Post by Sam on Jul 11, 2007 7:17:15 GMT -6
This report is actually 2 reports in 1, since our visit with Patek Philippe was for en entire day rather than just a morning or afternoon. The same is true for Vacheron Constantine, so that will be a large report as well – probably the biggest!
I want to start off by saying that in general I am not a huge fan of the various modern PP models out there. A couple of them appeal to me, but not enough to buy one yet. I very much like some of the vintage pieces I've seen, and always keep an eye out for the right one. I do admire their position in the industry, but the newer models don’t “speak to me” aesthetically as many other brands do.
PP was the last tour we had on our trip, and like others, I was getting a bit burnt out by the time we made our way on the bus to the factory. However, I was still excited to see the inner workings of this most famous house. Here is the main entrance to the building, which of course was quite nicely done. The factory is quite large, and has an area of 22,000 square metres!
Inside the lobby, they had this huge clock on the wall – it was spectacular.
Of course we had to dress up in our smocks to start the tour.
We made our way to an auditorium, but along the way this Dali caught my eye……one of my favourite artists and one of a limited number of works done in the form of a fabric wall hanging.
We had to go upstairs to the auditorium, and this provided an opportunity for some nice shots of the lobby from above.
Here we are getting ready to view the introductory film.
After the film we were broken up into 2 groups, since all of us on the tour were at PP for the day. This time they broke us up differently than they had in most of the previous tours, and the more technical group went with a more technical guide, while the others had a different guide. I was in the technical group (Jacqui was in the other group
.
Before I go any further, I want to explain some things about this visit. Overall it was a good visit, but I was not alone in feeling that there was a different vibe here than at any other of the tours. I would not say they were rude to us or anything like that, but there was a feeling that they were a little “cold” compared to the other places we visited. I can’t point to one specific thing that makes me say that, but it was just the overall tone of the visit.
Certainly one issue that came up was the taking of photographs. We were told that they really didn’t want us to take photos in the shops. I can understand this completely, as I’ve done a lot of plant tours ( not just watch manufacturing) and most places don’t allow it. In fact no one really had a big issue with that at Chopard. But then PP gave us somewhat ambiguous instructions, saying that we could take photos in certain areas, and it was not clear to all on our tour what was going on with regards to where we could take them or not. The result was that photos were taken in areas that they apparently shouldn’t have been taken (not by me) and at one point our guide threatened to end the tour because of it. I can’t say that threat sat well with everyone in our group, and although I do understand that it’s PP’s place and they set the rules, the way they were communicated was not the best. We were their guests of course but that issue, coupled with the general feeling we were getting made it a less fun and satisfying tour compared with the others we had done. With the exception of AP, this was my least favourite factory tour. The things we saw were great, but the general feeling during the tour of the factory wasn't so great unfortunately.
So I have some photos, but not many from the shops.
Here are a series of photos showing parts made for the famous PP Calibre 89 pocket watch. The caliber 89 is the most complicated watch in the world. Pictures of the watch itself will follow later.
In the area where these parts were machined, I stopped to talk with one of the machine operators. He was somewhat frustrated since he had made some defective parts and had to start over with them. The process he was working on involved taking a very thin sheet of material and gluing it to a larger and much thicker brass block. The brass block would act as a backing for the machining operation that was done on a CNC milling machine. He set the machine to run before leaving the night before, and it ran its course overnight machining a sheet with at least 100 small parts on it. He said that the glue had not held well enough and the sheet had moved during machining, ruining every single part that had run over the night. I was not allowed to take photos of the damaged parts, nor was I allowed to take photos of the quality data they had posted on the bulletin boards in the shops. They had graphs relating to defect rates during production, and I saw some charts with very high scrap rates - like in the area of 70% for some operations!
Our guide was asked about them and didn't have a lot to say, other than "No pictures of these charts!"
So I guess even the big houses have their problems.
Here are tools made of boxwood that are used to produce the Côte de Genève pattern on movement parts. These tools and the traditional methods that go with them are only used on the most highly complicated watches that PP produces. The “low end” PP watches are given their patterns with disks of abrasive paper like I showed being punched out at the JLC factory. I will give more details on the traditional finishing process in another report.
