Manufacture

We are standing in Glashütte in front of a mileage post from 1734 next to the A. Lange & Söhne manufacture, which signals the distances to the surrounding villages and towns. Back then, the post indicates, it took six hours and fifteen minutes to get from Glashütte to Dresden by horse-drawn carriage. Glashütte was nothing…

A vast structure of concrete and glass forms Cartier’s manufacture in the UNESCO World Heritage Site watchmaking town of La Chaux-le-Fonds. Across the panes of glass, which reveal only the subtlest glimpse into the world of watchmaking on the other side, the unmistakable cursive Cartier logo spreads itself across the austere building’s exterior, alongside the printed words: Manufacture de Haute Horlogerie. It’s an imposing…

The first mention of Tudor dates back to the year 1926, when Hans Wilsdorf first had the trademark ‘The Tudor’ registered. Six years later, the name would start to appear on several watches. Then, in 1936, Wilsdorf had the actual brand ‘The Tudor’ transferred over to himself. As an Anglophile and eventually a British citizen,…

While it is an extreme privilege to have been inside pretty much every Swiss horology house, at some point, a picture automatically forms in one's mind as to what to expect when visiting yet another manufacture of mechanical watches. https://youtu.be/HQb-oEhKL9o What attracted me most to visiting the Piaget factory in Geneva was my totally fragmented…

Being at the top is always nice, of course. But here, with such famous names as Piaget, Rolex, Harry Winston and Patek Philippe as neighbours, it is just as delightful to be at the bottom. Only physically, of course, on the ground floor of the Vacheron Constantin manufacture in Plan-les-Ouates, near Geneva. On top: The…

Anyone who leaves school at the age of 9 is either clearly not suited to academia, or has already realised what their calling is. George Favre-Bulle must have been a visionary even as a child, because he had bigger plans for himself than to sit wasting several years in school. At the tender age of…

Back in 2004, Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey founded the Greubel Forsey watch brand. In 2007, the two watchmakers bought an old 17th-century farmhouse and converted it into an atelier, where they now combine traditional craftsmanship with modern Haute Horlogerie – making it one of the few places where a manufacture embodies the products created…

Christian Lattmann already waits in the manufacture’s entrance as we arrive in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The brand’s CEO welcomes us in such a heartfelt way, as if we had been long-time friends of the Maison. It all feels so familiar, not only, because the small but fine manufacture is very charming anyway, but also, because despite…

The case of the newest collection CODE 11.59 by Audemars Piguet has a complex architecture which required the use of dedicated tools and sophisticated hand finishing techniques. It has an octagonal middle case with a round extra-thin bezel and stylised arched lugs. The case’s multiple geometries and ergonomic curvature made the conception, manufacturing and decoration of each…

Once, the small village of Fleurier in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel has been an important place for watch making. But in the 1970s the quartz crisis had a major impact on the watch industry in Fleurier. At that time a young watchmaker called Michel Parmigiani was faced with the decision either to become an…

Time seems to stand still in ‘Vallée de Joux’, the high Jura valley of Vaud. The idyllic villages around the lake ‘Lac de Joux’ mainly live from dairy and their cheese. And watchmaking. From village to village on the eastside of the lake you can find old-fashioned houses next to imposing constructions of prestigious watch…

Antoine LeCoultre, who later put the foundation stone of the manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre, has already in young years been a restless inventor. His pioneering spirit created – next to numerous other patents – a Millionmeter in 1844 and the first rocking bar winding mechanism in 1847. With the Millionmeter it was possible to measure up to…