Not all people chase after expensive things. And it’s not because they couldn’t afford it; it’s rather because they simply don’t find it reasonable. And it’s not me saying this, it’s different modern philosophers’ opinions. Some of them even don’t find it equitable to spend thousands on luxury mechanical watches, regardless of their quality standards. And still why are Swiss watches so pricey? Quality? Ok, it might be. But what else? There are plenty of high-quality things, but you don’t have to sell a kidney to afford them.
So, after trying to find some answers on google, this question was still concerning me. And I think it concerns half of the planet, if not more. And since I’m an answers finder by nature, I’ve made myself a gift, organizing a trip to Geneva, to attend the Watch and Wonders event. I wish I could visit Rolex or Patek Philippe factories, but the LeCoultre one was specifically located near the event. Either way, I don’t regret it, as I found a couple of answers which I’d like to share here with you.
All started with Watches and Wonders
Any watch enthusiast would embrace the opportunity to visit this massive event that takes place in Geneva every year. This event gathers the most luxurious watch brands exposing their horological masterpieces. It’s a fairytale for every watch lover. You get drowned in the multitude of horological beauties from Patek Philippe to Cartier, from Rolex to Vacheron Constantin.
Any person having the tiniest interest in horology can have a phenomenal time spent along with journalists, retailers, and obviously, representatives of the biggest watch brands. The atmosphere and the magnitude of this event can hardly be described in words. Apart from the spectacular horological pieces, the event is also about community. I can’t express how passionate the people there are about watches. They have a specific bonding with each other and create new connections with similar enthusiasts.
After two days of physical exhaustion and moral orgasm from the event, I had two more days left to explore the beauties of Switzerland. And, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to visit the Jaeger LeCoultre factory, obviously. By the way, I befriended a couple of watch lovers just like me at the event, so after tasting some Swiss beer together, we went to explore the factory.
The Swiss cold weather made its mark
Switzerland is a mountainous country, as you know. And as we were climbing up the mountainous valleys to the factory, we could feel the temperature decreasing. I thought at that moment that people working in that environment must have been blessed with that fresh air. In fact, the cold Swiss mountainous weather left its mark on the LeCoultre watchmaking history. As it turned out, back in time, farmers from those lands harvested from the soils of the Swiss valleys during summertime. In contrast, they couldn’t do much during winter, because of the low temperatures. So, they switched to watchmaking. This history doesn’t necessarily refer to LeCoultre only. It is the foundation for many Swiss watchmaking houses, in fact.
The first we could see…
Once we got to the factory, the first we could interact with were the very first timepieces the brand ever made, exposed in an archive depo. It’s not a typical depo as you would imagine; it was a cozy museum-like room, soaked in a nineteenth-century atmosphere. In the same room, we spotted several books signed by Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. You can’t imagine the feeling I was experiencing finding myself in a historical center in which the horology histories of different watchmakers meet each other. “Why would LeCoultre keep stuff like that?” I thought. Then I remembered that the famous nickname for this brand is “the watchmakers’ watchmaker”. And I connected the dots. This nickname refers to the huge number of other watchmaking houses LeCoultre made movements for.
After the historical part was over…
We continued to the modern section of the factory. It’s a huge one, I must say. But, I understand it couldn’t be otherwise, considering that this brand is one of the few still making all of its watches’ components in-house. So, you can imagine how much space it requires to house all the manufacturing departments.
And it’s not only the space that astonished me. In fact, I was puzzled to discover the techniques that the brand applies to manufacture its timepieces. I could expect modern ultra-innovative tools and stuff like that. But what I discovered was plenty of instruments helping the manufacturers to assemble watches HANDMADE. I never thought that in the modern era, in which big factories produce almost everything excluding human intervention, there can still exist factories opting for handmade work, providing handcrafted perfection through expertise and special care.
So, here is when I concluded the first reason why Swiss watches are so expensive: there is more handmade work than you could ever imagine.
Of course, the handmade work is sustained by machinery. For example, the factory uses multi-axis CNC machines to mill large pieces of movements. Further on, experts are those who adjust their edges by hand for the right shape. Not to mention what handmade meticulous work manufacturers do with watch decorations, applying perlage or polish. Would you believe me if I say that some of them use a microscope? Well, they do.
Every department with its specific responsibilities
After remaining perplexed while visiting the department for internal watches deals, we went to the handcraft section. People working there weren’t watch manufacturers, they were artists. In an extremely silent room, they were engraving, setting gems, and enameling timepieces with extreme accuracy and concentration. Even though the work seemed meticulous, I can’t describe the calm spirit and the dedicated expression on their faces. All of them are high-skilled professionals and their work provides nothing but satisfaction. That’s what was written in their eyes.
Complications department
Yes, there is one like that and I remained astonished to know the complications I’m used to, mean nothing in comparison to what these guys are inventing there. They create phenomenal caliber constructions, literally. Take, for instance, the Caliber 185 featuring 800 details in it. And it’s not all, as there is another even more complex simple, a Calibre 184. How many components do you think it had? No more and o less than 1050 parts. Surprising, nuh?
More surprising than that is that the brand takes pride in having created about 1,300 unique calibers. Let alone the patents it registered, counting about 430 in-house inventions. This speaks about the watchmaking house as a visionary one, being one step forward from what we have in the industry today. It is an ongoing process of researching and building technologies for future watches that we even can’t imagine.
As if it wasn’t enough…
Guess what… the last step in our journey was a workshop allowing us to assemble a watch case. We were highly intrigued by this offer and couldn’t resist giving it a try. I thought a watch case should have been easy to assemble, but my naivety was quickly brought down the Earth. We got a Reverso watch, better said, case components of a Reverso watch. I can’t say much about the process as we were so focused on it that I just can’t remember what and how we exactly made it. All I remember is that the whole process took about one hour. Was it looking like a decent assembly? No, it looked like a child tried to assemble it.
I was curious to know how much time it takes for an expert to do the job we did. The guiding worker smiled and avoided giving us an answer at first. We insisted but it would have been better not to; because the answer made us feel like idiots (sorry for the language). The answer was “up to 1 minute, and we insist they not hurry in order to avoid potential damage”. We couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Final thoughts
After we left the factory, I think we kept silent for about half an hour digesting all the experience we had just gone through. On one hand, I intuited that the brand must have had a serious factory to produce watches in such quantity and quality. On the other hand, it still surprised me with its magnitude. But I think magnitude wasn’t the main aspect that captivated me. It was the atmosphere soaked in tradition, meticulous care, and phenomenal handmade craftsmanship. The factory has a specific silence in which artistic masterpieces are created and will be created for many years to come.
Returning to the introduction of this article, I would recommend philosophers who don’t find it reasonable to buy an expensive watch to visit any Swiss watchmaking factory. In such a factory, believe me- the entire philosophy changes at 360 degrees.