How Swiss is an Everest Rubber Watch Band?

One of the most frequently asked questions we get is: How Swiss is an Everest Band? Of course we have to chuckle since in our industry many other companies promote “Swiss technology” or “Swiss knowhow” to trick the consumer into believing that the strap product is made in Switzerland. Everest goes to being beyond 100% Swiss-made. Let’s take a moment and review what it means to be Swiss-made and just how Swiss-made an Everest Band is.

Swiss-made for industrial products, like a watch strap, means that at least 60% of the manufacturing costs and any sort of specialty manufacturing takes place on Swiss soil. For watches, there are significantly more requirements. Still 60% of the manufacturing costs are  done by Swiss companies that must be performed in Switzerland. A Swiss-made movement must be used in the watch and all quality and assembly must be done in Switzerland. These extra requirements cause the watch industry to be held to an incredibly high standard. 

Everest has built its name on the fact that quality is one of our main cornerstones. Our straps are made in the same factory as watches that are in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Quality and technology are the main considerations that we looked for when finding our strap maker almost seven years ago. Frankly, we have had the luck of accessing the best rubber watch strap company in Switzerland. Our Swiss strap maker molds each part and piece of our rubber watch bands in Switzerland, in the Jura mountain range known as the Swiss watch region on the border of France. This alone would normally make any Rolex, Tudor or Panerai owner ecstatic to know, however Everest requires one more layer of Swiss-ness. 

Everest requires our FKM (FKM stands for a specific  fluoroelastomer material defined by the ASTM International standards) rubber to be actually made and compounded in Switzerland. We require the purest form of FKM  rubber material with absolutely no additives or impurities. Everest has come to find out that our straps in the aftermarket strap industry are the only watch bands that are made of this incredibly high quality material. 

So, when you wonder if the label “Swiss-Made” on the bottom of an  Everest Rubber strap is 100% true, now you know we not only adhere to what the Swiss government requires but go far beyond these requirements. Why do we do this? We do this because we aim to please you, our harshest critic. We wrote more about the history of being Swiss-made  here.