This picture shows a block that has pockets machined in it to accept movement plates. These blocks are then put into CNC machines where the writing for the plates is milled into the brass movement plates. The block has many pockets for plates, and if you look at the places where there are no plates you can see each pocket has two holes. Those holes are connected through ports inside the block, and all come to a common port at the block’s edge. A vacuum line is hooked to the block to suck the plates down into their pockets while they are being machined. We were not able to photograph the machines, but when they placed the blocks in to be machined they put aluminum foil over all the parts to prevent the chips that come from the machining from marking the surfaces of each movement plate. The cutting tool machined through the foil and engraved the writing on the plate, and the chips from the operation floated in oil on top of the aluminum foil. It was a very interesting process to watch.
I spoke with one of the ladies who worked in this area about the process. She operates the equipment but others do the programming. She does some initial quality control on the pieces, and she gave me a reject plate before we left that room - I think the engraving was simply too deep on this plate.
Note that some of the jewels are already set.
I am quite sure the plate is from a Cal. 315 PP movement that you would find in something like a 5146 Annual Calendar.....like Martyn's!
I found this movement shot of Martyn's, and tried to make my part look the same so took out the colour and rotated it to about the same angle - no doubt it's the bridge from his watch.
So I figure with another 250 or 300 visits to the factory I’ll have my own PP watch!
The pieces then move on to a room where sharp edges are removed from the parts.
This worker was removing burrs from the rotors that are familiar with those who have seen the back of a PP auto.
We then went to a finishing room, where I was not allowed to take any pictures of the machines, but I was able to photograph some of the finished plates.
And if you ever wonder how they determine what perlage “dot” goes where? Well, the size, location, and pattern are all predetermined and presented to the workers on engineering drawings like the one shown in this picture.
This photo shows a gear before and after finishing that I took through a microscope. Note how the grooves by the teeth have been polished for the gear on the right. This is done on a hand loaded but automated machine.
All watches produced by PP get the famous Geneva Seal designation. This system really has nothing to do with accuracy, but more with the finish of the watch. I will show more on this when I write the VC report.
This display shows the process that gears go through as they are manufactured. Starting from stampings, they are progressively finished and then have the shafts added.
We were not allowed to enter any of the workshops where the watch assembly was done, so this is a shot of the perpetual calendar department through the glass…..
As we ended the factory portion of the tour (sorry those are all the photos I was allowed to take!) we went across a walking bridge between two of the buildings.
Looking out from that you could see a building in behind the factory. My understanding is that this building is used to host events, and has been restored recently. However we didn’t enter it on this tour.
We were taken to a conference room where we were shown some of the high end PP watches. It should be noted that all of the "complicated" PP watches are personally inspected by Philippe Stern himself before being shipped. In total, PP produces about 38,000 watches per year.
We started the presentation with the pocket watches, and the first was a minute repeater with perpetual calendar in this photo of the movement.
We then had a look at the PP Star Calibre that has 1,118 parts!
It was crowded to get photos!
The back side has a constellation on the back that moves.....sorry I didn't get a good photo as it was a very dark surface.
It’s an impressive piece for sure.
We were then treated to a viewing of some wrist watches.
The one that really caught my eye was the 5970 in rose gold…..nice watch!
We then broke for lunch, and went to the PP cafeteria, where they had some tables set up in a corner that were just for us – I didn’t take too many pictures at lunch. Here is some of our group.
It was a tasty lunch, starting with a dish of wild mushrooms in cream sauce on puff pasty. Then we had a nice piece of steak. The dessert was a work of art and worthy of a photo!
It was a raspberry dish that was a jellied arrangement, with the addition of whipped cream, and a small mug filled with a very nice concoction. It had a green foam on top that I could not quite put my finger on the taste, and then some cream and raspberries in the lower half. I did eat it despite not being a huge fan of raspberries – I would have preferred strawberries myself!
Close up!
Then we were back on the bus, and headed to downtown Geneva and the PP museum!
Jacqui out front.
When others saw me take that photo, they wanted in on the shots….
We were given a guided tour of the museum specifically for our group. We started off in the PP library, where the Stern family has amassed a collection of 8,000 books on horology dating from as far back as the 1600's.
It should be noted that the museum is actually the personal collection of the Stern family. Some of the pieces on display are on loan, but the vast majority are owned by the family, Certainly the world of horology owes the family a great debt for putting this collection together, and allowing the general public access to these wonderful works of art. I only photographed a small selection of what there was to see at the museum. There were literally thousands of watches there to look at, so without being there a week I could only take some shots of things that caught my eye.
The displays of watches and clocks are in 2 sections, the first being non-Patek pieces, and that's where we started. Here is a watch from 1655, with some incredible enamel work on it.
This is the first watch to be fitted with a second hand! Circa 1745 it was made in London by an English watchmaker.
