Post by Sam on Jul 8, 2007 14:37:16 GMT -6
This maker was a late addition to the tour and one that certainly made a large impact on me.
This report is about a fairly new independent watch maker on the scene…..Romain Gauthier……and he’s really not a watchmaker.
To explain what I mean by him not being a watch maker, Romain is more of an engineering/technical type (like me) than a watch maker. His background is not in pure watch making, but in programming and operating various CNC machines and in design of machinery. His story is that he became interested in running his own business while running the CNC department at another job at one of the places in the Vallee-de-Joux that makes watch parts. He debated what kind of business to start, and first considered starting up his own luxury watch consulting business to advise collectors about high end and rare watches. He also considered making his own watches using outsourced movements. However, after seeing how Philippe Dufour created his own watches from scratch, Romain eventually decided to make a business out of his own watch design and went back to school to get an MBA as part of his preparation. He approached Philippe Dufour for some guidance on how to design a watch, and after speaking with Dufour about what was involved he sort of “disappeared” for about 3 years. During that time, he worked full time at his regular job and worked on his watch design and business after hours in secrecy. The Vallee-de-Joux is a small place and as one watch maker put it to our group “If someone breaks a balance staff at one factory in the morning, everyone in the Vallee knows it by the afternoon!” So for an up and coming maker like Gauthier, not being under the microscope was important to allow the freedom he needed to get his designs done. In total it took him 6 years to go from the idea of his own company to having completed watches ready for sale. What you will see in this report are some of the very first production models that have just gone on sale. He started this process at the age of 25.
After he gave us a short presentation, I spoke with him about the design process and some of the features of the watches. We viewed the 3D models on his computer in some detail…..
He told us about some very long nights and getting very little sleep while trying to perfect the design and create a business plan at the same time. He ended up getting machine time on various manufacturing equipment owned by others after normal working hours and on weekends in order to build the prototypes himself. When he had to order materials from commercial houses, he used a fictitious company name to avoid any “buzz” and expectations of others while perfecting his design and building his prototypes. Since Romain is not a watch maker, he recruited a fairly new graduate, Sébastien Berney, who does the “watch making” part of the job including finishing, assembly, and regulation of the watches.
I personally found that I could identify with Romain very well since his approach to the world of watches is similar to mine in that he is more of an engineering type than a watch maker. We had some long discussions about how the design developed, what design software he used, how the CNC programming and process went.
He approached some of the aspects of the first watch with an engineering eye, and this resulted in some innovations. For example in this photo you can see the design of the gears he developed. Rather than use a traditional spoke design, the gear uses a circular spoke which gives the gear more strength. It also looks quite nice!
His escape wheel design has a similar flavour as shown in this photo under a microscope…..
Here is a shot of his pallet design under a microscope.
Instead of the traditional “anchor” shaped design for this, he used a triangular design that was quite a bit stronger, and that allowed him to use less material making the pallet much lighter and requiring less force to move. All of the parts are machined from solid pieces rather than stamped, which results in a much better finish and much better consistency from part to part. For reference, here is a traditional pallet design again….
Here you can see his pallet design used in the 3D model…… and here it is shown with the pallet stones in place.
His designs are very clean, with simple 2-hand watches as shown in this rose gold model.
This shot shows some of the guilloché work on the dial a bit better.
And here is a white gold model up close…….
But have you noticed that something is missing…..
There is no crown visible. The crown is integrated into the back of the watch!
This eliminates several parts from the keyless works used for winding and hand setting. In a traditional watch the “drive line” from the crown to the main spring must go through a 90 degree transition, and this is done through the clutch and intermediate wheel. In Romain’s design, since the crown is on the same plane as the rest of the mechanism, no transition is required and fewer parts are used. However this required some work on the gears to make sure that there is a smooth meshing as the crown is pressed in as the gears now must mesh vertically. This required a special tooth design that is tapered on the top of one gear and the bottom of the other so that there is no binding when the crown is pushed in to mesh.
Here is a photo of the 3D model where you can see the special tooth form in the area where I have added a red circle. This allows the gear on the right to mesh easily with the one on the left as the right gear moves down to engage the left gear in the direction of the arrow……
Very innovative design, and although crown’s on the back of watches have been done before, this one is done in a way that the watch can be wound while on your wrist, which is a first! Another innovation is the use of a sapphire ball in the crown operation that greatly extends the life of that portion of the mechanism when compared to steel parts that use a detent spring.
The level of finishing and attention to detail on these watches is phenomenal, and not easily translated in these pictures. You can certainly see Dufour’s influence here! I absolutely love the treatment of the bridges, the level of finishing, and of course the shape of the bridges like is shown in these pictures dictate that all the finishing is done by hand rather than by machine as is the case at most of the major manufacturers. Those “inside corners” can’t be finished by a rotary tool so the anglage (beveling) and polishing must be done by hand.
