Manufacture

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…

The village Lengnau, which is located at the foot of the Jura Mountains in the canton of Bern and its population of just 5'500 is not very spectacular. However it is an important junction for the watch production. Something that Swiss watchbrand Carl F. Bucherer already realized many years ago and since 2002 runs a…

The watch brand Armin Strom puts a lot of attention to the visibility of the movement as it is the driving engine and highly complex mechanism that keeps the watch running. Therefore they specialized in skeletonized movement designs to bring the inside to the outside for its wearer. Most people cannot imagine how intense work…

Maybe the founder of the AkriviA can be called the ‘enfant terrible’ of the watch industry, but in a positive, eccentric way. We have already introduced the brand and master watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi. He created an atelier that not too many people know about, yet which offers so much potential. The master watchmaker Rexhep Rexhepi focused at work…

The masterminds behind OMEGA strive to be ahead everyone else. A milestone and watch for which the brand is probably most remembered by is the OMEGA Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch, which was the first watch they shot to the moon in 1969. That is nearly 50 years ago. In 2015, OMEGA introduced the world’s first Master…

A few weeks back we were kindly invited to discover the new Panerai manufacture headquarter which is idyllically located in the mountains just above a lake near Neuchâtel, the heart of the world of fine watchmaking. It’s equipped with incredible advanced technologies, a ‘think tank’ department called The Laboratorio di Idee, the RFID system to streamline…