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My visit of the Blancpain Manufacture (Le Brassus)
Me and my 11 friends were lucky to visit the Blancpain Manufacture in Le Brassus (Vallé de Joux, Switzerland)
The 2 hours visit started with chamfering, decorations, cotes de Genève and so on.
Cotes de Genève are made pieces by pieces on this machine
Then presentation of Tourbillon and Carrousel (both of them in house)
Both of them together in the same caliber
Then demonstration and explanation of the Repetition Minute
Some pictures of "unique pieces" Repetition Minute erotic are presented. Blancpain are specialized since 1993. No pictures allowed. Scenery, location, movements of the automata are customer's imagination. The "project" is submited to Blancpain for their approval.
Examples from the internet
Finally the engraving workshop
Many thanks to Blancpain for letting us visit the manufacture.
I have been there - it's a wonderful place.
But naturally everybody visiting the "workshop" understands that it's just a showroom. Watches are manufactured elsewhere.
Best, Kari
Not quite correct
Blancpain has two workshops in the Vallee de Joux. In this photo report, the visit is to the complicated workshop in Le Brassus. Yes, it may be visually impressive, but it is far more than a showplace. The complicated pieces are in fact made in this workshop and the difficult metier d'art of engraving is done in this shop. Note: unlike almost all other brands that offer engraving, Blancpain does its engraving in-house.
The much much larger workshop is 5 minutes away in Le Sentier. Here is where all the other watches are made and where the service facility is found.
Keep in mind that Blancpain is a 100% manufacture. This means that 100% of the movements it uses in its watches are in-house and are produced either in Le Brassus or Le Sentier. Not only is it a 100% manufacture, but it produces in house the full range of complications: chronographs, split seconds, annual calendar, perpetual calendars, tourbillons, carrousels, repeaters, alarm watches, dual time zones plus combinations of these. There are precious few brands who can make a similar claim (and that includes some very famous prestige brands found in Geneva, Vallee de Joux, and elsewhere).
I visited just today Blancpain Boutique in New Bond Street
And we by accident discussed also about "The Farm".
Let's put it as follows: Each of us have the freedom to believe anything. I have visited The Farm and because of my past profession, I have visited hundreds of industrial companies in very many countries.
The gentleman in the Boutique called also The Farm as a Showroom.
Kind regards,
Kari
PS. Don't understand me wrong: I'm a fan of Blancpain.
The Farm (T1,T2)
Blancpain produce ~25'000 watches a year. High end pieces, complications are assembled in "The Farm".
50 persons work in the Farm. In french we called these processes T1, T2.
T0 is the part manufacturing (CNC, stamping machines, raw materials). T0 is in Le Sentier
There is much more in Sentier
The Le Brassus "farm" is where complicated pieces and the engraving metier d'art are done. Interestingly, the "farm" building is actual an old mill, which has housed watchmaking since 1860 and was the workshop of Louis-Elysee Piguet who found Piguet which is now Manufacture Blancpain. One more historical tidbit. Many people overlook the fact that the Geneva watch houses depended upon the watchmakers in the Vallee de Joux to construct their complicated pieces. The very famous Graves complication sold under the name Patek Philippe was actually made by Piguet! Thus this famous watch was really a Blancpain.
But I digress.
Sentier is where the cnc machines etc are located. But there is much more there. The less complicated pieces are finished and assembled there as well. Also after sales service is in Sentier. Finally, there is an enormous team of movement designers there.
The combined staff in Le Brassus and Le Sentier for Blancpain is more than 800 persons.
Visitors are usually welcomed in Le Brassus rather than Le Sentier because the workshop there has a nice visitor conference room and it is easier to get around. The Le Sentier building is very complicated to navigate.
Jeff
interesting information
I find these types of topics very interesting because I doubt I will ever get a chance to see it for myself. Plus, knowing some of the details makes me feel closer to the brand. I do have a question.
Regarding the comment about the Patek movement really being a Blancpain, was that a genuine comment or more of a joke? If I understood the story, a third company (Piguet) worked out of a building that is now owned and operated by Blancpain. Is that correct or is there more to it then that?
Thank you!
Tom
Frédéric Piguet becomes "Manufacture Blancpain"
Frédéric Piguet becomes "Manufacture Blancpain"
Blancpain history
Jeff *must* have said this in joking... (some Piguet-ish backgound)
Piguet was a very common name in the french speaking part of Switzerland, and still is today.
Furthermore, the old Piguet, any of the famous names, had nothing to do with the Blancpain watchmakers who resided in Villeret, close to La-Chaud-de-Fonts, some 120km away from Le Brassus and surrounding villages in the Vallée du Joux, where many famous Piguets are known.
The 2013 book "A Grand Complication: The Race to Build the World's Most Legendary Watch." written by Stacy Perlman describes in detail the many 'Piguet' contributors to the Graves watch. Here is a transcript of p. 184 (names in bold, emphasised by yours truly):
"… Remarkably, given the five centuries that preceded this undertaking, outside of patent design, the construction of complicated movements had never been enshrined in a manual. Traditionally, watchmakers worked from memory, passing on their craft and wisdom to their apprentices.[…]Patek Philippe assembled the finest watchmakers in Switzerland to produce the Graves Supercomplication, nearly all members of the country’s most important horological families. the endeavour recalled a time when Europe’s kings called to their court expert scientists and specialist to craft instruments that defined an era. Le Fils de Victorin Piguet in Le Sentier, founded the the late nineteenth century, specialising in the production of complicated watches, blank movements, and dial trains, headed up a great deal of craftsmanship and manufacture. Michel Piguet of Le Brassus designed the grande inner mechanism, and Henri Daniel Piguet built the hand-setting mechanism. The case, built with a depth to accommodate the highly complex movement, was the work of Luc Rochat of L’Abbaye.Jean Piguet, chief technician on the project, was kept awake at night attempting to the extreme difficulty posed by the setting mechanism. Three pairs of hands - for the mean time, sidereal time, and the alarm - all shared the same winding crown. When, during one of his sleepless nights, Piguet hit upon the solution, the jumped from his bed and immediately wrote it down, terrified that he might forget the answer by morning. His solution: a double winding method - pushing the crown forward wound up the striking method, and turning it backward wound up the watch. Pushing on the left of the pendant set the alarm. Pulling the cowrie out set the mean and sidereal time function…"
As I am currently moving house I do not have all my documentation ready at hand. But it can be said the following:
The closest link between the Piguet watchmakers involved in the Graves watch and the (now merged with Blancpain) Frédéric Piguet ebauche company could be seen in Henri Daniel Piguet, who was a brother to F. Piguet's founder Louis Elysée Piguet. On the other hand, Henri Daniel Piguet was married to a Audemars daughter (from the watch manufacturer) and had a stake in that company. Does this make the Graves watch now also an Audemars Piguet?
So, using Jeff's logic above, one could also rightfully say that it is an in-house movement, as the chief technician was a Patek employee. ;-) Or, that the Breguet No 4377 was a Blancpain (or Audemars Piguet, if you like ;-)) as well, as for example the same Henri Daniel Piguet who contributed to the Graves watch also contributed to completing this watch.
In other words, the landscape than as well as the family genealogies were complicated - just as the watches. Current definitions of in-house vs. outsourced face difficulties to explain the topology of the then watchmaking world.
So, clearly Jeff made an ironical statement but it needs some knowledge to decipher it!
Cheers,
Magnus