tristan.led
15
2 cts
Feb 02, 2021,03:44 AM
There are IMHO 3 ways to design a movement “in house”
The first one and the more in house, is to use a blank page, calculate the gear train teeth count, escapement angles, mainspring power etc.
The second one, is to outsource the hardest things like the escapement angles.
The 3rd one is to use an ebauche/source movement.
I’m going to develop the last one as I have a bit of experience in this and that’s the one often used in independent watchmaking.
I set out to make my own handmade movement in 2016. I first used a blank page. I used what I had at my disposal to figure out my gear train teeth count. Of course the center wheel makes a turn in an hour, and the third wheel a turn in a minute. That gave me a lot of freedom, but when I started to design the escapement, it was clear to me that I had to use one already made in order to achieve the best chronometric performances.
That meant that I had to use the escape wheel, anchor, balance staff from a movement. I chose the 6497. That meant that I couldn’t choose my escape wheel pinion teeth count and modulus (and thus the teeth count and modulus of the third wheel since they’re related), height of parts and their cartesian position.
Same with the barrel, and thus the center wheel’s pinion.
Since the center wheel position is fixed, the escapement position is fixed, it means that if you want a sub second at 6 o’clock, basically you have to use the layout of the base movement.
It isn’t an easy thing to do since you have to make very precise measures, but it’s easier than designing the escapement yourself.
I don’t know about the others, but personally I make my own bridges, wheels, mainplates, screws, pins. Does it make it in house ?
Does it make it “more” in house than a Dufour? Does Dufour makes the wheels, screws, mainplate and bridges himself in his workshop?
With all that said, my guess is that the only truly in-house movements are Seiko, Omega, Rolex etc. The rest is an adaptation of “in-house”.
Dufour, Coyon, Lecomte, even myself use things that are outsourced. To a various degree, sure, but nothing is 100% in-house.
Dare I say that even the greatest, George Daniels outsourced parts from Derek Pratt. It has always been the case, even at Breguet’s time.
Not a lot of people I talked to realize that Dufour’s Simplicity is made via a CNC and outsourced, and is probably also based on an existing movement. And that is alright, the end product is amazing, the finish is incredible and for that, is worth 100.000 USD or more.
My conclusion would be that “in house” is like “swiss made” and “handmade”, a known percentage. And that collectors and in my case creator have to accept and be comfortable with that percentage.
As a watchmaker, and creator, I admire Dornbluth as much as I do Dufour, because they have “handmade” and “in house” percentages far greater than Dufour or Coyon, even though the finish isn’t as “spectaculaire”.