Independents

AndrewD
[HoMe Moderator]
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Impossible to be truly independent

It is next to impossible to be truly independent. Even speaking with AHCI candidate Eva Leube, who works from a small room in her house, she commented on how ‘dependent’ she is on suppliers of raw materials. There are some things, such as crystals, that she cannot make herself and these manufactures charge more for unique components or small production runs.

Many of the independents started off producing their own watches one at a time, but subsequently added watchmakers to help them. Do you think Kari or PSM or even FPJ assemble all their watches? Of course not. As to how much day-to-day, hands-on, involvement they have, I think that varies a lot. And that is the key for me. Once the company gets so large that the ‘stamp’ of the original independent watchmaker is diluted, then they become a manufacture in my eyes.

Now that ‘stamp’ is a bit hard to define. I would expect Kari and PD to closely examine every single piece that another watchmaker worked on in their Atelier – much like an Executive Chef would tweak flavours or the appearance of a dish before it is served to a customer.

But some of the Independents are outgrowing this as well. I don’t believe or expect PSM or FPJ to handle every watch, but I do expect their ideas and designs to be apparent in their products, and that they have done all the trouble-shooting required to deliver a watch to market.

I think F.P.Journe is an interesting example here, whether you like his watches or not. He is clearly an AHCI member, and the company remains independently owned, but we post Journe topics on HoMe and consider him a small mainstream Manufacture of 700-900 pieces annually. I agree with this, but it’s a fine line and François-Paul, the man, still manages to put his design ‘stamp’ on each watch, even if 25 watchmakers build the pieces.

The other extreme, where the name on the watch is just a brand, is easy to spot as well. There are reasons for this, such as the watchmaker not being involved in all the products (Franck Muller), the watchmaker retiring (Gerald Genta), or even dying (Breguet and many other large Swiss Manufactures). And there is a lot of grey in the middle.

And finally, we seem to value independence more than we used to. I am quite happy that PD sources his cases and dials form the best manufactures, and inspects all of them for the level of quality he desires. This leaves him to work on what he does best - the finishing and movement design. I am also reminded of Seth Brundle, the brilliant scientist in Dave Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly. Brundle ousourced all the components of  his matter transfer machine to specialists manufactures. In fact he didn't really understand the details of each component, but he brought them all together into a functioning machine that no one had ever seen the likes of. Sound familiar?

Very interesting discussion, Andy, and as you mention, all the perspectives are correct, particularly when taken at a personal level.

Regards

Andrew