This watch set in a box has some fantastic artwork on it in enamel.....
The museum was not just for time pieces, but also had many examples of very complex music boxes and automaton. This one in particular was great as it's in the shape of a pistol that when fired, a small bird pops out of the barrel and sings a song before popping back in.
Here is a shot of the mechanism...amazing work for 1815!
I purchased a DVD that has many videos from the museum on it, including a video of the pistol above in operation. The DVD is copy protected so I wasn’t able to capture any of them to post. I am still trying so will add videos if I can get them in a format that I can post.
This next item is an amazing piece of work. It's the Breguet "Sympathique" clock. It was produced in 1795 to 1798, and at the end of the day the owner would put his matching pocket watch in the stand at the top of the clock. The clock was programmed to synchronize the owner's pocket watch with the more accurate clock each night at 3 in the morning. Later versions also wound the watch automatically. An 18th century version of the radio controlled atomic watches......phenomenal!
Here is a photo of one of the pocket watches.
We then moved to a different floor and started our tour of the PP collection.
Being a fan of opals, I took this shot of a watch case that had been carved out of a solid piece of white opal. Nice colouring in this stone, even if the pattern is just a pin fire type.
I only photographed 2 more watches, but both are extraordinary pieces. First is the famous Calibre 89 pocket watch. It is the most complicated watch ever made.
Here is a list of the functions!
And here are some shots of the internals parts they had on display.
It is truly an amazing piece. It has a total of 1,728 parts, and weighs over 1 kg! I believe they have sold for around $6 million US!
But wait, that's not the most expensive watch ever sold.....this one is.
This is the Henry Graves watch, which sold at auction in 1999 for $11 million US. It also is the second most complicated watch ever made, second only to the Calibre 89.
This watch was produced in 1933.
So that was the end of our day with Patek Philippe. It was enjoyable for the most part, and quite exhausting. I can not recommend visiting the PP museum enough. It is a truly outstanding museum housing some of the finest works in horology on the planet. Not just for lovers of PP, but for all those who can appreciate the work that goes into any fine watch.
PP did give us from gifts along with our usual haul of catalogues, and the two most interesting are the lapel pin in sterling silver.....
And this flash drive that has their latest models on it.....
I certainly hope you enjoyed this report, as it took me a few hours sitting in front of the computer to get it done!
Thanks for reading!
Al
I want to start off by saying that in general I am not a huge fan of the various modern PP models out there. A couple of them appeal to me, but not enough to buy one yet. I very much like some of the vintage pieces I've seen, and always keep an eye out for the right one. I do admire their position in the industry, but the newer models don’t “speak to me” aesthetically as many other brands do.
PP was the last tour we had on our trip, and like others, I was getting a bit burnt out by the time we made our way on the bus to the factory. However, I was still excited to see the inner workings of this most famous house. Here is the main entrance to the building, which of course was quite nicely done. The factory is quite large, and has an area of 22,000 square metres!
Inside the lobby, they had this huge clock on the wall – it was spectacular.
Of course we had to dress up in our smocks to start the tour.
We made our way to an auditorium, but along the way this Dali caught my eye……one of my favourite artists and one of a limited number of works done in the form of a fabric wall hanging.
We had to go upstairs to the auditorium, and this provided an opportunity for some nice shots of the lobby from above.
Here we are getting ready to view the introductory film.
After the film we were broken up into 2 groups, since all of us on the tour were at PP for the day. This time they broke us up differently than they had in most of the previous tours, and the more technical group went with a more technical guide, while the others had a different guide. I was in the technical group (Jacqui was in the other group
. Before I go any further, I want to explain some things about this visit. Overall it was a good visit, but I was not alone in feeling that there was a different vibe here than at any other of the tours. I would not say they were rude to us or anything like that, but there was a feeling that they were a little “cold” compared to the other places we visited. I can’t point to one specific thing that makes me say that, but it was just the overall tone of the visit.
Certainly one issue that came up was the taking of photographs. We were told that they really didn’t want us to take photos in the shops. I can understand this completely, as I’ve done a lot of plant tours ( not just watch manufacturing) and most places don’t allow it. In fact no one really had a big issue with that at Chopard. But then PP gave us somewhat ambiguous instructions, saying that we could take photos in certain areas, and it was not clear to all on our tour what was going on with regards to where we could take them or not. The result was that photos were taken in areas that they apparently shouldn’t have been taken (not by me) and at one point our guide threatened to end the tour because of it. I can’t say that threat sat well with everyone in our group, and although I do understand that it’s PP’s place and they set the rules, the way they were communicated was not the best. We were their guests of course but that issue, coupled with the general feeling we were getting made it a less fun and satisfying tour compared with the others we had done. With the exception of AP, this was my least favourite factory tour. The things we saw were great, but the general feeling during the tour of the factory wasn't so great unfortunately.
