As for the elegant, masculine Calibre event.... it finished past midnight with a
toast to Cartier's new watchmaking direction. This is a brief report about my
first day at the Cartier manufacture, live from a chilly La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Located in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Cartier manufacture is expansive and extremely
capable. Literally an entire watch, save for sapphire crystals, can be made
here. Typically components used are a mixture of outsourced and in-house
production. For instance two thirds of hands come from Universo and Aiguilla
while one third is made at replica
cartier santos
. Beginning with where nearly all Cartier's technical
geniuses reside, a department known as the Think Tank (yes, there is a pun on
Tank). Headed by Carole Forestier, this occupies a floor on one wing. The Think
Tank creates concepts from proposals put forward by the marketing team like: "We
can a skeleton that is different from the rest. " The concept from the Think
Tank is then sent a committee for approval. Once a watch design is approved,
several steps follow, one of which is the creation of plastic models printed by
a three-dimensional printer.
A fully fledged prototyping department,
which has CNC milling and stamping machines and everything else, exists to
create prototypes of watches. Watch movements are also made in La Chaux-de-Fonds
naturally in the movement component fabrication department. But beyond the
production of parts for current movements, components for vintage Cartier
watches are also produced for restoration work. Cartier can and will remake any
part for a vintage Cartier timepiece – this is a remarkable commitment to
customer service. At the time of my visit a balance wheel was being milled.
Another enormous room at the manufacture contains 18 CNC machines dedicated to
making bracelets and discount
Replica Watches UK
. Besides the immense, dangerous looking
machinery the smell of oil and slick floor is evidence that serious work is
taking place.
These bracelet and clasp components are made by machine,
but then finished by hand in several steps. The first step is shown below to
remove the rough edges. Finer polishing is done later. The same applies for
cases, machines first and then careful hand finishing. Cartier makes a third of
its hands in-house. Stamping, polishing, bluing and application of Luminova are
all done in a modest sized room. Below is a shot of the initial polishing of the
raw hands after they are punched from a sheet of steel. Mineral crystals are
also made in-house. Most interesting is a gentleman who shapes the cut crystal
by hand over a flame; the process replica
breitling Aeromarine
the crystal so that it’s soft enough to be
moulded into the required shape. The tortue perpetual calendar uses a curved
mineral crystal for example.
One of the many steps in quality control at
the manufacture is the use of high-speed cameras to record the motion of
chronograph hands. These take several hundred frames per second and record the
flexing of the chronograph hand as it resets. Also done at La Chaux-de-Fonds is
the manufacture of jewellery watches, including the incredible multi-million
Euro sort, as well as enamelling. The photo below shows the high jewellery
workshop on the right and the enamelling workshop, with three enamellers, at
left. This particular vintage Santos is in platinum with a yellow gold snap
back; all Santos of that vintage had gold backs, regardless of case material. It
measures a mere 34. 4 x 24. 7 mm. Inside ticks a small, round LeCoultre cal.
126. The Santos 100 XL is a massive 51 x 41 mm while the medium sized Santos 100
is 44 x 36 mm. Both use the Cartier cal. 076, which is actually an ETA 2671, a
reliable and steadfast movement.