The new State Councilor Delphine Bachmann inaugurates the 21e edition of the High-Precision Fair in a positive context thanks to the good health of the sector.

The EPHJ show, world leader in high precision, was inaugurated this morning by Delphine Bachmann, the new Geneva State Councilor in charge of the Economy and Employment. A ceremony which also allowed the Director of the Show, Alexandre Catton, to pay tribute to Jean-Daniel Pasche who, after 20 years of loyalty to EPHJ as President of the Swiss Watch Federation (FH), will leave his post at the end of 2023.

With 750 exhibitors and 20,000 Swiss and international professional visitors expected, participation in EPHJ is up significantly compared to 2022 (+7.0%). The majority of these exhibitors remain Swiss (75%) followed by representatives from 15 other countries such as France, Germany, Italy, the United States or even from Asia. Neuchâtel still dominates the ranking of the 22 cantons represented according to the following Top 5: Neuchâtel (130 companies), Bern (115), Geneva (78), Jura (76), and Vaud (64). Of this Swiss representation, French-speaking Switzerland represents 50% of all exhibitors and 26% for the German-speaking part and Ticino.

Proof of the multi-sectoral development of the companies present in 2023, if 91% of exhibitors display a watchmaking or jewelery activity, 54% declare an activity in microtechnologies, in particular the machinery industry. As in 2022, the majority of exhibitors (50%) declared an activity in the medical field. A trend that clearly demonstrates the ability of the watchmaking and microtechnology industry to bring sought-after skills to the medical equipment environment.

Renewal of Job Dating Day to combat the labor shortage

Faced with the shortage of labor in the high-precision markets, constantly lengthening recruitment times and a first successful experience in 2022, EPHJ is renewing its Job Dating Day on Friday in partnership with JobWatch, which will mobilize its wide network of candidates around the numerous job offers from exhibitors. Candidates, future graduates or future apprentices will therefore have the opportunity to meet business leaders during this day, which will begin with a debate on this subject and a state of the job market situation in this sector with various personalities from the sector. .

Six innovations nominated for the Grand Prix des Exhibitors

The jury of the Exhibitors' Grand Prix, made up of MM. Eric Rosset, HES-SO professor, Pierre Amstutz, director of the Ecole d'Horlogerie de Genève, André Colard, EPHJ founder, Thomas Saenger, EPHJ founder and Alexandre Catton, director of the EPHJ Salon, selected 6 innovations, the winner of which will be designated tonight.

These six nominees are:

• GF Machining solution (Switzerland) for its Microsolution ML-5 machine dedicated to femtosecond laser micromachining
• MPS Watch (Switzerland) for the new innovative Oscrew system dedicated to fixing oscillating weights for self-winding watch movements.
• Grindosonic (Belgium) for MK7, its advanced measurement system based on the Impulse Excitation Technique (IET)
• Percipio Robotics (France) for its Tulip gripper, an innovative gripper for handling objects from 50μm to 10mm
• the Femtika company (Lithuania) for the 3D manufacturing of miniaturized devices using ultra-short pulses
• the company Henri Schaller SA (Switzerland) for its "Air Spray Jura" solution which proposes to replace the liquid propellants of aerosols with compressed air

Many debates

The other advantage of the EPHJ Show is the debate, the perspective of current topics and the exchange between experts and personalities from the sector. The famous EPHJ Round Tables will begin on June 6 with a debate around the upturn in the watch market: will it continue in 2023 or should we expect the start of a down cycle soon?

On June 7, two Round Tables will address developments in robotics. In the morning, EPHJ and Staübli joined forces to present the very promising potential of haptic robotics for watchmaking production. The second Round Table of the day will address the technological alliance serving the medical robotics of tomorrow in the presence, in particular, of Nicolas Demartines, Director General of the CHUV.

On June 8 at 10 a.m., the subject of sobriety and energy efficiency of industrial processes will be debated by presenting best practices and sharing experience with experts in the sector, in particular Romande Energie. The afternoon will be devoted to a very promising exchange around the master watchmaker Philippe Dufour who will debate with other personalities the challenges of transmitting watchmaking knowledge. Note that Georges Dubois, 102-year-old master watchmaker will also be present.