High-precision industry fair – a chance for start-ups too

The fair brings together under one roof the companies and trades in the watchmaking-jewellery, microtechnology and medical technology sectors. This gathering of professionals, know-how and ideas helps to fire the imagination and create synergy. 755 exhibitors and more than 18,000 visitors from all over the world took part in 2013.

EPHJ (Watchmaking and Jewellery Professional Environment) represents all the trades involved in the development, manufacture and finishing of jewellery, thus forming the Watchmaking and Jewellery Professional Environment.

EPMT (MicroTechnology Professional Environment) / SMT (Swiss Medical Technologies) brings together all segments of the MicroTechnology Professional Environment, which are intended for all the areas of application where micro and nanotechnologies are used. In the Medtech Area there will be a “Medtech Village” organised by Bioalps and INARTIS NETWORK where several start-ups such as Monolitix or Mindmaze will exhibit. The Village includes a Forum, workshops and one to one meeting with the exhibitors which can be arranged at the website of Bioalps.

A very good example for a start-up taking advantage of the opportunities at the fair is Scientific Visual. The company supplies innovative immersion systems for optical quality control in sapphire. At the fair Scientific Visual will give a conference on sapphire quality control, showing how their innovative technology could increase margin in that industry up to 20%. This is especially interesting for the Swiss watch industry which is one of major consumers of the synthetic sapphire. 

Ivan Orlov, CEO of Scientific Visual, explains: “Our systems allow to ‘look’ into non-processed sapphire and to visualize volume defects in the material. They recognize defective pre-forms, for example watch covers, before polishing stage, and ensure that only suitable high quality material enter the value chain. It saves processing costs and increases profitability of watch industry suppliers.

On the conference we will show the data accumulated from the watch sapphire inspection, and discuss how Swiss sapphire and watch industry could benefit in terms of cost reduction and enhanced competitiveness."