For those in the know, Christophe Claret is a man in a million and his tightly knit and highly skilled organization, which supplies many of the most prestigious Swiss brands with their tourbillon movements, is matchless.
Those in the know wishing to join the ever-expanding tourbillon club in order to try to establish themselves as bona fide watchmakers, usually address themselves to Christophe Claret. However, a request certainly doesn't guarantee that they will be supplied with what many people consider to be the ultimate mechanical movement, for the Christophe Claret workshops, in addition to supplying around 50 tourbillon kits of ébauches for its clients, only produces 200 complete movements of all types a year for its established clientele.
That quantity may appear to some as being very small, but when you consider that it takes a watchmaker a minimum of a month and possibly up to three to assemble certain models from start to finish, you can understand a) why so few are produced and b) why their retail prices are so high.
Establishing his reputation
Horological school, working as a craftsman on complicated watches and then buying, restoring and selling complicated watches was Claret's background before he began to make his own movements. But his real breakthrough was in 1987 when he went to the Basel Fair and obtained his first large order for minute-repeater movements. Two years later, in 1989, Christophe Claret employed several of the most competent watchmakers he could find and formed the Christophe Claret company in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Nine years later, he relocated his workshops to the magnificent maison de maître in Le Locle by which time his prowess in complicated movements had elevated both him and his company into the hierarchy of today's complicated watchmaking domain.
The visit to Le Locle was for the official opening of the new building that houses the latest hi-tech lathes, tooling and electro-erosion machines for manufacturing the complex and intricate components required by Claret's watchmakers. This addition not only enhances Claret's independence, but also it ensures that he has the very best quality, workmanship and, as an additional bonus, a faster production time. Speed, however, is not the primary factor chez Christophe Claret, precision, above all, is the by-word. Every aspect in the art of watchmaking, from the movement designers to the production of a minute part that emerges from the newly installed high-performance lathes, or the assembly of what Claret refers to as his simplest movement - the tourbillon - demands the utmost precision.
Precision is the by-word
Each and every component is scrupulously inspected and hand finished. Bridges, screws, pinions, trains, escapements, are carefully controlled, angles are polished, parts are decorated, nothing less than perfect finds its way into the finished movement.
For many, the ultimate complication is the tourbillon, but Christophe Claret produces movements that go beyond the complexities of a tourbillon, as he says, the company produces "From the great complication to the extremely complicated." The 'Great' being Breguet's 1801 invention, the tourbillon, and the 'extremely complicated' being the minute repeater tourbillon movements, the tourbillon with split-seconds chronograph movements and his 'mysterious watch' which is a tourbillon movement with sapphire bridges and plate. The most complex movement produced in the Christophe Claret workshops to date was a Minute Repeater Tourbillon with a Flyback chronograph comprising 560 components.
Today, with a total of 40 employees, the company produces complicated movements for around fifteen of the most prestigious names in watchmaking. Each movement is designed in the style of the brand and is created by Christophe Claret and his designers with them in mind. "It's not enough to simply create a complicated movement," Christophe Claret explains, "what is imperative is that the Calibre we produce corresponds to the existing watch collection of the brand."
And the future …
One of the last totally independent watch movement manufacturers, Christophe Claret sees the future of his company as rosy. " We were one of the first to go into production of the tourbillon in '96, but they are far from the only complicated movements we produce. We have other projects for movements with or without tourbillons - such as the complex minute repeaters, not to mention some very exclusive and unique pieces - and I can't see the demand for these specialist items diminishing since we create models for connoisseurs and collectors - who are obviously rich. And even if some of the rich go bankrupt, there are always others who will happily replace them. The only other change I envisage is that I anticipate increasing the number of watchmakers in the near future by ten to twenty-nine to meet the demands of our clients. "
Like most vintage clarets, Christophe and his team improve with age.
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