Nearly half of all employees in the sector are foreign nationals who either reside in Switzerland or commute across its borders to work, according to the Swiss Watch Industry Federation.

 

“We need this labor and these skills, and it is true that there is some concern around this vote,” head of the federation, Jean-Daniel Pasche, told AFP at the BaselWorld show which opened on March 27 and runs until April 3.

 

Last month, a bare majority of voters, 50.3 percent, voted to annul a pact giving equal rights to European Union citizens in the Swiss labor market.

 

It remains unclear how Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU but counts the bloc as its main trading partner, will carry out the decision.

 

Swiss business and financial sector have been busy lobbying lawmakers to consider a broad interpretation when putting the initiative into law, insisting on the need to bring foreign workers into the country. Switzerland last month registered an unemployment rate of just 3.5 percent.

 

Switzerland's iconic watch industry could be especially hard-hit, since it was struggling even before the vote to bring in enough workers to help sustain the soaring growth it has posted in recent years.

 

The Swatch Group increased its workforce in Switzerland by some 900 people last year alone.

 

“We can't work without the 'border-crossers',” insisted Marc Hayek, head of Swiss Group's luxury brands Breguet, Blancpain and Jacquet Droz.

 

“I look everywhere, but even before the new limitations, we couldn't find enough qualified people,” he told AFP.

 

Tag Heuer, the top watch brand belonging to French luxury group LVMH, recently opened a new component factory just six kilometers from the border with France.

 

The limitations imposed by the Swiss vote will not force the brand to pare back its plans, insisted Tag Heuer chief Stephane Linder, insisting the

 

More than 100,000 visitors from 100 countries are expected at the BaselWorld show which features 1,400 exhibitors.