Dials for the biggest Watchmakers

5 minutes read
With its 240-strong staff mastering almost every known technique, the Genevan-based company can rise to the most outlandish - and sometimes most expensive - challenges!

Tribune des Arts - n° 329 - March 2005

J.-C. P.


Although key to the brand identity of a watch, the dial is often regarded as an ancillary element while collectors direct all their attention towards the movement. And yet it is of paramount importance in fine watchmaking, giving rise to exceptional watches which comprise dozens of different elements and whose cost price runs to thousands of francs, or indeed tens of thousands if precious stones are incorporated.

However, dial manufacturers are not legion in Switzerland. There are fewer than twenty at most who can be called upon to meet the demands of almost every watch brand and who have to be immensely creative and exceptionally accomplished as a result.

Stern Créations of Geneva is not only one of the most famous dial manufacturies but is also the only one proficient in almost every technique known in this field. And they are numerous, from mother-of-pearl to different enamels through semiprecious stones, wood, feathers, rubber, damask, hand guilloche, tapestry, Chinese lacquer, and so forth. Thus, without exception, the most celebrated watch brands are sourced from Stern Créations, even though the company now belongs to the Richemont group, often regarded as a formidable rival.

Each of its 240 staff members, 160 based in Geneva and 80 at La Chaux de Fonds, is in truth as specialist as they are passionate, whether they engravers, toolmakers, designers, polishers or lathe operators.

The company employs as many women as men in nearly as many different skills, some of whom have been with the firm for over 30 years which allows them to keep pace with technical and artistic developments.

 

Passion is priceless

This explains why Stern Créations offers its customers just under 1,000 prototypes each year, why the company is able to rise to the most outlandish challenges, and why the dials leaving its workshops are worth between 10 francs and 5,000 francs, some even as much as 30,000 francs: they are pave set with diamond baguettes! The marriage between the most astonishing materials (to give just one example: 80 types of mother of pearl are available) and unparalleled know-how combined with state-of-the-art techniques are able to produce genuine masterpieces of miniaturisation.

Indeed, some dials call for more than 100 different operations. Then there are dozens of component parts, some of which are miniscule. A quick look at your watch dial will tell you. Just imagine that each numeral, each marker, each element (for example, the frame of the date window) is totally independent, that it includes two small feet, easily discernible with a good magnifying glass, which are inserted into two microscopic holes of the dial before being “soldered” to the back. A work of sheer precision, especially when you know that if you own a good watch, these almost microscopic markers are bevelled to the hand using diamond tools before being polished in the same way as a mirror.

Most dials are of course less elaborate, their patterns are made with 30-tonne presses rather than by hand, their numerals are “printed” using a tampograph, Chinese lacquer is replaced by synthetic lacquer ... everything as always is a question of price. But at Stern Créations, the same passion goes into a dial costing 10 francs as into a dial requiring hours of labour.

 

An outstanding heritage

During this pré-salon period, the staff at Stern Créations are all too well aware of the work in store for them: their customers are preparing to exhibit nearly 1,000 new models, each with a different dial! Some automatic machines are thus operated round-the-clock to supply sufficient numbers of these miniscule elements which, together, bring out the beauty of a luxury watch.

Established in 1898, Stern Créations has also amassed an outstanding stock of old machines and dials created during the course of its long life. A heritage which its director Richard Le Vaillant has endeavoured to renovate and assemble. A painstaking job undertaken by him in tandem with modernising and rationalising the company which he has successfully steered for several years. These thousands of old dials, added to the almost equally numerous array of current possibilities, provide creators of the different customer watch brands, at a glance, with a very comprehensive range of what has been and what can be done. What's more, in a matter of minutes, thanks to a set of glass plates on which the applied chapters are fixed, they can see all the ideas in their heads materialising before their eyes.

 

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Stern Créations also provides an after-sales service for its dials. Jean Chamoset takes delivery of the items sent to him by the watch brands and analyses them before sorting them into the different departments to refurbish them. DR

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In front of one of the workshops at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Richard Le Vaillant, Chief Executive Officer, and Laurent Pedroletti, Industrial Manager of the La Chaux-de-Fonds site.
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“Tapestry” is a pattern engraved on the dial face which is back in fashion. The “tapestry” workshop at Meyrin is able to satisfy any request under the leadership of Maurice Granier. DR

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Several elements are set on the dials, as Jocelyne Filliettaz is doing. For others, use is made of an inlay composed of mother-of-pearl in different colours incorporating decorative elements with complicated decoupage, such as the word “Love” here. DR

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The old guilloché machines have been restored and are still used for some very fine hand guillochage work. They have, however, been fitted with special magnifiers for precision work, as carried out by Supachai Wattanakanoktham. DR

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In the cutting workshop, miniscule markers are cut, including their microscopic feet, into gold bars. To then separate the markers from the shavings, Eric Junod uses the gold-diggers' technique, replacing the water with pressurised air. DR

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Polishing mother-of-pearl dials, often less than one millimetre thick, is a delicate operation performed by Jorge Lopez. DR

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Eight project managers invent over one thousand new models each year. Like Richard Realini at Meyrin. DR

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On less elaborate dials, the numerals and markers are “printed” using a tampograph; the decoration is transferred using a gelatine pad. A technique requiring a fine touch to achieve flawless precision, and one at which Maria Duarte excels at La Chaux-de- Fonds. DR

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This machine, operated by Jamil Ikladius, produces a “sunray effect” on the dials. DR

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The “Stones and mother-of-pearl” workshop is the responsibility of Gérard Mooser who knows everything about this complicated specialist area. DR

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At Meyrin - as indeed at La Chaux-de-Fonds - a wide array of automatic machines is used to work on the raw material in order, for example, to drill or hollow it. Here, Raphael Castro is making sure that they are in good working order. DR

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The electroplating workshop requires the use of often hazardous baths.  DR

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Computer numerical control machines (CNC) are used to machine certain elements. At Meyrin, they are programmed by Patrick Rey-Millet.DR

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The stamping workshop at La Chaux-de-Fonds makes it possible to achieve, among other things, superb patterns in a single pass. Admittedly under 30-odd tonnes of pressure. José Pinto is clearly less than eager to leave his fingers under the press. DR


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Stone drilling requires sleight of hand and special tools (the drilling of dials encrusted in rubies, for example, requires a change of mesh after each hole!). Claude Denizart is an expert at this.. DR

 

 

 

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