MILAN — The landscape of Swiss watchmaking is being reshaped with the arrival of a new group on the scene.

Vam Investments has acquired Efteor, Le Composant, Télôs Watch and Henri Robert, all specialists in the design and manufacture of movements and components for the high-end Swiss watchmaking industry, leading to the establishment of Groupe Chaumont.

The newly formed group will be headquartered in the key watchmaking hub of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and will be helmed by Umberto Macchi di Cellere as chief executive officer. A cofounder of the group with Vam Investments, Macchi di Cellere over the years has held the roles of managing director of Bulgari Watches, head of sales at the Bulgari Group and former CEO of Tod’s Group.

“The high-end watchmaking market requires components of absolute quality and precision. Against this backdrop, Groupe Chaumont aims to be an industrial partner capable of bringing together, under a single Swiss banner, the finest savoir-faire — from cases to movements, from cutting tools to the development of complications,” said Macchi di Cellere. “Our ambition is to build an industrial group where outstanding companies, deeply rooted in the Swiss Made tradition and led by talented entrepreneurs, can share their experience, expertise and resources. Together we will build the leading platform dedicated to components for high-end watchmaking.”

Léonis Tafaj, CEO of Efteor and Le Composant; Franck Orny and Johnny Girardin, co-CEOs of Télôs Watch, and Thibault Richard, CEO of Henri Robert and board member Laurent Ryser will reinvest in the group, becoming shareholders while continuing to lead their respective companies. This ownership structure aims to ensure long-term alignment of interests and allows them to participate directly in Groupe Chaumont’s future growth.

“We are proud to be the founding companies of this initiative,” stated Tafaj, speaking on behalf of Orny, Girardin, Richard and Ryser. “We strongly believe in the project and in the value of collaboration. The opportunity to combine our expertise and experience while continuing to provide our customers with the highest standards of quality, reliability and innovation represents an outstanding growth opportunity. We look forward to welcoming new partners to Groupe Chaumont as we continue to expand the range of products and services offered by the group.”

This strategy follows the blueprint of Gruppo Florence, cofounded in 2020 by a consortium of investors led by Vam Investments with Fondo Italiano d’Investimento and Italmobiliare. Gruppo Florence was established with the goal of developing a platform to supply high-quality Made in  Italy  products to major luxury fashion brands, leveraging competitive prices, guaranteeing prompt and flexible deliveries and solutions, while aiming to safeguard the technical and cultural know-how of small and medium-sized family-owned Italian companies, whose founders also become shareholders and continue to work with the group.

Today, chaired by former CEO Attila Kiss, it counts 35  production facilities  across nine Italian regions, about 4,500 employees, and active collaborations with more than 100 international brands. Fabrizio Ciafrei succeeded Kiss in the CEO role, as reported.

Marco Piana, managing partner of Vam Investments, a private equity operator specializing in buyout investments and buy-and-build strategies previously chaired by the late Bulgari heir Francesco Trapani, said Groupe Chaumont will allow Vam to enter “a strategic sector that is critical to the competitiveness of the Swiss high-end watchmaking industry, partnering with entrepreneurs who share a strong industrial vision and a genuine commitment to building a long-term consolidation platform. The decision by the founding entrepreneurs to reinvest a significant portion of their proceeds and become shareholders in the group is a defining feature of the transaction and a strong vote of confidence in the project.”

Piana touted this model as “the most effective,” allowing the group “to support the growth of each individual company within a collaborative platform, backed by a professional management team capable of enhancing their expertise, preserving their identity and strengthening their unique savoir-faire.”

Based on this concept of collaboration and sharing of knowledge, Groupe Chaumont’s ambition is to become the partner of choice for watchmaking houses, ensuring production capacity, quality, traceability, stability and continuity of know-how.

As reported, exports of Swiss-made watches slumped by 16.6 percent to 2.1 billion Swiss francs in April, according to figures published by  the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.

The decline reflected that U.S.-bound shipments fell 56.4 percent compared to April a year ago, which had seen  exports  skyrocket as watchmakers sought to anticipate the effects of the tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump. Despite this unfavorable comparison, the industry body pointed out that exports of Swiss watches to the American market had grown 8.9 percent against April 2024.

The number of units also shrank 10 percent in the month, with 129,000 fewer timepieces being exported. Since the beginning of the year, exports have fallen a cumulated 3.9 percent against 2024’s figures.

By materials, only the “other metals” category saw growth in April, rising 10 percent in value and 3.5 percent in volume. Meanwhile, the dominant steel category contracted in volume and value, 18.1 percent and 10.6 percent respectively. Precious metal timepieces saw the biggest decline, contracting by around a quarter in both metrics.

Save for watches priced between 200 and 500 Swiss francs at export price, other categories decreased, with high-end timepieces recording the largest drop at 21.3 percent and 19 percent in units and value respectively.