Albert Hausammann was born on 23 February 1940 and grew up in Rapperswil. He attended commercial college at the Kantonsschule Wetzikon (Zurich) and began his career at Lindt & Sprüngli. 

To improve his knowledge of the foreign languages he had learned at school, he then spent a year in Paris working for the transport company Danzas, followed by a six-month English course at the City of London College. In 1962 he emigrated to the USA. 

He spent three years in New York working for André & Cie Lausanne, one of the largest trading companies for wheat and other products. During this time he also made several trips to South America. He returned to Europe in 1965, when a winery in Verona offered him an interesting job that would let him brush up on his third foreign language.

Before long, Asia began calling to him. In 1967, a job offer presented an opportunity for him to move to Hong Kong. The owners of the company were exclusive agents for high-quality Swiss luxury watches in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, China and elsewhere. This job came to define his whole career. 

He stayed with the company and ultimately rose to a position where he was able to take it over from the founders. Over the years, he remained in close contact with the manufacturers of the various luxury brands in Switzerland. He went on to found the Albert Hausammann Foundation out of gratitude to the watchmaking industry and his hometown of Rapperswil for making this career in Hong Kong possible.