ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to briefly evaluate the strategies implemented by Swiss companies during the Second World War. The development of and transition towards new strategies therefore clearly took place during the second half of 1940. The company strategies were based on the action of the Federal Government. An Independent Commission of Experts: Switzerland - Second World War was set up in late 1996 by the Swiss Parliament with the mandate of examining several aspects of the country's behaviour regarding the world war, in particular the role of the companies and their involvement with the Third Reich. In addition to its traditional manufacture of finished watches, cases, works and miscellaneous parts, the watchmaking industry had already supplied mechanisms for actuating munitions (bombs and artillery shells) during the First World War. It returned to this sector during the Second World War, mainly to the benefit of the United States, which had in any case been its main market for several decades.
