JUBILEE: FROM TRADITIONAL GEARS TO REGULATING ORGANS

Alle (Jura), 5 January 2017 – Atokalpa, the micro-mechanical company supplying high-end watch brands, has been part of the Sandoz Family Foundation watchmaking hub for 15 years. Atokalpa joined the hub 15 years ago with 26 employees, and now has 120.

Since 2006, Atokalpa has been able to produce all the elements required to assemble an oscillator; a total of around twenty additional components, including the pallet fork, the escapement train wheel and the balance spring. The company has therefore entered the hallowed circle of watchmakers able to master the complete, extremely complex manufacture of the regulating organ. According to the definition of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, the regulating organ is made up of components that count time. A clock's regulating organ is its pendulum.

Atokalpa also has an in-house department constructing its own machines, enabling it to explore the ongoing developments in the most innovative processes and continuously increase its expertise.

"Joining the watchmaking hub has been hugely important for Atokalpa's development. We have risen to all technical and human challenges, especially for the manufacture of the entire oscillator", said Mr Sébastien Jeanneret, CEO of Atokalpa. "The fact that we've gone from 26 to 120 employees since Atokalpa joined the hub demonstrates the success of the hub itself. In 2005, we made 5,000 oscillators, and today we sell more than 250,000", added Mr Jeanneret.

Atokalpa approach is both an artisanal and industrial one, and the watchmaking hub incorporates all of its expertise in micro-mechanics to manufacture high-quality watches: from traditional gears to springs, from creating movements to their assembly, and from producing cases to dials. All production stages are integrated to provide independent and high-quality manufacturing.

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About Atokalpa

In the heart of the Ajoie (Jura), Atokalpa – the branch of SFF Composants Horlogers S.A. at Alle – manufactures a series of watch components thanks to the expertise of its 120 employees working in more than twenty different crafts. Atokalpa is well-established among major watch brands for the development, industrialisation and manufacturing of the entire oscillator. Atokalpa is able to undertake specific developments: study, design and manufacturing based on the needs of watch brands, producing balance wheels, springs, pallet forks and escapement train wheels. Atokalpa is able to reproduce traditional decorations that are identical to those of the past, such as diamond polishing, wire lapping, leaf polishing with wood grinder, snailing, sunray brushing, circular graining, buffing, etc. www.atokalpa.ch