Angular Momentum: Inside Martin Pauli's Workshop

A visit to Angular Momentum - Manu Propria  by Don Corson, May 2012

Seeing the inventiveness and production of Angular Momentum - Manu Propria it is hard to believe that this really is a one man shop... all the work of Mr. Martin Pauli.  As the name says, the work of his own hands.  We will take a look at his shop, some of the different crafts that Martin uses and a selection of his finished watches.  I think you will be just as amazed at everything that Martin does as I am.  Note that Martin uses NOS movements for his watches, of which he has a big stock.  The movements are mostly from Schild and Fontainmelon, in the days before ETA bought up all the movement manufacturers.

The Workshop
The Angular Momentum - Manu Propria workshop is on one floor of this building in Itingen near Bern, the Pulverfabrik, originally built as a gun powder factory. Built into the side of a hill the means of entry to the factory is a cable car.

From the open cable car we can look right into the shop, fourth floor left.

As one would imagine in a shop where they do everything themselves Martin’s shop is well equipped.  And note that there are no signs of CNC anywhere.  Each case made is unique.

The Schaublin 102 lathe on which all of Martin’s steel cases are turned by hand.

The milling machine from Aciera


A circular saw for cutting metal bar stock.


Cabinets full of tools

A press for stamping

Earlier much jewelry was made by stamping.  In this way thin forms could be formed which made stable structures while using relatively little gold.

Some stamps for making jewelry.  Martin purchased this whole stock of tools when a jeweler went out of business.

Steel bar stock.

A drawer full of steel stock cut to length in preparation for making cases.


An old roll press.

One of the decorative techniques in which Martin produces a lot of work is the Japanese art of Urushi lacquer.  Here we see Martin opening his Urushi drying cabinet.  Urushi needs very exact temperature and humidity to harden properly.  These conditions are maintained in the drying cabinets.

Series of Urushi work in progress in the hardening cabinet.

Japanese Urushi is harvested from tree resins and is a very aggressive material.  If you get it on your skin and don’t wash it off quickly it leaves painful burns.

Martin has all kinds of lacquers and all the other accessories necessary for Urushi work.  A single dial can need up to 60 layers of lacquer, each one needing to dry before the next step can be done.


At any one time Martin has a whole series of dials in work, each one different.

Here we see the watchmaking bench.  Martin does a complete service of all the movements he uses before they leave his shop.  The movements are all NOS, new old stock, and mostly made in the ‘60s and ‘70s of the last century.  As such, although they are new, they do really need some TLC, cleaning and oiling to get back up to speed again.

Martin also does some restoration and repairs.

For regulation a nice old Vibrograph, still working perfectly.  The tubes are all still available if necessary.


A good old school movement cleaning machine.

To continue with part 2 click here

This message has been edited by DonCorson on 2012-05-20 10:26:29