A closer look:
More hand finished parts:
Romain also designed his own balance wheel, and it was done with aerodynamics in mind. This helps reduce air friction, loads on the pivots, and helps with balance amplitude. The balance wheel has 4 adjustable masses for timing, and before each watch leaves the shop a photo is taken of their position and kept on file so that if any adjustments are needed the position of the weights can be checked against the file to help make adjustments and determine if something else might be wrong with the watch.
Romain even designed custom screw heads in an “S” shape that make it very hard for the screwdriver to slip out of the slot and mark the surfaces! Every screw on the watch has this design, and you can see the one on the crown in this photo of the movement side of the watch.
In addition to the visit to his studio, he was at the dinner with many of the other watch makers. He spoke with Jacqui and me at length about watches in general, Switzerland, and a number of other subjects. He invited us to contact him if we ever come back so we could meet for dinner. The good thing is his watches aren’t as expensive as a Dufour would be, but are still a lot of money – at least for me. They are around the 34,000 Swiss Franc mark depending on the case material.
Here are some photos from that dinner that show the watch in more detail. Romain has two types of finishes that are applied to the bridges. One is a matte finish that makes a wonderful contrast with the highly polished edges of the bridges. That is shown in the white gold parts above, and in this rose gold version he brough to the dinner for us to see.
He also offers a more traditional Côtes de Genève pattern and this is what I prefer…….this is such a beautiful watch!
Had to take some wrist shots…….maybe some day I will own one of these.
Up close!
And before we left the dinner Jacqui took a picture of me, Romain, and Sébastien Berney on the right.
For me this sort of interaction with someone who is so passionate about their watches, and can give you so many details about how and why their watch is constructed the way it is, is one of the reasons that I was so impressed by these independent watch makers. I know that the big brands all have their history (real or marketing hype in some cases) and their reputations, but I can assure you that none of the people I spoke with during the tours of the big factories had the sort of knowledge about the design as someone like Romain does. Even when we spoke to people in the design department at JLC where they had designs on the screen in CAD to show us, no one had a feeling for why the design was the way it was. They were simply executing someone else’s vision, and that someone else is usually some sort of "design committee." Those who make the watches at the big houses are mostly just doing their small part of the job, with little knowledge of the whole process. It seems very “sterile” when compared to the work of an independent maker, at least to me!
Certainly the mass produced watches have their advantages in terms of parts and service down the road, but owning a true “work of art” from one of the small makers is just simply on a different level in my opinion. It’s a level I hope to be at one day.
Please feel free to comment on these reports. My hope is to generate discussion on the topics at hand and I will answer any question you have the best that I can.
Cheers!
Thanks again for reading this!
This report is about a fairly new independent watch maker on the scene…..Romain Gauthier……and he’s really not a watchmaker.
To explain what I mean by him not being a watch maker, Romain is more of an engineering/technical type (like me) than a watch maker. His background is not in pure watch making, but in programming and operating various CNC machines and in design of machinery. His story is that he became interested in running his own business while running the CNC department at another job at one of the places in the Vallee-de-Joux that makes watch parts. He debated what kind of business to start, and first considered starting up his own luxury watch consulting business to advise collectors about high end and rare watches. He also considered making his own watches using outsourced movements. However, after seeing how Philippe Dufour created his own watches from scratch, Romain eventually decided to make a business out of his own watch design and went back to school to get an MBA as part of his preparation. He approached Philippe Dufour for some guidance on how to design a watch, and after speaking with Dufour about what was involved he sort of “disappeared” for about 3 years. During that time, he worked full time at his regular job and worked on his watch design and business after hours in secrecy. The Vallee-de-Joux is a small place and as one watch maker put it to our group “If someone breaks a balance staff at one factory in the morning, everyone in the Vallee knows it by the afternoon!” So for an up and coming maker like Gauthier, not being under the microscope was important to allow the freedom he needed to get his designs done. In total it took him 6 years to go from the idea of his own company to having completed watches ready for sale. What you will see in this report are some of the very first production models that have just gone on sale. He started this process at the age of 25.
After he gave us a short presentation, I spoke with him about the design process and some of the features of the watches. We viewed the 3D models on his computer in some detail…..
He told us about some very long nights and getting very little sleep while trying to perfect the design and create a business plan at the same time. He ended up getting machine time on various manufacturing equipment owned by others after normal working hours and on weekends in order to build the prototypes himself. When he had to order materials from commercial houses, he used a fictitious company name to avoid any “buzz” and expectations of others while perfecting his design and building his prototypes. Since Romain is not a watch maker, he recruited a fairly new graduate, Sébastien Berney, who does the “watch making” part of the job including finishing, assembly, and regulation of the watches.
I personally found that I could identify with Romain very well since his approach to the world of watches is similar to mine in that he is more of an engineering type than a watch maker. We had some long discussions about how the design developed, what design software he used, how the CNC programming and process went.
He approached some of the aspects of the first watch with an engineering eye, and this resulted in some innovations. For example in this photo you can see the design of the gears he developed. Rather than use a traditional spoke design, the gear uses a circular spoke which gives the gear more strength. It also looks quite nice!
