God is in the details

The success of Jaeger-LeCoulture lies in its attention to detail, discovers Amy Fernandes on her visit to manufacture.

What is it about mountains that produces the best watchmakers in the world? What is it about the wide expanse, the isolation that hinges on nothingness that encourage these men to contemplate the making of time as no one else on earth? These are a few questions that assail our minds as we walk into the “manufacture” of Jaeger-LeCoultre after a 45-minute drive from Geneva. The road dipped and peaked, plunged, climbed and swirled before bringing us to a stop 1,000 metres high in the Vallée de Joux.

We’re just about to congratulate ourselves on the originality of our questions when Simone Prevalet, designated to show us around the factory, informs us that she’s constantly being asked these questions by visitors.

We’re also mildly disappointed to find a smart concrete and cement structure sprawled out in the lap of the Alps. Surely it would be more seeming to have at least a chalet, even an old abandoned one would do, with elf-like figures passing off as master watchmakers? In a minute we’ve acclimatised ourselves enough to remember that time makers move with the times in the very least, and so would the owners of Jaeger-LeCoultre.

If you need to understand the size of the factory, you must first understand that this is one of the few companies in Switzerland that still produces its own movements, cases, dials and hands. Almost every component that goes into its watch is manufactured here and more importantly hand-finished. You must also understand that, this being the case, the manufacture produces only a few thousand watches a year. Put the two bits of information together and you have a pretty good idea of how big the space is. Three comfortable mansions from which come the most coveted watches.

Inside, understandably, there is enough security to compete with Fort Knox. Doors click and let you in and shut you in firmly. Escalators and different wings and separate floors are armed with entry codes that the Matrix would love to crack.

It is 10.30 am, and by Indian standards life in the office should just about be stirring. Not here. Work begins at 7 am until 12 pm and is resumed again after an hour until 4 pm. And what do watchmakers do in the valley after 4 pm? Simone looks at us like we’re remedial students. “There’s a lot to do here,” she says, “On holidays they go fishing, skiing, motor cross biking.” (The picture of a man of detail flying on a bike somewhat jars.) They also go hunting for morels. Some of them know the secret places where these grow and there is much pleasure in the hunt. Well, there’s certainly no party-hopping nightlife here.

We are introduced to Nicholas and Sophie, enamellers and engravers, artists of the watch world, who are busy at their work. They are looking through the microscope and producing some fine pieces of art on a dial.

For the impact to hit you, look at your watch and determine the size of the dial. The biggest will be the size of a Monaco biscuit. Now imagine on that dial a perfect reproduction of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, or Botticelli’s Venus. Even your own portrait, if you so wish. Pictures are minimalised 10 times from the original and after each layer of colour the piece is fired to the exact degree of heat for it to keep. The slightest variation of heat and the colour will change. To an artist this is not acceptable.

Repeated trials and errors, not to mention enormous talent, have made Nicholas and Sophie masters of their craft. Another room showcases the famous 101. Calibre 101 is a landmark movement in the history of time manufacture. In 1929 it became the smallest mechanical movement ever created. It remains so today. Calibre 101 comprises 98 parts and weighs just under a gram, its dimensions being 14 x 4.8 x 3.4 mm. Its minusculity naturally encourages the movement to be set into jewellery watches and it was only fitting that Queen Elizabeth wore it at her coronation. It has been set with the Joaillerie Riviere 101, where a stream of diamonds adorns this horological feat. It takes about a few months to produce one such movement and the factory produces about 50 pieces a year. The job, we are told, is no more strenuous. The master craftsmen working on the 101 are now doing it more by instinct than formula. This, we are told, is a piece of miracle too, which is why rare timepieces such as these are considered emotional products of a watchmaker.

The manufacture employs 900 people and 200 watchmakers who bring forth 44 different movements totally. It is difficult to admire a timepiece if it does not please the eye. Art is as much part of the craft of watchmaking as Sophie and Nicole showed us. There are others to contribute to great art in a beautiful watch. Like the gem setters, who sit next to a tiny glistening pile of diamonds, emeralds and rubies, which would together finance a tiny industry. Each of these stones is picked with a pincer and placed just so, to form an exquisite pattern on the bezel or the crown or dial. Again, to observe the marvel, you have to peep into the microscope and realise that if it weren’t for such pained labour of creative talent, a firm hand and a discerning eye, a watch would remain just a time-telling device, not a coveted piece of art and jewellery.

Creativity does not end here. A part of luxury watchmaking is to decorate the base of the calibre and the movement. What would be a mere disc in most of our watches is a decorated piece in a Jaeger-LeCoultre. Each piece is done by hand with precision instruments, but with the eye of an artist. Further ahead, a woman is testing a dial under controlled atmosphere to ensure that the gleam and the dazzle never leave the surface whether you’re in Alaska or the Amazon.

No timepiece is complete without the production details. We’re taken into a room which should really be hiring ants to do its work. The pieces we’re dealing with are components that go into making a watch. 500 such pieces will fit neatly into half a thimble. One sneeze and you’ve probably ruined the future of about 50 watches.

To give you a better idea of the mind boggling detailing that comprises a JLC, consider this: it takes 130 operations to assemble just the anchor of the watch! Now think of the rest of the watch - the dials, the hands, the cases, and you know why people all over the world are willing to give an arm and a leg to own a Jaeger-LeCoultre.