We get lost in the Patek Philippe case factory and we get an answer to that recurring question for every watch fan: What makes certain brands so exclusive? Many times the key has to do with the complexity of its calibers, both technical and aesthetic, but in the case of Patek Philippe everything goes further since the Swiss brand does not stop at mechanics or beauty but focuses on every detail.
Our last visit helped us to see how they apply the same criteria of excellence to the production of the boxes that will house their renowned mechanical prodigies. To do so, it has not one but up to three companies that are responsible for manufacturing, polishing and decorating them. All in this order.
Located in what we could call a typically Swiss landscape, in November 2007 Patek Philippe purchased a plot of 18,000 m2 of land next to the mythical town of La-Chaux-de-Fonds with the intention of building a production center specialized in watch cases, polishing work and precious stone setting. Work began in April 2008 and today, seven years later, this project is not only a reality but is operating at full capacity. With the foresight that characterizes the Stern family, 12,000 m2 have been built but there is still room to double that surface.
Calame&Cie is dedicated to the production of watch cases and was purchased by Patek Philippe in 2001. It operates as an independent production unit although it is linked to the Plan les Ouates headquarters in Geneva where cases are also produced. Calame's specialization is gold boxes and there is the same perfectionist atmosphere as in the mother house. As there, numerical control machines are the protagonists of the interior landscape, giving shape to what are originally metal blocks.
The process is as laborious as you might expect from a Patek Philippe supplier, and it certainly takes a multitude of steps before the final approval is given. The pieces are checked systematically, both by traditional methods such as vernier calipers, templates and other analog means, as well as by complex machines (the first non-Swiss one I have seen) capable of detecting deviations of thousandths of a millimeter.
After passing this rigorous internal control, the cases (cases and backs) are carefully inspected once again before being semi-packed to pass into the hands of its neighbor Poli-Art, a company also owned by Patek Philippe (since 2003) dedicated exclusively to super-specialized polishing, which – as is a sign of the House – combines the most artisanal manual techniques with the best machines available on the market. These are the carcasses of a Nautilus in two different stages of the process
An almost infinite variety of grinding wheels and abrasive pastes is used which, combined with the skill and experience of the polisher, will bring out the best nuances of the metal.
Patek Philippe produces around 55,000 watches per year and a significant proportion of them will have their cases polished, so a small army of experienced polishers is needed to service them. Let's not forget that precious metals are being handled, so any loss is important, there is little room for error.
So little margin that here the watchmaker's magnifying glass is also used to control the process and all the polishing tables are equipped with vacuum cleaners (that grid with holes is one) to collect the gold particles that come off during erosion. In addition to grinding wheels and abrasive paste, sanding belts of different grains are used.
It is here where the links of future armies or bracelets are also polished. Futures because for now they are loose pieces with little shape, but treated with such care that they are almost polished one by one (in reality they go two by two...). Those blue tubes are part of the particle aspiration system that I just described.
Between these two pieces there is the meticulous work of an expert hand. It is not enough to have the tools: you have to know how to apply the right pressure at all times and in the right place. Even if it is a tool as basic as a piece of emery paper around a wooden block.
But it was arriving at SHG (Sertissage Haut de Gamme. “Sertissage” means “set”) where my eyes grew wider. I admit that as a watch fan I have always looked at “jewel watches” as something foreign, where their value (let's say price) was more in the packaging than in the interior. And in a way this is because the materials used, the precious stones, are inherently expensive. But what I did not know is the meticulous and precise work of the sertisseurs, who face the daily challenge of placing those small crystals in such a way that they remain fixed forever.
The surprise does not end here: if in Poli-Art there is a small army, here it would seem that the number is doubled. True artists working with tiny materials armed with tools that in some cases look very similar to those used in dentistry, without forgetting the essential binocular microscope.
In addition to the artisans that we saw at work, at SHG they have expert gemologists in charge of selecting the stones in both size and color so that they can be mounted on the different supports. From bezels where the diamond housings and the staples that will hold them are pre-engraved…
… until the setting called “snow” which is characterized by the irregularity (always apparent) of the size of the stones that are mounted in an also apparent chaos: there the holes and their corresponding staples will have to be created one by one and this is where the art of the setter shines the most.
The spheres are also worked on. And how. The artisans have a colored diagram that tells them the size of each stone to be set. The result is always…dazzling. Regardless of whether or not we like watches with rhinestones, it is good to know that behind them there is a very laborious work of craftsmanship that, added to the intrinsic price of the stones, ends up justifying their price.
But perhaps a video will help explain the admiration that I have had from knowing up close a profession that has a lot of art.
As a culmination of this visit, I would like to thank Patek Philippe Iberia for the facilities obtained thanks to its management to be able to photograph all these processes without obstacles: I know from experience that it is not common, especially taking into account the nature of the materials that are handled here.
If you have been left wanting more, you can consult other of our reports on visits to the Patek Philippe factories here:
Patek Philippe Manufacturing Visit 2015
Visit to the Patek Philippe Manufacture 2013
Best watch strap | Best annual calendar watch | Best watch winder | Best Black Luxury watch | Best Luxury Watches Men | Best Swiss Luxury Watches Women | Best Men Diamond Watches under 1000 | Best Diamond Watches Women | Best Luxury Dive Watch
