Manufacture

Swisswatches team headed to Switzerland to discover the stories, innovations and people behind the Hermès watchmaking division, from the brand’s impressive production site in Le Noirmont to its serene watch assembly and leather workshops at the La Montre Hermès atelier in Brügg. To read our interview with the division’s CEO, Laurent Dordet, please click here.…

An invitation to the hallowed halls of the Patek Philippe Manufacture is a special honour – a watch collector from our community shares his extraordinary journey. Anticipation is said to be the greatest of all pleasures. In the spirit of this, the years of anticipation, prolonged by the pandemic, have been rather marvellous. It was quite…

Glashütte – the renowned town of German watchmaking – is home to Nomos, an innovator that has gained international acclaim for its minimalist design, aimed at achieving the maximum with minimal resources. During a visit to the manufacture, we had the opportunity to follow the entire process of creating a Nomos watch – from raw…

The German manufacture Glashütte Original has firmly earned its place alongside some of the most reputable of Swiss brands. Glashütte Original combines traditional watchmaking and craftsmanship with the almost implausible ability to adapt to new economic, political and cultural conditions. These lines were not written by the author of this text, but by the CEO…

Jaeger-LeCoultre, often dubbed the ‘Watchmaker of Watchmakers’, has a long history of supplying parts to esteemed brands like Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Cartier. Today a fully integrated manufacture producing some of the most coveted and complicated luxury watches in the world, this legacy of expertise is upheld by the 180 crafts that continue to…

‘Born in Saxony’ – so goes the slogan of Lang & Heyne, a watch manufacture from the small German town of Radeberg near Dresden. It’s a name known only to true connoisseurs and watch aficionados; only around 150 watches are crafted here every year, with the utmost attention to detail. ‘Born in Saxony’ is not…

When one thinks of Swiss-made watches, what springs to mind? For some of us, it’s a luxurious boutique in the heart of an affluent metropolis. For others, it’s a fast-paced car rally with watch-branded banners plastered over the track. But what about the place where mechanical watches come to life? To find out, I accompanied…

Richard Mille's company history is marked by an unprecedented rise. In 2001, the first Richard Mille watch, the RM 001, made an immediate impact with its tourbillon regulator and a six-figure price tag, causing the brand to stand out from the crowd from the get-go. Almost as legendary was Richard Mille's decision to throw the…

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…