Rivaz Chronométrie SA, a privately owned maker based in Neuchâtel, said on Saturday it would withdraw its R-8 automatic watch after an unusual fault appeared across the model’s first major production run. The company estimates the recall and refunds could cost CHF 38 million (about €41 million), a severe blow for a business that sold 62,000 watches last year.
Customers began reporting the fault on Tuesday: their R-8s were running between 59 and 63 seconds fast each day. By Saturday, the company had logged 2,106 complaints from 23 countries and found the same pattern in tests on unopened stock. It has stopped shipments and asked owners to return the watch for a full refund or replacement.
The minute that will not explain itself
The 18,640 affected watches make this the largest single-model recall by a Swiss independent mechanical-watch maker in the Swiss Horology Export Council’s published recall register, which goes back two decades. Rivaz said the company had sold 7,900 of them, with the rest held by retailers and distributors. Its service team has begun checking returned pieces in Neuchâtel.
The company has tested for magnetism, temperature changes and faults in the balance spring, the component that regulates a watch’s pace. Those checks have not produced one explanation: demagnetising corrected some watches but not others, according to chief executive Lennart Holm. “We have never seen a defect keep such a narrow rhythm across so many movements,” he said.
At the factory, the recall has collided with a dispute over a proposed “workplace harmony pledge”. Staff delegate Nella Borel says managers asked 340 employees to sign a document promising not to make “unverified public comments” about the fault. Holm said the pledge was voluntary and intended to prevent confusion while tests continued; the company had not disciplined anyone for refusing.
We cannot sign a promise to keep quiet about a machine that has stopped keeping time.
Nella Borel, elected staff delegate
Workers demand room to speak
Borel has declined to sign and is asking Rivaz to remove the wording. She said workers had already been told not to discuss test results with customers, and that the pledge could blur the line between protecting confidential production details and restricting lawful criticism. The cantonal labour inspectorate confirmed it had received a request for guidance, but gave no view on the document’s legality.
The company says its business has not stopped: 420 staff remain at work, and production of two other models continues. But three retailers in Switzerland and Germany have suspended new orders, while Rivaz has set aside CHF 11 million for immediate refunds. Inga Böhme, a watch-repair specialist in Bern who examined two returned R-8s, said both ran fast after a full day off the wrist.
Rivaz expects its first independent laboratory results by 6 November and has promised weekly updates to buyers. Holm said the firm would publish its findings whether they pointed to a component supplier, a factory process or an unknown interaction inside the movement. For now, the company has no explanation for why thousands of watches share the same unnerving extra minute.
