ROAMER of Switzerland
The Foundation stone of the business as we know it today was laid in 1888 by Fritz Meyer. He began to make cylinder watch escapements in a small workshop with half a dozen employees. He set about building up his young business with great energy and was soon employing over 60 people. He also turned his attention to the watch trade and hit upon the idea of starting to assemble entire watches himself. A few years later he began to make his own watches by buying components, cases and dials to produce the finished pieces. In 1904 the company was already able to celebrate the manufacture of its 500.000's watch. The time now seemed to be right to set about making the watch movements too...
1905 saw the foundation of the Meyer & Studeli Company which began to make its own original movement. This was the start of the legendary MST (Meyer & Studeli) movements, hence the calibre designation MST.
In 1906 the business moved into a new manufacturing plan with 400 employees. The manufacture of lever escapement watches began in 1907 and gave the business a huge boost. In the very next year the company began to produce its own gear wheels and pinions. Several watch assembly subsidiaries were established in various localities around Solothurn in the year 1914-1923. Another important development milestone was the beginning of watch case production in the year 1927, together with the manufacturing of dials and polishing facilities. With these new and expanded departments the number of employees soon rose to 1200. In 1952 the corporate name was changed to ROAMER WATCH Co. Solothurn under which the famous timepieces have been sold ever since.
The coming of the quartz revolution took a heavy toll on the entire Swiss watch industry and Roamer was not spared. The firm was able to manage to survive while keeping its identity and independence intact. The full renaissance of the firm took place in 1993 and since then ROAMER has done well in establishing itself at the centre of the global watch scene. The new and dynamic ROAMER WATCH Co. of the year 2005 has based its strategy essentially on the new offer of mechanical timepieces in the COMPETENCE Collection, which was launched in 2003. The term Competence was chosen because it perfectly illustrates the legitimacy of the move. During its long history, ROAMER was one of the "ORIGINAL SWISS" brands specializing in mechanical watches. The know- how, the history and the competence in creating its own mechanical movements in the past was the birth of the new Competence line. The story began in 2002 when a prototype from the 1940s was discovered in the company archives and re-styled by the Roamer design team.
The Roamer Competence original which was successfully launched in 2003 now has many more successor in each one unique in a highly exceptional historical design and in a superior quality with highly specialized mechanical movements.
Finally ROAMER reconnects with its history and with the best of its competence !
LINK
- Our Roamer page