Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

You probably know a Swiss person with the surname Rochat.

This large family from canton Vaud can’t claim to rival the Müllers or the Meiers, who are far more numerous in Switzerland. But the Rochats have an unusual history, as they descend from the same ancestor; and it’s a particularly close-knit family. Several hundred of the family members are meeting on Saturday in canton Vaud.

Find out more about the Rochats and other stories in this newsletter. Happy reading!

Keystone / Valentin Flauraud

Facing a collapse in demand, the Swiss watch industry is sounding the alarm. It has called on the authorities to do something about the strong Swiss franc and to help support exports.

“The Swiss watch industry is currently going through a delicate situation, marked by highly contrasting developments since the start of the year,” the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) and the Employers’ Federation of the Watch Industry said in a joint statement on Tuesday. To cope with the slowdown in demand and the fall in exports, both organisations are calling for a weaker Swiss franc.

From January to July, exports fell to CHF15.15 billion, or -2.4% compared to the same period last year. People are thinking twice about whether to buy an expensive watch, particularly in China, the most important market. This is putting pressure on the entire industry.

The consequences are severe for the local sector. The Swiss watch industry comprises nearly 700 companies who employ 65,000 people. Many firms have already had to resort to short-time working, extend summer closures and make redundancies.

• SWI news report (in English)

Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, should be able to continue its activities abroad with the same budget. On Monday, the Senate decided not to impose a CHF6.5 million budget cut, which the House of Representatives had voted for previously.

Last week, parliamentarians in the lower house decided to cut CHF6.5 million from Pro Helvetia’s overall budget. It argued that their work in Russia to promote Swiss culture were problematic. However, the organisation had indicated that it would cease its activities in Moscow by the end of the year.

Senators preferred to maintain the CHF187 million budget earmarked for 2025-2028. Social Democrat Senator Mathilde Crevoisier Crelier insisted that any cuts would jeopardise Pro Helvetia’s work abroad.

During the debates, the Swiss People’s Party tried to put the proposed budget cut in context, but to no avail. Culture Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider noted: “It would not be the end of the foundation, but these amounts should not be seen as anecdotal either.”

• SWI news report (in English)

Barracks in Biel. Lucas Dubuis

The seasonal workers who served as the backbone of the Swiss economy until 2002 lived in precarious conditions in Switzerland. In Biel, their accommodation at 30 Quai du bas bears witness to their difficult conditions.

“On one side we have the boss’s luxurious villa; on the other the workers’ barracks. The contrast couldn’t be starker,” explains historian Florian Eitel, who took SWI swissinfo.ch on a tour of the site. These buildings, often out of sight, are some of the last visible signs of seasonal workers who came to Switzerland. Elsewhere, they have disappeared.

“On snowy days, the workers used to wake up freezing cold and put on icy clothes,” recalls Mariano Franzin, a trade unionist who listened to the workers’ complaints in the 1980s and 1990s. But the seasonal workers didn’t dare complain to their bosses or the union for fear of not getting a work contract the following season.

The hundred or so workers who lived in these barracks had to make do with two basic toilets. And before a hot shower was installed in the early 1990s, they had to use a hose on a building site for a wash. Such inhumane living conditions didn’t stop the boss from deducting CHF50-60 from their monthly wages for accommodation.

• The report from Biel by Luca Beti (in French)

The village of L’Abbaye on the Lac de Joux. Keystone / Jean-Christophe Bott

A special family reunion is taking place this Saturday in western Switzerland. Several hundred members of the Rochat family will gather to celebrate their incredible story. They will include Swiss nationals who live abroad.

Rochat is one of the most common surnames in canton Vaud: 3,150 people in Switzerland have the name. What makes this large family special, however, is that all the Rochats in Switzerland descend from one person: Vinet Rochat. He left Rochejean (in what is now France) in 1480 to settle with his family 15 kilometres away in the Vallée de Joux in northwestern Switzerland because there was no more room for him, the younger of the family’s two sons, in his parents’ craft business.

The convent at L’Abbaye also had an economic interest in Vinet Rochat moving to the Vallée de Joux: to work metal. He was therefore allowed to install a bread oven on his premises without paying tax for it. His descendants enjoyed the same privilege.

“The family spirit is very special; everyone knows the common history,” explains Loïc Rochat, the family historian. On Saturday, several hundred Rochats, including Brazilian, American, and Dutch nationals with the surname, will walk the same route taken by Vinet Rochat in 1480.

• The articleExternal link on the Rochat family in the Aargauer Zeitung

Keystone / Cyril Zingaro

A visitor takes a virtual reality tour of the ArcheoLab’s
new “Portal to the Past” exhibition in Pully, canton Vaud on Tuesday. The ArcheoLab is a cultural institution that showcases the remains of a Roman villa and presents various themes relating to regional archaeology.