O n a cold Geneva morning, half past six to be precise, we left the city for a two-hour drive through the snow-covered Swiss countryside to visit the town of Villeret. This picturesque town of 1,000 people is one of the three major watchmaking centres of the country and has been home to the industry since the 17th century. I was here to visit one of the oldest manufacturers in the Jura valley, a company that has been continuously in business since 1858 — I am talking about the Minerva watch manufacturer, a leader in precision timing. Its stopwatches and chronographs made it the official timekeepers of the 1936 Winter Olympics and was also the choice of militaries of both the sides in World War II. Minerva is now a part of Montblanc, which uses 160-year-old know-how and expertise to produce timepieces that cost anywhere between ₹ 25 lakh and ₹ 2 crore.

Our tour began in the penthouse of the manufacturer, a modern glass structure that holds an exhibition of Minerva. There is a small library filled with oversized hand-written ledgers that have production and accounting records in perfect condition dating all the way back to the very first watch sold by the company. It’s a dream come true for a horologist or an archivist. After all, these records include the names of some of the biggest names in the watchmaking industry.

In one corner of the hall is a tall wooden cabinet that contains thousands of unused components, calibre components to enamelled dials and the tools to make them. It looks like a compact museum in itself.

Handcrafted

Enter the workshops and it seems that we have stepped back 160 years in time. Sure there are the modern CAD and CNC machines but they share space with large stamping machines and vertical drills. Minerva is one of the few manufacturers in the industry that can make every piece that goes into its moments. Everything except for the dials, straps, cases, and hands is done in-house. The factory’s 40 current employees currently produce close to 250 limited edition timepieces every year.

It is a matter of pride for the manufacturers that this factory even makes its own hairsprings. An extremely time-consuming and specialised craft, which is also interesting to witness. Here, a machine takes a raw wire (its composition and alloy is a top secret) and passes it to and fro through diamond cones that compress and stretch the wire by 15 per cent in every trip. Eventually, the wire becomes thinner than a strand of human hair (it is so strong that it can hold up to 50kg) when it is cut and shaped into the final spring.

Attention to detail

The attention to details that goes into manufacturing each component of a timepiece is astounding for the layman. Something as simple as making a single screw hole on a base plate takes hours. Certain parts are cut and polished in angles that no machine can. Not only are they decorative, but also proof that this was completely made by hand. The craftsmanship is visible in the complications workshop. Watchmaking is a painstaking job, and a skilled watchmaker may be found hand-polishing the bridge for one of the ExoTourbillons for days on end. It could take him a week to polish a part that is no more than 20mm long. This is followed by the assembly of the final movement which can take even up to six weeks depending on the complexity. It is a humbling experience to witness the massive amount of work that goes behind what is a relatively small device. It is quite an experience to see a horological masterpiece come to life from a simple base plate. While the genesis of the next watch will be as a CAD design, its finishing will still be done by hand using a polishing stick made from the wooden stem of the yellow gentian, a plant that grows all over the surrounding Jura mountains. It’s a delight to see how modern technology complements tradition here in Villeret.

Dhiram Shah is the Mumbai-based editor of LuxuryLaunches.com

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