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Joël Pynson
March 2026
1. Roventa
Roventa was founded in 1959 in Biel by Pierre Sommer and Norbert Schenkel under the name Sommer & Schenkel, Roventa [1]. It is a watch trading company.
In 1963, Norbert Schenkel remained as the sole owner, and the company became Roventa, Norbert Schenkel & Cie [2]. With the arrival on the board of directors of Tatiana Schenkel-Tchekoff, Norbert’s wife, the company became Montres Roventa, N. Schenkel & Cie, SA in 1967 [3].
As a trading company, Roventa sourced watches from manufacturers, particularly Henex in Tavannes, led by Paul Haenni. To ensure the long-term viability of their operations, Roventa and Henex merged in 1973 to form Roventa-Henex SA, Watch Manufactory [4]. Norbert Schenkel owned 65% of the company and Paul Haenni 35%. The company produced approximately 650,000 watches per year, generating revenue of about 20 million francs, placing it on par with Heuer-Léonidas, for example [5].
2. Roventa-Henex
As early as 1974, Roventa-Henex showcased more than 100 models at the Basel Fair, including quartz, analog, and LCD watches. From then on, quartz and mechanical models continued to coexist.
1974
1974
1976
1978
1980
In 1980, Roventa-Henex acquired Hadoria SA, a watch trading company based in Biel, and renamed it Mougin & Piquard SA [6]. The goal was to launch a line of mid-range quartz watches under the Mougin & Piquard brand starting in 1983.
1983 was also the year a new factory was opened in Tavannes, where all of the group’s watches are manufactured.
1983
1986
Roventa-Henex is also known as Daytronic, for electronic watches, and above all for its private label, which in fact accounts for the bulk of the 800,000 watches produced each year [7]. For example, it is Roventa-Henex that manufactures the Gucci watches, which enjoy global success [8].
1986
1988
In the field of quartz watches, Roventa-Henex even develops its own modules in order to set itself apart from the competition. In 1990, Roventa-Henex employed 250 people and produced nearly 1.3 million watches per year [9].
1988
1988
In 1997, Roventa-Henex changed hands: the company was acquired by Marc Küffer, who was already a director, in partnership with Matthew Turner of the investment firm PPM Ventures. The new company was named Arrow Holding SA and is based in Biel. [10]
Roventa-Henex remains a major player in the private label sector in Switzerland today:
[1] FOSC 1959
[2] FOSC 1963
[3] FOSC 1967
[4] FOSC 1973
[5] La Suisse Horlogère, édition hebdomadaire, 1973, 6, p. 155
[6] FOSC 1980
[7] Europa Star, 1984, 5, p. 55
[8] Europa Star, 1987, 3, p. 71
[9] Europa Star, 1990, 4, pp. 67-70
|10] FOSC 1997
The FOSC (Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce) is available at E-periodica
Notes:
About Time To Tell: Time To Tell has one of the largest private digitized databases on the history of Swiss watchmaking, with over 2.5 TB of data on more than 1,000 Swiss watch manufacturers. This database has been built up over a period of around 30 years and continues to be updated with around 50 to 100 GB of data each year. The database consists of historical documents, mainly Swiss trade journals, dating from the late 19th century to the late 20th century. Most of these documents are not available on the Internet. The historical articles published on the time2tell.com website always cite the sources used.
Time To Tell is a private company, independent of any watch manufacturer.
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