Berthe Marie FIECHTER (Betty)

  General Notes:

Betty Fiechter and the Blancpain history.

Frédéric-Emile's string of successes came to a tragic close with his sudden death in 1932. Lost at the same time was the Blancpain family name, as he left no male heirs. There were however capable hands to take over the Blancpain enterprise, those of Betty Fiechter, who, together with the Blancpain sales director André Leal, purchased the business in June 1933, renaming it Rayville-Blancpain, Rayville being a phonetic anagram of Villeret. Owing to an oddity of Swiss law, this name change was not optional. With no member of the Blancpain family remaining associated with the business, the new owners were required to alter the official business name (the gymnastics provoked by this regulation have, over time, led to bizarre solutions with one famous Geneva watch company searching for and hiring a person "with the right last name" in order to continue their hyphenated trademark). There is a touching letter marking the transfer of Blancpain after 200 years within the founding family to Betty Fiechter. Frédéric-Emile's daughter, Nellie wrote to Betty: "The end of Villeret for Papa brings real sadness, but I can assure you that the only solution which can truly ease my sadness is your taking over of the manufacture together with Mr. Leal. Thanks to this fortunate solution I can see that the traditions of our precious past will be followed and respected in every way. You were for Papa a rare and dear collaborator. One more time let me thank you for your great and lasting tenderness which I embrace and carry with me in my heart." The early days were not easy for Betty Fiechter. The Great Depression walloped the entirety of the Swiss watch industry, causing widespread business failures and producing massive unemployment. Blancpain's solution was to seek refuge in the American market, which by the mid-30s was in sounder condition than prevailed in Europe. The opening which Fiechter found was as a movement supplier. Over time, Blancpain became a principal supplier of Gruen, Elgin and Hamilton. A further blow came with the disappearance of Fiechter's co-owner, André Léal, on the eve of WWII. Despite these challenges, Betty Fiechter succeeded enormously. Joined in 1950 by her nephew Jean-Jacques Fiechter the Blancpain business became a powerhouse, both in respect of watches sold under the Blancpain name and as a movement manufacturer. Their string of triumphs included the Fifty Fathoms, the world's first modern diving watch which debuted in 1953 (see Issue 3 of "Lettres" for the comprehensive history of how Jean-Jacques Fiechter developed this iconic watch in collaboration with the French combat divers and presided over not only its widespread adoption by navies around the world, but its use by Jacques Cousteau and his team) and the Ladybird women's watch appearing in 1956 and featuring what was then the world's smallest round movement. On the back of these milestones, the Fiechters guided Blancpain to a production level of over 100,000 watches per year by 1959.

Read more at: http://www.luxuriousmagazine.com/the-history-of-blancpain-from-jehan-jacques-blancpain-to-betty-fiechter/

As Rayville-Blancpain grew it became increasingly apparent that the Fiechters needed additional resources to expand production to the level of demand. Betty Fiechter found the solution in 1961 via a merger into Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère (SSIH). Joined into SSIH were Rayville-Blancpain, Omega, Tissot and Lemania. Rayville-Blancpain became one of the production bulwarks of the group, building new facilities and soaring its production to over 220,000 pieces by 1971. The Fiechter legacy fell solely into Jean-Jacques' hands following Betty's death in 1971. Jean-Jacques would soon be sorely tested by what some in the industry called the perfect storm of the mid-70s which brought together the introduction of competition by quartz watches, the melting of the dollar against the Swiss franc (sending the prices of Swiss watches in the most important market to unprecedented levels), the oil crisis and a global recession. In combination these market forces plunged the production of SSIH in 1979 to less than half of what it had been before, generating huge losses and precipitating a crisis with their banks. SSIH's response to this pressure saw both arrivals and departures in the early 80s. Arriving in 1980 was the engineer Nicolas Hayek who later came to found the Swatch Group under whose ownership Blancpain now flourishes. Desperate to generate cash in all ways, SSIH turned to selling its patrimony. First on the block was the movement manufacturer Lemania (today Lemania, now merged into Breguet, is part of the Swatch Group aside Blancpain). Next was the name Blancpain which was sold to a partnership of movement manufacturer Frédéric Piguet, led by Jacques Piguet, and Jean-Claude Biver, then an employee of SSIH. Only the name Blancpain was sold by SSIH; the assets of Rayville-Blancpain, that is to say its movement manufacturing facilities and equipment, remained fully in operation continuously through the time of the sale. Together Jean-Claude Biver and Jacques Piguet opened a new chapter in the two and a half centuries' old history of Blancpain. They transformed Blancpain from a company that had hidden much of its savoir faire by emphasising the production of high quality movements which would be sold under the names of others and letting sales of watches under its own name dwindle to but a few thousand pieces a year, to one which would keep its creations and inventions for itself.