The encyclopedia · People & Management · Operational decision · 2026
Chopard's demand moved upmarket — 25 Fleurier jobs paid the price
In May 2026, Chopard announced 28 cuts at Fleurier — Ébauches and Manufacture — citing uncertain times and a shift to fewer, costlier watches. June: 25 left.
Chopard · 2026-06-22
What happened
Chopard employs around 220 people in the Val-de-Travers, the watchmaking valley of the Jura, spread across three sites in Fleurier. Two of them do the industrial work: Fleurier Ébauches, which makes the movements, and Chopard Manufacture, which produces the group's watches. Neither sells to the public; both feed the maison's collections.
At the end of May 2026 the Geneva house announced the suppression of 28 posts across those two sites, and opened the consultation procedure required before collective dismissals. The company's reasons: a 'particularly uncertain economic and geopolitical context', and a shift in client demand toward 'more high-end watchmaking creations, produced in lower volumes due to their great complexity'. Chopard said it was reorganising its Fleurier production tool to fit that new reality.
The procedure ran its course. On 15 June, Unia and the staff delegation of Chopard Manufacture and Fleurier Ébauches handed management a consultation report containing alternatives to the dismissals. It did not stop the cuts, but it bent them: three employees kept their jobs, and the negotiation produced a social plan that the union called worthy of the name.
On 22 June 2026 the employees validated the plan. The final count was 25 departures — in a valley where watch industry employment already hangs on short-time work, even a debt-free family maison now trims its workshops when its clients trade up.
Why it happened
- Client demand shifted upward: fewer watches, more complex, lower volumes — the company's own words — so the production base that served the old mix shrank with it
- The cuts landed on the industrial entities — Fleurier Ébauches and Chopard Manufacture — not the boutiques: the maison protected the client-facing side and resized the back of the house
- A 'particularly uncertain economic and geopolitical context' — in a Swiss watch industry where employment already hangs on extended short-time work
- The consultation bent the number from 28 to 25 and bought a social plan; it did not reverse the decision — the procedure is a brake, not a veto
The lesson
When a maison's clients move upmarket, the workshop pays. Chopard retooled Fleurier for fewer, more complex watches — a strategy that still meant 25 fewer chairs and a union fighting to save three.
Aftermath
The social plan validated on 22 June governs the 25 departures; Unia counts three jobs saved and a procedure in which staff were 'heard and respected'. Fleurier keeps its three sites, with a production base re-sized for low-volume high-end work. The strategic bet is that the clients trading up to complicated Chopard keep arriving — the valley's employment, meanwhile, remains propped up by short-time work while the market decides.
Sources
- ArcInfo — Val-de-Travers : une trentaine d'emplois menacés chez Chopard (6 Jun 2026)
- La Télé — Licenciements chez Chopard à Fleurier (NE): moins nombreux que prévu (22 Jun 2026)
- ArcInfo — Suppressions d'emplois chez Chopard : Unia veut « sauver des postes » (8 Jun 2026)
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