Messages: 6719 Location: California
Registered: January 2007
A Visit to La Chaux-de-Fonds and Girard-Perregaux
Sun, 11 November 2012 18:32
A Visit to the Girard-Perregaux Manufacture
Recently on a trip to Europe my wife and I had the pleasure of taking a short tour of the Girard-Perregaux manufacture in La Chaux-De-Fonds, Switzerland. The visit and the trip was a last minute change to our vacation plans. Due to time my tour of Girard-Perregaux was short and left me with more questions, therefore I know I will have to return at some time in the future to get answers.
We started our trip by flying into Geneva. This was the first time for both of us to be in Switzerland and the gorgeous weather made our first stay there quite memorable.
On the day of our G-P visit we boarded a train in Geneva and took an hour train ride to town of Neuchatel. This picturesque town sits on the shores of the lake that also bears its name (Lake Neuchatel).
We were met at the train station by Girard-Perregaux staff who drove us to La Chaux de Fonds which is a twenty minutes from the train station.
Our guide for the tour was Willy Schweizer. One could hope for no better a guide that Mr. Schweizer. You could ask for no better a tour guide of G-P than Mr. Schweizer is a native of La Chaux-De-Fonds. Having worked in the watch industry for his entire professional career, he has been a fixture at G-P since 1984. His current responsibilities include the perseveration and communication of the brands history through the continued development of Villa Marguerite (the Girard-Perregaux Museum) and the JeanRichard Museum.
Before we started on the actual tour Mr. Schweizer gave us a brief history of watch making in La Chaux-de-Fonds. La Chaux-de-Fonds and surrounding towns in the Jura Valley represent the heart of Swiss watch making industry. Watch making was prominent in the larger cities of Europe after the Renaissance. Places such as London, Paris, Milan and Amsterdam had watchmakers that used their craft in making watches for the wealthy inhabitants of the city. At the end of the 18th century several people escaping religious prosecution in neighboring France came to settle in the Jura Valley. In 1870, around 4,500 nearly people in La Chaux-de-Fonds were directly employed in the clock- and watchmaking industry, almost half the entire population of the city at that time.
La Choux-de-Fonds adopted a methodological approach to its thought and its buildings. Its checkerboard layout is the result of purposeful and idealist town planning applied to reconstruction and development of the town after the fire of 1794. The town layout and the long east and west running streets were designed so that the residents that were primarily watchmakers would be able to maximize natural light for their work.
The size and orientation of the houses with relationship to one another made sure that no one house was obstructing another houses natural light. Houses typically consisted of living quarters on the upper floors and watch making facilities on the ground floor.
Our first stop on the tour was the main factory.
This is a building that was originally constructed in 1904 to house the Tavannes Watch Co. which later became Cyma which moved to La Locle in the 1960's. In the 1990's Girard-Perregaux obtained this building. G-P felt that the environmental and history would be better preserved by partial restoration and renovating an existing structure with a deep watchmaking history versus building a completely new structure. The building restoration took place over a 15 month period. Upon it's completion G-P had a modern factory which kept several of the structures original architectural details. Many of these original details are seen in the stairway shown here.
Today this building is the location of the manufacture of the watch components, watch assembly (non-Haute Horlogerie), Research and Development, Quality Control and Shipping Departments.
The watch manufacture starts with the machining of the watch components for the movements. Our first stop on the tour was the room where the main plates, bridges and barrels are manufactured.
G-P uses a series of machines for this task. Some are operated manually and others run by computer programs. Which component gets made by which machine is a function of the type of component.
The newer machines operate at a faster speed and require an oil lubrication to keep them cool during the manufacturing process.
We next entered the room were cases are manufactured. The cases are made from a solid block of metal.
There are two sets of machines one for steel cases the other for precious metal. These two separate machines are required so that the precious metal that remains after the milling process can be gathered and recycled and will not be mixed with non-precious metals.
After the cases are made they are polished using various polishing mediums depending on the type of finish required.
The cases then receive a thorough bath to remove polishing paste and then sandblasted to remove any remaining metal chips
The finished case is then assembled without the movement.
Once assembled the case under goes three water tightness test. The first is an air pressure test. The case is then subjected to a water pressure test that goes from 30M to 3000M depending on the watch model.
The last test is a heat test in which the case is heated to a certain temperature. A drop of water is placed on the case and left there for 5 minutes. If there is no condensation inside of the case, water tightness is confirmed.
Before we continued on with the manufacturing part of the tour we made a quick stop in the Research and Development department. This was one of the more exciting parts of the tour as we were able to gaze at future G-P movement and case designs on computer aided drafting machines. For obvious reasons I was not allowed to take pictures but I was amazed at what the new movement technology that G-P will be releasing in the coming years. From initial concept to final working prototype on average takes 4 years for a basic movement and much longer for complicated movements.
When watch complements are completed they go through random quality checks.
These checks include force of mainspring, material resistance, profiling of gear trains and bridges and testing of the molecular structure of the actual metal itself.
Once the components are okay they go into production. Watch components are machine finished and decorated before being sent to the watchmaker to be assembled into a completed movement.
The assembled movement is paired with a test dial and hands to test all movement functions. It is also timed in 5 positions and undergoes and 8 day temperature test. Test results are recorded for each movement.
After the movement is completed and has passed all testing it is assembled with the correct case, dial and hands.
There is a special bench used for installing the finished movement into its proper case. The air pressure within the bench area is higher than outside so that there is no dust in the atmosphere. In essence the movement is being installed in a vacuum.
There is a final water tightness test on the watch before the strap is attached. This test is required because the case has been reopened since its previous water tightness test.
The final step is the attachment of the watch head to the strap or bracelet and packaging for shipment.
This completed our tour of the main factory building. We stopped for a tour of the Jean Richard Museum which I will cover in another report.
After our tour of the museum we returned to G-P headquarters at 1 Place Girardet.
This is the where the G-P administration, after sales service and the Haute Horlogerie department is located. We were able to take a tour of the Haute Horlogerie department. Here complicated watches are made.
Here the manufactured parts are received from the main factory. There are no more machines. All parts are finished by hand. Beveling is made with a stone file.
Polishing is done using wooden pegs with diamond paste. Initially hardwood pegs are used for the first polishing. The final stages of polishing are done using softer wooden pegs and a thinner paste. Once the polishing is completed it is inspected under a 10X magnifying loupe to confirm there are no micro scratches. As a reference point a tourbillon carriage takes about a week to finish by hand.
After the finishing is completed all of the components for one watch are given to one watch maker for assembly. This is different than what occurs for the less complicated watches. The lesser complicated watches go through several hands in order to be assembled. Watches with more complications can have up to 600 components. The watchmaker assembles the watch twice. The first it assembled and adjusted to make sure it is functioning properly. Once this happens it is disassembled and cleaned then reassembled and retested.
This rigorous routine for complicated watches makes it impossible to commit to delivery times when pieces are ordered. Production can take up to one year. For example the Opera One Tourbillon with its Westminster Repeater will be assembled, disassembled and reassembled several times until the perfect melody and tempo are achieved.
This is where the all too brief tour concluded. I now have a new found appreciation for watchmaking and for the level of effort and detail that is put into the mechanical marvels we strap to our wrist or even carry in our pockets. I want to thank Willy and all of the Girard-Perregaux staff who helped organize and assisted with the tour. It was a wonderful experience; even my wife who is not a WIS thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the Girard-Perregaux warmth and hospitality
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
- kev5366