There’s a movement maker in Switzerland that even most savvy watch fans have never heard of. It’s in the small town of Manno, in the canton of Ticino, near the Italian border and far from the Jura watchmaking region. It’s called STP, for Swiss Technology Production. It isn’t huge, but it isn’t to be sneezed at, either: this year it will turn out some 100,000 automatic movements. While most people don’t know of STP, they certainly know its owner, the Fossil Group. Fossil, based in Richardson, Texas, is the fourth-biggest watch company in the world. (It was added to the S&P 500 index two years ago.) In 2012, the latest year for which figures are available, Fossil had watch sales of $2.2 billion, sold under 14 different brand names: the flagship Fossil brand, DKNY, Skagen, Michael Kors, Emporio Armani, and on and on. (The company also sells accessories; total Fossil Group sales for 2012 were $2.9 billion.)
Reviewing Fossil’s Swiss Mission Watch
