Horological Meandering

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Fleurier Quality

Rules for obtaining the FQF Quality seal
The "QUALITE FLEURIER" quality label applies to mechanical watches and finished watches, whether or not these form part of an item of jewellery, that are produced in series in Switzerland.

To be awarded the "QUALITE FLEURIER" quality label, a watch must have passed the following stages of control:

1) All operations involved in the design, manufacture, assembly and quality control of the watch head and its components must be carried out in Switzerland, with the exception of raw materials.

2) The watch head must comply with the quality standards issued by the Foundation and defined in the section “Definition of technical and aesthetic criteria”, which can be viewed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, at the Foundation's registered office, and on its website: www.fqf.ch. The case must bear an individual number. When the certification has been carried out on an unfinished model, the finished parts must undergo specific testing, namely, the "Certification process for finished watch heads” at the Laboratoire Dubois SA ;

3) The movement must have passed the Swiss Official Chronometer Control test (hereinafter COSC), be issued with a certificate to confirm this, and must be numbered;

4) Its reliability must be tested by means of a Chronofiable® ageing test carried out at the Dubois SA laboratory in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and confirmed by a certificate issued by the aforementioned company. The costs of this process are borne by the applicant;

5) The watch in its final form must have passed the 24-hour test programme on the Fleuritest simulator, in accordance with the criteria defined in the section “Final control on the Fleuritest simulator”.

Manufactured 100% in Switzerland
Control criteria
The requirements for "Manufactured 100% in Switzerland" concern only the watch head, with the exclusion of the bracelet and clasp.

The watch head is considered as consisting of three parts: the case, the display, and the complete movement with its casing ring.

The origin of the materials can be chosen at will, but they must be processed in Switzerland. The processing of materials into semi-finished advanced products (cut out, stamped or formed movement blanks) and into finished products must be carried out on Swiss soil, with the exception of rolling, drawing, and wire drawing.

The different types of treatment, decoration and finishing that are applied to the components (heat treatments, electroplating, metallisation, PVD, CVD, chamfering, polishing, satin-finishing, circular graining, etc.) must also be carried out in Switzerland, as is the case for jewel-setting.

The concept, the construction and the prototypes of the watch head must be carried out in Switzerland.

The various stages of the assembly after the final transformation of the materials, pre-fitting, fitting, fitting the escapement, adjusting, finishing, assembly, casing and the final controls must be carried out in Switzerland.

2. Derogations
The location in which the design is created is left to the appreciation of the brands. Certain procedures or treatments may not be available in Switzerland. In such cases, the group of experts who handle this subject must be notified. The cutting of precious stones may be carried out in countries other than Switzerland.

3. Control procedure
The applicant must provide the group of experts with a duly completed control protocol, indicating – for the case, the display and the movement – the location in which each operation and manufacturing process for each component took place, including the identify of possible suppliers and subcontractors.

On request by the group of experts, proof must be provided (delivery note, certificate of origin, etc.). The applicant must also be available for possible audits carried out at its manufacturing site and those of its sub-contractors.

Technical & aesthetic criteria
The movement must have a finish of exclusive aesthetic quality

Specifications define the level of finish required for the movement and its decoration. These were discussed and approved by a group of experts that united specialists in research, teaching and production. Compliance with them takes the form of a preliminary examination at the stage when the piece consists of a kit of parts. The general principles are notably:

Materials:
Metal, technical ceramics, precious or avant-garde materials must be used.

Exclusive finishing:
A decoration must necessarily be visible on the maximum thickness of the plate or on the visible part of the bridge, as well as in the main recesses. No visible burrs must be present and the functional zones of the steel parts must be polished. The shaped parts must be bevelled, polished, and where technically possible have lines drawn out with file strokes.

Means:
Manufacturing procedures for decorations may be either mechanical or manual. Operations carried out in bulk only are not tolerated.


The watch must be COSC certified

The movements are submitted to the entire series of tests in accordance with the ISO 3159 norm.

All of the movements submitted for Fleurier Quality certification must have passed the tests.

For copyright reasons the procedure for obtaining the Swiss Official Chronometer COSC certification cannot be reproduced. This may be consulted on the following websites:

www.cosc.swiss - Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres


www.iso.org - ISO 3159:2009

The watch must have passed the Chronofiable test
The Chronofiable test takes the form of various stages, namely:

an ageing cycle,


test cycles designed to measure the pull-and-push forces on the stem,


test cycles designed to measure the forces exerted on the pushbuttons (chronograph controls, correctors, etc.) and the turning bezel,


tests on reactions to magnetic fields,


shock-resistance tests using a heavy pendulum or striker, except for delicate complications,


water resistance test.

The following number of watches (without the bracelet) must be submitted:

For a model produced in a series of 1 to 100 units: 5 units


For a model produced in a series of 101 to 200 units: 10 units


For a model produced in a series more than 201 units: 20 units

The running of the finished watch must pass on the Fleuritest simulator
The watch, in its final form, undergoes a last test on the Fleuritest simulator.

A 24-hour operating test is conducted on the robotics simulator, which recreates the movements of a nycthemeral cycle, alternating between active or extremely active phases and calmer ones. Variations in rate are analysed by means of an artificial vision system using digital cameras.

Fully computer controlled and synchronized by GPS, the machine observes the time as will the future wearer but with greater acuity.

The precision of the watch must fall within the range of 0 to +5 seconds per day.

At the end of the test, if the watch has passed, a certificate is issued for each watch, specifying the individual number on the movement and the case.

The watch is then entitled to the certification "FQF, La Haute Horlogerie certifiée".

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