The second day of my visit to TAG Heuer focused on the four assembly and production areas of TAG Heuer that turn raw materials into a complete, finished watch:

• T-0: Component Fabrication
• T-1: Assembly of the Calibre 1887 movement
• T-2: Watch Assembly
• T-3: Fitment of Bezel and Straps

As with the visit on Day One, TAG Heuer have significantly expanded both in capacity and in capability over the last two years- there is no doubt that TAG Heuer has embarked on an “in-sourcing” programme to bring back many of the stages of watch production in-house, although there will always be a significant number of parts made by specialist suppliers.

In my view this is driven by two factors: the uncertainty of future supply of movements from ETA and the emerging view in the market that integrated watch companies are somehow more “real” than brands that out-source to a series of suppliers.

Of course, those that know their history are aware that the out-source model has always been the foundation of the Swiss watch industry, with a network of specialist firms producing parts that were fed to the watch brand for assembly…but times change and the real benefit to TAG Heuer about developing its own in-house capabilities is the benefit of true independence from the strategies of other firms.

T-0

Cortech, a 100% owned subsidiary of TAG Heuer for almost 20 years, manufactures several key metal components for TAG Heuer at its factory about one-hour away from La Chaux de Fonds. As well as making components for TAG Heuer, it also produces parts for Zenith, Chaumet and others.

For those of your concerned that today’s Swiss watches are assembled in factories in anonymous suburban industrial estates, you might like to see the view across the road from Cortech. I didn’t get the cows in the photo, but they were there.

Until this year, the components produced here for TAG Heuer were limited to cases, case backs and bezels, but Cortech now also manufactures several key components for the Calibre 1887 movement.

TAG Heuer still source some cases from other manufacturers, but there is a trend towards moving greater volumes of production to Cortech, for example the Monaco cases are now made here.

The watch case starts life as a strip of metal (Cortech make cases in Gold, Stainless Steel, Platinum and Titanium) that goes through nine different stamping processes to form the case, each stamping bringing the case closer to its final shape. After each stage, the case is super-heated to 1000 degrees and then cooled to preserve the integrity of the metal.

The second stage involves machining the case into its final form. Here the case detailing is added, such as the holes for pushers and crown, case grinding and holes for the spring bars.

Much of the machining is done by robots that spray cast quantities of oil on the case, both to cool the metal and also to remove the dust and metal filings produced by milling. This is important to note, because the machining for the Calibre 1887 takes an entirely new- and much cleaner- approach.

The watch case is now polished, mounted and hand-checked for quality. In the photo above you see what looks like the pink case of a new Silverstone- no, it’s not a Lady Silverstone, but a fine layer of paint added before the case is polishing.

As the watch is polished, the layer of paint is removed, allowing the polisher to know which area of the watch has already been polished and which has not.

As mentioned above, Cortech also play a key role in the production of components for the Calibre 1887 movement, which will be covered in the separate Calibre 1887 post.

T-1

T-1 is the assembly of the Calibre 1887 movement, which is covered separately in this post.

T-2

T2 involves the assembly of a watch and monitoring for quality control. The T-2 area is also significantly larger than when I was last here in 2008, with several new quality checks installed.

The emphasis is on total quality- in terms of the accuracy of the movement, the absolute alignment of the hands and the cosmetic appearance of the case and glass. There are about 35 people working in the T-2 area, which is a “dust-free” environment to ensure that there is no dust caught in the movement or under the crystal of your new watch.

The top two photos above show a case of Silverstones that are waiting final polishing and inspection and the fitting of the crystal to a Grand Carrera. The bottom photos show a brace of Aquaracers being tested for water resistance (the watches are immersed here under water) and for the accuracy of the movement, with the red pushers starting and stopping the chronograph movement at prescribed intervals.

It’s important to note that the quality checks are not conducted on just a sample of watches from the production run- every single watch is tested and hand polished to make sure that all is as it should be- and from what I could see there was no less attention paid to a quartz Aquaracer than to a Calibre 36 Grand Carrera- every watch gets the same individual attention and inspection.

One of the highlights for me of the T-2 stage was the number of Silverstones sitting in various stages of assembly- there must have been a couple of hundred there- all blue- which is interesting given total production is only 1,860.

T-3:

The final stage involves the engraving of the model number and reference number and the fitting of bracelets/ straps. As any amateur watch collector knows, it’s incredibly easy to scratch the case when fitting a strap or bracelet, so its not surprising how much care is taken to make sure that nothing goes wrong at this last stage.

One of the best aspects of looking through the factory is the chance to see new models- so for those of you wondering whether TAG Heuer plan to put the Monaco 24 into production, you might like this next photo:

The watches are now ready to be packed and sent off to the various retailers.

Just as with my last visit to TAG Heuer, its hard not to be impressed by how “manual” the watch making process is- this is not a factory full of robots pumping out watches 24-hours a day, but rather a factory of skilled workers who really do hand-build, test, check and polish your watch.

My thanks to the team at TAG Heuer for taking the time to show me around the factory- especially to Pauline Havet and Harry Schumacher who led the tour.