EPHJ-EPMT - Professional Watchmaking-Jewellery Environment Show, in Lausanne

In this period of economic despondency, the EPHJ will provide a further indication of how the sector is faring in the crisis. From 12 to 15 May

La Revue FH - 30 April 2009 - # 8
Alain Bianchi

The EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) displaying laser technology at the EPHJ-EPMT Show © EPFL-GMP SA

Last year more than 10,200 professionals – an increase of 27.5% compared to 2007 – visited the Lausanne EPHJ Show and its smaller cousin the EPMT (Professional Microtechnology Environment), held for the first time in 2007. What will their numbers be this year for the 8th edition and will they give order books the boost they sorely need? This is the question which today gnaws at the 500 or more exhibitors who will be presenting their latest innovations from 12 to 15 May at the Palais de Beaulieu.  

At all events, as experience in recent years has shown, decision-makers in the sectors of watchmaking and microtechnology are increasingly making a beeline for Lausanne, happy to benefit from synergies offered by the juxtaposition of the two sectors. For firms active in the fields of aerospace, automation, metrology, microelectronics, photonics and robotics for example, the chance to diversify their customer base by gleaning orders from the watchmaking sector is tempting to say the least. Meanwhile the watch industry and its suppliers, both upstream and downstream of the end product, make regular sorties into micro-engineering territory.  

Although these two sectors operate a genuine reciprocal attraction, they deserve nonetheless to be clearly identified. The logic of having two adjacent but distinct exhibition areas will therefore be repeated in 2009. A number of companies more active in microtechnology have thus freed up their spaces in the halls of the EPHJ (1, 2, 6 and 7) to join those of the EPMT (10, 12, 14 and 16). These measures will not prevent 100% occupancy of spaces devoted to watchmaking, as was the case last year.

Another good reason to visit the Palais de Beaulieu in mid-May: as during the previous two editions of the event, the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne has chosen the EPHJ-EPMT as the stage for its Science Days. The 13 May will be devoted to nanotechnologies and the 14 May to lasers. On 12 May, supplementing this programme of high-level conferences and for the first time, the French institute FEMTO-ST (Franche-Comté Electronique Mécanique Thermique et Optique - Sciences et Technologies), a mixed research body affiliated to the CNRS, will also be holding a Science Day, with the programme being completed on 15 May by an identical initiative led by Micronarc, the centre for the promotion of micro and nanotechnologies of Western Switzerland, on the theme of «Microtechnology in effervescence». To mark the occasion, several speakers will be discussing micro-engineering applications in watchmaking. The full Science Days programme can be consulted at the following address: www.epmt.ch/php/conferences.php.

EPHJ-EPMT, Palais de Beaulieu, Lausanne, from Tuesday 12 to Friday 15 May 2009, 9am to 6pm (5pm Friday).
Entrance: 30 francs.