania and sales agency founded in the USA. Introduction of the Wicometre PC10 on the market. It can simultaneously check ten mechanical watches or movements and is especially designed for industrial use.

1996: Certification of the quality management system according to ISO 9001.

1997: Development of the Reglowitch, an automated system for balance wheel’s dynamic balancing.

1998: Andreas Bläsi becomes head of the company.

2003 Occupation of freshly renovated production premises adapted to logistic requirements.

2004: Witschi Electronic is among the finalists of the "Entrepreneur of the Year" contest organized by the accounting and consulting company Ernst & Young.

2005: Launching of the latest generation of watch test instruments: the Analyzer Q1 for analysing quartz watches, the Chronoscope S1 for controlling mechanical watches. The Company remodels its reception area and gets new office space.

2006: Change of leadership at Witschi Electronic AG: After 60 years of successful business activity, the owners of Witschi transfer the ownership of the company to two members of the current management, Andreas Bläsi and Daniel Hug.
All new devices and systems can be integrated at any time into company networks by means of the WiCoTrace software.

2007: The new generations of the Watch Expert III, the New Tech Handy II as well as the automatic microphone Micromat S becomes ready for the market. The newest measuring system with the intelligent multi-position microphone Micromat C (computing) was presented at the Baselworld. It permits the realisation of modular test systems with up to 8 independent measuring channels.

2008: Proofmaster S, the new leak test instrument with the Leakfinder program, is ready and conquers the market.

2009: Market Introduction of New Products:
Teslascope, for detecting the magnetisation level of mechanical watches and demagnetising them.
Proofmaster M is the top-of-the-line instrument from the leak test family. Fully automated close-and-test sequence. Controlled by a colour touch screen.
Analyzer Twin, an instrument combining tests for quartz and mechanical watches. Measurement sequences are automated to a large extent.

2010/11: Development of the new ChronoLine.
The new, highly precise and easy to use device line for the professional trade, quick service and watch lovers.
The new ChronoLine starts out with the two devices, the ChronoProof, a new, compact device to test the water tightness and the ChronoCube, a newly designed measurement device for mechanical watches. Both devices celebrate their pre-launch at the Baselworld 2011.