Since 1893 the Wenger factory has been producing the genuine Swiss Army Knife and has now become one of the world's largest manufacturers of knives and watches. Davidsbeenhere had the privilege of visiting and touring their operations in Delemont, Switzerland and it was impressive! All Swiss Army Knife products are created, built, and packaged with care to ensure the high quality standard it has maintained for over the last 100 years. Wenger manufactures various combination of tools and knives you could ever think possible.
About Me: My name is David Hoffmann and for the last decade I have been traveling around the world in search of unique culture, food and history! Since starting Davidsbeenhere in 2008, I have traveled to 71 countries and over 1,000 destinations, which I welcome you to check out on my YouTube Channel, blog and social medias.
I focus a great deal on food and historic sites, as you probably have seen! I love to experience the different flavors that each destination has to offer, whether it’s casual Street food or gourmet restaurant dining. I’m also passionate about learning the local history and culture.
We're here at the Wenger factory. Wenger is the company that makes the genuine Swiss Army knife
that were established in 1893 here in Delamont, Switzerland. Now let's go inside and see a little
bit of the process and get some input from the CEO. Follow me. This is called the Giant.
It's every single piece that they have. You can't actually use this though.
If you can buy it, it's 1,000 francs, so $1,000. It's a collector's edition.
Wenger was established in 1893, over a hundred years ago. Everything started with the Swiss
Army knife exactly in 1893 because the army asked for a new knife and Wenger was one of
the two companies that was asked and so we started to produce the Swiss Army knife.
In parallel to the Swiss Army knife, we also started to produce kitchen knives and definitely
knives for the meat industry, for the butchers, so everything that cuts. We started in 1990 to
produce watches and we added to our product line in 2003 backpacks, laptop backpacks, laptop bags
and tents, sleeping bags and lately, I mean last year, we started to sell footwear shoes
in the United States. When you talk about knives, Switzerland is still the biggest market,
followed by Germany and then other European markets and the United States is maybe number
three or four market. When you start to talk about watches, the United States is the biggest market
we have. Okay, talk to me a little bit about the process in making the knife,
as we saw today in the factory. You know, everything starts with the selection of a
good stainless steel and the plastic material for the handles and the grip, so we need to purchase
the best steel possible for the knife. I think you have seen the inventory of steel, there's a
couple of tons of steel every day here. Then, the fine cutting, the way we fine cut the blades
and then the process we work the blade is extremely important that after every step,
we check the quality. So, it is an ongoing quality control process
after every step and in the end, we have a quality control again because every knife,
every Swiss Army knife is tested by hand, whether it works or not. This is also the reason why we
grant a lifetime warranty on the product, so there should not be any mistake in material
or manufacturing process. Well, right here, they're cleaning the kitchen products and
on the other side, they pack them. So, you can also get your Swiss Army knife personalized,
but if you're going to get one, it's going to cost you a fortune.
This is the Wenger factory. Where have you been?
