watch making in switzerland lesson 4 w.s答案
Piaget, Rolex and Longines are the names of famous watch and clock manufacturing companies. They are very well-known all over the world. They all have their main factories on Switzerland.
Switzerland is a mountainous country. It is very difficult to have large-scale industry in such an environment. Besides, the soils are poor and over two-thirds of the country is unsuitable for farming. As a result, it must develop types of industry which do not need large amounts of raw materials or large area of flat land.
The Swiss watch-making industry began over 200 years ago. It vegan as a small-scale cottage industry. This means watches were made by people in their own homes and not in factories. During the winter months in Switzerland, farmers could not carry on money, they took up crafts, one of which was making clocks and watches. Some of them became so skilful at the craft that they gave up farming altogether and made clocks and watches all the time.
Watch making is a major industry in Switzerland nowadays. The products are of high quality and some of them even contain jewels, such as diamonds. They can cost many thousands of dollars because of the skill of the workers and its long history of watch making.