HISTORY
In brief...
| 1915 : |
Schaublin was founded in Malleray by
Charles Schäublin - to manufacture lathes for the watch-making
industry
|
| 1924 : |
First branch opened in Delémont, to
continue manufacturing collets which began in 1920 at Malleray. In
the beginning, the Delémont factory employed 18 people.
Subsequently, it grew in two stages, in 1940 and in 1957/58
|
| 1929/1930 : |
Construction of the Bévilard plant,
which became the headquarters and has been repeatedly extended since
|
| 1940 : |
The Delémont plant extended
|
| 1941 : |
The Bévilard plant extended (total
area: 4,500 m˛)
|
| 1946 : |
Committed to technical and commercial
development, the Company converted into a joint stock company, under
the title "Fabrique de machines SCHAUBLIN SA" (Schaublin
Limited Machine manufacturing), and the Bévilard plant was again
expanded (total area: 6,500 m˛)
|
| 1953/54 : |
A new plant was built at Orvin in the
aim of creating a local industry intended to slow the flow of young
people to the towns
|
| 1956 : |
Acquisition of the Tramelan plant, by
the takeover of AOMP. Conversion of the former station plant at
Malleray-Bévilard into a Schaublin Foyer (low-cost accommodation
and housing on pleasant premises for the plant's young employees
and trainees) and production of spherical bearings under Unibal®
licence (Delémont)
|
| 1969/70 : |
A new air conditioned factory built at
Delémont, a few hundred metres from the original one
|
| 1971/72 : |
Last expansion of the Bévilard
factory (the eighth since 1930) with new air conditioned assembly
and surface application shops
|
| 1991 : |
Moved to the new site
|
| 2000 : |
Schaublin S.A. taken over by RBC-USA
|
89 years ago.
April 1915. A train steams up the Tavannes valley.
On board, a young soldier who, taking advantage of leave, was on his way
home to Tramelan. He was 32, his one love was engineering, and his one
goal was to start his own business.
His name was Charles Schäublin. Born in 1883, in
Waldenburg (BL), he had already served his apprenticeship as a fitter
(gaining first prize in his final exam). Then, just like the journeymen
who travelled the country, he undertook what could be called an
"Engineering tour of the region". He went
to Schild at Granges, to Tavannes Watch, to Omega
at Bienne, then back to Granges with Lambert, and lastly to Tramelan,
where he took up with the Burri brothers. At the
time we are looking at, he had just left his associates, having made up
his mind to go it alone.
The train taking our soldier on leave stopped at
Malleray station. It was just a little farming village, like its
neighbours, but already had the first seeds of industry, watch and
clock-making, in particular. And the carriage Charles Schäublin was in
stopped right opposite a small factory that was vacant because it had gone
bankrupt. The future industrialist did not hesitate, that was where he
would set up. The following day, he went back to Malleray and on 8 April
1915 he exchanged contracts to buy. It was the beginning of an adventure
which has now lasted for almost 90 years. You can bet that, at the time,
the people of Malleray, or their neighbours in the very modest village of
Bévilard, never expected that their district would prosper so and that
just a few years on, the Company that had been founded would have a
world-wide reputation. The modest original workshop, with its typical
transmission shafts and belts in all directions, lack of light, black
machines with convoluted shapes, has given way to the present Company,
known by one and all.
Starting out was not easy, with the world war,
enormous problems getting machinery and raw materials or training staff.
Then came the serious crises of the twenties and thirties, the development
of new machines and creation of new factories. For all this work, Charles
Schäublin was to be assisted, from 1916, by his brother-in-law, Emile
Villeneuve. Born in 1890 in Corgémont, he was then a junior master and
taught at Tavannes. He worked on the Company's financial and commercial
organisation, whereas Charles Schäublin focused his energies on
construction and industrial manufacturing.
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