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Tuesday dawned slightly overcast with a light drizzle, but it seemed to
make the Vallee de Joux even more enchanting. After a good breakfast, we
again split into two groups for visits to Jaeger-LeCoultre and Audemars
Piguet.
As
Moderator of TZ’s Jaeger-LeCoultre Forum, I was especially interested in
seeing first-hand the most complete fine watchmaking facility in the
world, with 40 different handicrafts and 20 technologies under one giant
roof, so to speak. Almost every part in a Jaeger-LeCoultre is produced
on-site, from massive Compressor cases down to the tiniest heat-blued
screws.
Arriving at the Manufacture...
…one doesn’t get a sense of the enormousness of the place; like Topsy, the
largest watchmaking facility in the Vallee de Joux just grew and grew and
it’s easy to think that the entire complex is one long, convoluted hallway
until one views the handsome grounds:
Here’s Chris with a chart showing the various buildings of the
Manufacture:
A
small stone memorial salutes the genius of founder Antoine LeCoultre…
...near the spot where in 1833 he built his home and workshop and where,
172 years later, over 900 designers, artisans, watchmakers and
craftspeople produce some of the finest timepieces in the world. In the
Vallee de Joux, when one says ‘The Manufacture’, one means Jaeger-LeCoultre,
whose history has produced some 250 movements and over 200 patents. Even
today, the company is committed to producing at least three new movements
each year!
But
on to the tour: we were ushered into a boardroom
(shown: Lisa, Alec and myself) and given a short presentation. Below, JLC’s
Simone Prevalet tries to answer a question from Peter:
Our
next stop: the Design department.
Simone points out a CAD design for a future Reverso, still the
Manufacture’s Number One selling series:
Next, a balance bridge with balance wheel and escapement:
Finally, a schematic layout of the buildings on campus…
…oh, wait - that’s a Reverso movement (sorry)
Seriously, though, it’s a real point of pride that all Reversos used
shaped movements, unlike other companies that get by with using round ones
for rectangular cases!
Next, we visited the CNC precision machinery, where the real construction
process starts:
These are some of the various toolings used for the machines.
In
another area Estelle Negrello of Customer Training points out one of the
cleaning processes:
Here, blank trimming takes place:
The
March of The Pink Gold Reverso Cases:
An
ebauche for the new Cal 177 Dual-Axis Gyrotourbillon:
We
were introduced to Jacques Coulet, Master Watchmaker, who is responsible
for the Gyrotourbillon’s assembly:
…and the elaborated movement awaiting the Gyrotourbillon cage, a work of
technical excellence combining as it does a 90-part dual-axis spherical
tourbillon whose outer cage rotates at a different rate (1 RPM) than the
inner cage (2.5RPM), with the entire aluminum cage weighing in at .035
grams!
And
here’s what the completed timepiece looks like (photo courtesy of Ron
DeCorte):
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