So I have some photos, but not many from the shops.
Here are a series of photos showing parts made for the famous PP Calibre 89 pocket watch. The caliber 89 is the most complicated watch in the world. Pictures of the watch itself will follow later.
In the area where these parts were machined, I stopped to talk with one of the machine operators. He was somewhat frustrated since he had made some defective parts and had to start over with them. The process he was working on involved taking a very thin sheet of material and gluing it to a larger and much thicker brass block. The brass block would act as a backing for the machining operation that was done on a CNC milling machine. He set the machine to run before leaving the night before, and it ran its course overnight machining a sheet with at least 100 small parts on it. He said that the glue had not held well enough and the sheet had moved during machining, ruining every single part that had run over the night. I was not allowed to take photos of the damaged parts, nor was I allowed to take photos of the quality data they had posted on the bulletin boards in the shops. They had graphs relating to defect rates during production, and I saw some charts with very high scrap rates - like in the area of 70% for some operations!
Our guide was asked about them and didn't have a lot to say, other than "No pictures of these charts!"
So I guess even the big houses have their problems.
Here are tools made of boxwood that are used to produce the Côte de Genève pattern on movement parts. These tools and the traditional methods that go with them are only used on the most highly complicated watches that PP produces. The “low end” PP watches are given their patterns with disks of abrasive paper like I showed being punched out at the JLC factory. I will give more details on the traditional finishing process in another report.
This picture shows a block that has pockets machined in it to accept movement plates. These blocks are then put into CNC machines where the writing for the plates is milled into the brass movement plates. The block has many pockets for plates, and if you look at the places where there are no plates you can see each pocket has two holes. Those holes are connected through ports inside the block, and all come to a common port at the block’s edge. A vacuum line is hooked to the block to suck the plates down into their pockets while they are being machined. We were not able to photograph the machines, but when they placed the blocks in to be machined they put aluminum foil over all the parts to prevent the chips that come from the machining from marking the surfaces of each movement plate. The cutting tool machined through the foil and engraved the writing on the plate, and the chips from the operation floated in oil on top of the aluminum foil. It was a very interesting process to watch.
I spoke with one of the ladies who worked in this area about the process. She operates the equipment but others do the programming. She does some initial quality control on the pieces, and she gave me a reject plate before we left that room - I think the engraving was simply too deep on this plate.
Note that some of the jewels are already set.
I am quite sure the plate is from a Cal. 315 PP movement that you would find in something like a 5146 Annual Calendar.....like Martyn's!
I found this movement shot of Martyn's, and tried to make my part look the same so took out the colour and rotated it to about the same angle - no doubt it's the bridge from his watch.
So I figure with another 250 or 300 visits to the factory I’ll have my own PP watch!
The pieces then move on to a room where sharp edges are removed from the parts.
This worker was removing burrs from the rotors that are familiar with those who have seen the back of a PP auto.
We then went to a finishing room, where I was not allowed to take any pictures of the machines, but I was able to photograph some of the finished plates.
And if you ever wonder how they determine what perlage “dot” goes where? Well, the size, location, and pattern are all predetermined and presented to the workers on engineering drawings like the one shown in this picture.
This photo shows a gear before and after finishing that I took through a microscope. Note how the grooves by the teeth have been polished for the gear on the right. This is done on a hand loaded but automated machine.
All watches produced by PP get the famous Geneva Seal designation. This system really has nothing to do with accuracy, but more with the finish of the watch. I will show more on this when I write the VC report.
This display shows the process that gears go through as they are manufactured. Starting from stampings, they are progressively finished and then have the shafts added.
We were not allowed to enter any of the workshops where the watch assembly was done, so this is a shot of the perpetual calendar department through the glass…..
As we ended the factory portion of the tour (sorry those are all the photos I was allowed to take!) we went across a walking bridge between two of the buildings.
Looking out from that you could see a building in behind the factory. My understanding is that this building is used to host events, and has been restored recently. However we didn’t enter it on this tour.
We were taken to a conference room where we were shown some of the high end PP watches. It should be noted that all of the "complicated" PP watches are personally inspected by Philippe Stern himself before being shipped. In total, PP produces about 38,000 watches per year.
