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In 2003 Raffaello Radicchi, a dealer in real estate, bought a building in La Chaux-de-Fonds. In the building was housed the watch brand Schwarz Etienne, a brand that was started in 1905 by Paul Arthur Schwarz and Olga Etienne. In its best period Schwarz Etienne produced movements for other brands (like Chanel, Dunhill and Mauboussin) and private labels, but after the Quartz Crisis the brand slowly went down and was almost forgotten.
After some consideration Radicchi bought not only the building, but – in cooperation with C. Wilhelm & Cie. – also Schwarz Etienne. New watch models were presented, with movements by Dubois Dépraz, La Joux-Perret and Concepto. In 2008 Radicchi became sole owner of Schwarz Etienne. Guillaume Camensuli, who had worked for Christophe Claret, came over and developed in a short time an automatic movement BSE1325-A with an eccentric rotor The movement, 30% of which is made in-house (the rest is made by other parties in La Chaux-de-Fonds), is assembled in-house and will function as the base calibre for all Schwarz Etienne watches.
Amazingly, almost 60% of Schwarz Etienne watches are sold in Qatar; other important markets are Hong Kong and Thailand. For obvious reasons Radicchi wants to strengthen the presence of ‘his’ watch band in other important markets.