His escape wheel design has a similar flavour as shown in this photo under a microscope…..
Here is a shot of his pallet design under a microscope.
Instead of the traditional “anchor” shaped design for this, he used a triangular design that was quite a bit stronger, and that allowed him to use less material making the pallet much lighter and requiring less force to move. All of the parts are machined from solid pieces rather than stamped, which results in a much better finish and much better consistency from part to part. For reference, here is a traditional pallet design again….
Here you can see his pallet design used in the 3D model…… and here it is shown with the pallet stones in place.
His designs are very clean, with simple 2-hand watches as shown in this rose gold model.
This shot shows some of the guilloché work on the dial a bit better.
And here is a white gold model up close…….
But have you noticed that something is missing…..
There is no crown visible. The crown is integrated into the back of the watch!
This eliminates several parts from the keyless works used for winding and hand setting. In a traditional watch the “drive line” from the crown to the main spring must go through a 90 degree transition, and this is done through the clutch and intermediate wheel. In Romain’s design, since the crown is on the same plane as the rest of the mechanism, no transition is required and fewer parts are used. However this required some work on the gears to make sure that there is a smooth meshing as the crown is pressed in as the gears now must mesh vertically. This required a special tooth design that is tapered on the top of one gear and the bottom of the other so that there is no binding when the crown is pushed in to mesh. Here is a photo of the 3D model where you can see the special tooth form in the area where I have added a red circle. This allows the gear on the right to mesh easily with the one on the left as the right gear moves down to engage the left gear in the direction of the arrow……
Very innovative design, and although crown’s on the back of watches have been done before, this one is done in a way that the watch can be wound while on your wrist, which is a first! Another innovation is the use of a sapphire ball in the crown operation that greatly extends the life of that portion of the mechanism when compared to steel parts that use a detent spring.
The level of finishing and attention to detail on these watches is phenomenal, and not easily translated in these pictures. You can certainly see Dufour’s influence here! I absolutely love the treatment of the bridges, the level of finishing, and of course the shape of the bridges like is shown in these pictures dictate that all the finishing is done by hand rather than by machine as is the case at most of the major manufacturers. Those “inside corners” can’t be finished by a rotary tool so the anglage (beveling) and polishing must be done by hand.
A closer look:
More hand finished parts:
Romain also designed his own balance wheel, and it was done with aerodynamics in mind. This helps reduce air friction, loads on the pivots, and helps with balance amplitude. The balance wheel has 4 adjustable masses for timing, and before each watch leaves the shop a photo is taken of their position and kept on file so that if any adjustments are needed the position of the weights can be checked against the file to help make adjustments and determine if something else might be wrong with the watch.
Romain even designed custom screw heads in an “S” shape that make it very hard for the screwdriver to slip out of the slot and mark the surfaces! Every screw on the watch has this design, and you can see the one on the crown in this photo of the movement side of the watch.
In addition to the visit to his studio, he was at the dinner with many of the other watch makers. He spoke with Jacqui and me at length about watches in general, Switzerland, and a number of other subjects. He invited us to contact him if we ever come back so we could meet for dinner. The good thing is his watches aren’t as expensive as a Dufour would be, but are still a lot of money – at least for me. They are around the 34,000 Swiss Franc mark depending on the case material.
Here are some photos from that dinner that show the watch in more detail. Romain has two types of finishes that are applied to the bridges. One is a matte finish that makes a wonderful contrast with the highly polished edges of the bridges. That is shown in the white gold parts above, and in this rose gold version he brough to the dinner for us to see.
He also offers a more traditional Côtes de Genève pattern and this is what I prefer…….this is such a beautiful watch!
Had to take some wrist shots…….maybe some day I will own one of these.
Up close!
And before we left the dinner Jacqui took a picture of me, Romain, and Sébastien Berney on the right.
For me this sort of interaction with someone who is so passionate about their watches, and can give you so many details about how and why their watch is constructed the way it is, is one of the reasons that I was so impressed by these independent watch makers. I know that the big brands all have their history (real or marketing hype in some cases) and their reputations, but I can assure you that none of the people I spoke with during the tours of the big factories had the sort of knowledge about the design as someone like Romain does. Even when we spoke to people in the design department at JLC where they had designs on the screen in CAD to show us, no one had a feeling for why the design was the way it was. They were simply executing someone else’s vision, and that someone else is usually some sort of "design committee." Those who make the watches at the big houses are mostly just doing their small part of the job, with little knowledge of the whole process. It seems very “sterile” when compared to the work of an independent maker, at least to me!
Certainly the mass produced watches have their advantages in terms of parts and service down the road, but owning a true “work of art” from one of the small makers is just simply on a different level in my opinion. It’s a level I hope to be at one day.
Please feel free to comment on these reports. My hope is to generate discussion on the topics at hand and I will answer any question you have the best that I can.
Cheers!
Thanks again for reading this!