We started the presentation with the pocket watches, and the first was a minute repeater with perpetual calendar in this photo of the movement.
We then had a look at the PP Star Calibre that has 1,118 parts!
It was crowded to get photos!
The back side has a constellation on the back that moves.....sorry I didn't get a good photo as it was a very dark surface.
It’s an impressive piece for sure.
We were then treated to a viewing of some wrist watches.
The one that really caught my eye was the 5970 in rose gold…..nice watch!
We then broke for lunch, and went to the PP cafeteria, where they had some tables set up in a corner that were just for us – I didn’t take too many pictures at lunch. Here is some of our group.
It was a tasty lunch, starting with a dish of wild mushrooms in cream sauce on puff pasty. Then we had a nice piece of steak. The dessert was a work of art and worthy of a photo!
It was a raspberry dish that was a jellied arrangement, with the addition of whipped cream, and a small mug filled with a very nice concoction. It had a green foam on top that I could not quite put my finger on the taste, and then some cream and raspberries in the lower half. I did eat it despite not being a huge fan of raspberries – I would have preferred strawberries myself!
Close up!
Then we were back on the bus, and headed to downtown Geneva and the PP museum!
Jacqui out front.
When others saw me take that photo, they wanted in on the shots….
We were given a guided tour of the museum specifically for our group. We started off in the PP library, where the Stern family has amassed a collection of 8,000 books on horology dating from as far back as the 1600's.
It should be noted that the museum is actually the personal collection of the Stern family. Some of the pieces on display are on loan, but the vast majority are owned by the family, Certainly the world of horology owes the family a great debt for putting this collection together, and allowing the general public access to these wonderful works of art. I only photographed a small selection of what there was to see at the museum. There were literally thousands of watches there to look at, so without being there a week I could only take some shots of things that caught my eye.
The displays of watches and clocks are in 2 sections, the first being non-Patek pieces, and that's where we started. Here is a watch from 1655, with some incredible enamel work on it.
This is the first watch to be fitted with a second hand! Circa 1745 it was made in London by an English watchmaker.
This watch set in a box has some fantastic artwork on it in enamel.....
The museum was not just for time pieces, but also had many examples of very complex music boxes and automaton. This one in particular was great as it's in the shape of a pistol that when fired, a small bird pops out of the barrel and sings a song before popping back in.
Here is a shot of the mechanism...amazing work for 1815!
I purchased a DVD that has many videos from the museum on it, including a video of the pistol above in operation. The DVD is copy protected so I wasn’t able to capture any of them to post. I am still trying so will add videos if I can get them in a format that I can post.
This next item is an amazing piece of work. It's the Breguet "Sympathique" clock. It was produced in 1795 to 1798, and at the end of the day the owner would put his matching pocket watch in the stand at the top of the clock. The clock was programmed to synchronize the owner's pocket watch with the more accurate clock each night at 3 in the morning. Later versions also wound the watch automatically. An 18th century version of the radio controlled atomic watches......phenomenal!
Here is a photo of one of the pocket watches.
We then moved to a different floor and started our tour of the PP collection.
Being a fan of opals, I took this shot of a watch case that had been carved out of a solid piece of white opal. Nice colouring in this stone, even if the pattern is just a pin fire type.
I only photographed 2 more watches, but both are extraordinary pieces. First is the famous Calibre 89 pocket watch. It is the most complicated watch ever made.
Here is a list of the functions!
And here are some shots of the internals parts they had on display.
It is truly an amazing piece. It has a total of 1,728 parts, and weighs over 1 kg! I believe they have sold for around $6 million US!
But wait, that's not the most expensive watch ever sold.....this one is.
This is the Henry Graves watch, which sold at auction in 1999 for $11 million US. It also is the second most complicated watch ever made, second only to the Calibre 89.
This watch was produced in 1933.
So that was the end of our day with Patek Philippe. It was enjoyable for the most part, and quite exhausting. I can not recommend visiting the PP museum enough. It is a truly outstanding museum housing some of the finest works in horology on the planet. Not just for lovers of PP, but for all those who can appreciate the work that goes into any fine watch.
PP did give us from gifts along with our usual haul of catalogues, and the two most interesting are the lapel pin in sterling silver.....
And this flash drive that has their latest models on it.....
I certainly hope you enjoyed this report, as it took me a few hours sitting in front of the computer to get it done!
Thanks for reading!
Al