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Parmigiani Fleurier is now master of the watch’s strategic heart

September 2005



Parmigiani Fleurier has just announced that, starting from now, the brand will manufacture all the component parts of its watches, including the balance.

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When in 1996, the rich and powerful Sandoz Family Foundation (today run by Pierre Landolt) decided to diversify into watchmaking, the goal was not merely to create a brand, in this case Parmigiani Fleurier in collaboration with Michel Parmigiani, but they also wanted to constitute a veritable watch pole, one that would be strong, independent and capable of gradually mastering all of the operations necessary to produce mechanical watches in the haut de gamme segment.
It was in this spirit, that the Foundation acquired, step-by-step, three entities: Affolter, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, specializing in cases; ‘atokalpa’, in Alle in the Jura, a specialist in micromechanics; and Elwin, in Moutier, specializing in precision lathing equipment. These three highly competent firms were integrated into a group called Vaucher Manufacture, located in Fleurier, which already had the ability and savoir-faire of carrying out all the other watchmaking operations. Starting in January, 2003, this true artisanal-industrial pole, as the managers like to call it, brings together all the facets of the art of timekeeping - all, however, except one, which is to master the creation of the heart of the watch, or in other words, the escapement and the regulating organ.

An industrial ‘exploit’
Today, even this has been accomplished. The managers of Vaucher Manufacture are more than just a little proud to present their latest ‘industrial exploit’ – the capacity of producing, on an industrial-scale, their own regulating organ, composed of the balance, the balance spring, and the lever escapment.
In their opinion, this is a very highly strategic accomplishment because it gives them absolute control over their provisions and over the continuous quality of their production. In addition, it allows Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier to envision even more new developments. “We are no longer amateurs,” explains Pierre Landolt, speaking for the Sandoz Family Foundation. “With five entirely new calibres, which we have made over the last few years, and with our various models, as well as our ability to make the escapement and regulating organ, we have become determined and full players in the arena of haute horlogerie. We can now take on different challenges in other aspects of watchmaking. We can now go much farther.”

100 million francs invested
We must not make the mistake of believing, however, that the road leading up to this recent achievement was easy or simple. First of all, it meant a huge financial investment (a ‘minimum’ of 100 million Swiss francs were devoted to creating this watch pole and its various development projects). “And the road has been long,” says Emmanuel Vuille, who heads up Manufacture Vaucher Fleurier. “The first discussions were started already in 1996. In 2000, we acquired various firms, and then in 2001, we created a research unit composed of some twenty spec-ialists, both in-house and on a contract basis to begin working on the development of the assortment and the balance. In 2002, we started designing the necessary industrial equipment, and even creating new machines, which led to the realization of our first working prototypes. In 2003, we took delivery of the first shipment of metal for casting balance springs (it came in ingots), which was produced according to our specifications. We then defined our working ranges, and in 2004, we produced the pre-series. And now, in June of 2005, we announce our first industrial series. Over time, we feel that we will be able to produce 50,000 pieces of our new oscillator per year. This is, of course, intended only for the haute horlogerie market.”

The AK 215 oscillator
The aesthetic design of the new AK 215 oscillator follows the purest watchmaking traditions, as much in the escapement wheel and balance, as in the very rounded form of the lever, or the care taken in chamfering its angles. On the other hand, the technical design is ex-tremely modern, and also limits the loss of energy as much as possible, in order to have maximum efficiency.
From a technical point of view, the angle of the lift of the balance has been optimized. The entry and exit levers of the pallets have each been designed differently in order to make the energy, which is transmitted at the entry and exit points, more uniform. (A ruby is mounted on the entry pallet; a sapphire on the exit palett.) Various modifications contributed to optimizing this efficiency, including revisiting the teeth of the escape wheel, and improving the surface of the escape wheel, thanks to a special alloy that reduces magnetic field perturbations (as in the pallet arm).
For the balance, the company chose an annular balance with four arms, without screws. The result, according to studies, is a better friction coefficient in air. Yet, the main difficulty was in being able to construct the balance spring itself. The invariable nature and elasticity of the balance spring was obtained by using a specific alloy that had been under study for a long time. Parmigiani Fleurier is able, therefore, to specify its own casting material (from a German firm).


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The escapment wheel, the lever, the table-roller. The lever.

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Escapment and regulating organs.


Visiting ‘atokalpa’
A visit to the ‘atokalpa’ centre let us see in situ the level and the extreme precision of the operations involved in making the oscillator. The bank of machines – most specifically designed and built for this purpose – the sterile rooms, and drastic quality control are most impressive. The grinding of the escape wheels (with twenty teeth) is carried out in one operation on a CNC five-station machine. “In terms of precision,” explains the firm’s technical director, “we are at the limit of what is possible, in other words, dimensions of less than one micron (-0.001 mm). A special room has been set up, which is dedicated to metrology. It is ultra modern, and allows us to verify all the dimensions in an economic and profitable manner. It is here that the quality and precision of milling and rounding off of the pallets are controlled, and the dimensions of the balance are checked.”
An operation that is as minuscule as it is precise, and even in its own way spectacular when you see it through a binocular magnifier, is the positioning of the levers of the pallets. But the crowning achievement is the balance spring. Starting with a rough wire with a diameter of 0.60 mm, it goes through successive stretching stages to gradually reach a diameter of 0.07 mm. Then, it is flattened to obtain a wire measuring 0.0315 mm in height by 0.1395 mm in width. It is now cut into lengths of 155.35 mm. By fours, these sections are coiled in a small mould that is then heated in an oven, which causes the springs to maintain their spiral shape. They are then separated from each other and the four balance springs, four ‘hearts’ of the watch, are ready to begin beating. Next, the collet must be fixed to the balance staff, the exterior curve flattened, and the spring attached to the balance for its final adjustment.


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The balance spring – Developement of the balance spring – The escapment wheel – Workshop of the atokalpa manufacture specializing in pallets and levers.

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Assembly of the Bugatti movement – Assembly workshop at the P.F. manufacture – Case manufacturing – Research & developpement department – Design department at the P.F. manufacture.


Importance of the human touch
“Besides the technical independence we have acquired,” says Michel Parmigiani, “it is the search for absolute quality and design that has guided us. We are going to continue to use the assortments from our supplier (Nivarox), but we cannot expect the same consistency, but that is normal for an enterprise that manufactures hundreds of thousands of parts, in comparison to an artisanal-industrial operation like ourselves.”
The long road that has led to this independence has also rid the management teams at Parmigiani Fleurier and Vaucher Manufacture of any complexes. “We have demystified certain production processes that seemed to be out of reach when we started,” explains Emmanuel Vuille. “But, in our opinion, what is fundamental today is that this tool is a platform for developing new products, new methods, new processes. We are free in our vision of the future,” he affirms, adding in conclusion that “This whole adventure has been made possible because of the teams we put together, because of the people, and their amazing skills. I might mention Sébastien Jeanneret, Project Chief, André Droz, from ‘atokalpa’, Yvan Tièche, responsible for the balance spring development, and Roland Dubois, Head of Team Training. This has been a story of demonstrating that a spiral is a piece of metal, but then not only…


Source: August - September 2005 Issue

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