Jaeger-LeCoultre

amanico
[JLC Moderator]
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Let's not forget

I wanted to dedicate this post, the first of many others to come after my visit at the JLC Manufacture, to all these women and men who work there, who live in the shadow of the Artists ( Designers, Master Horologers, etc...) and allow them to create such marvels which feed our Dreams.

Without them, nobody, from the creators to the fans, would see, enjoy and live with the object of our common Passion, these watches.

By respect for them, I didn't take pics representing them at their work.

They have no desire  nor attraction for Glory, but they are pride of what they do, they are passionate, they are friendly, they have the willing to share their opus with those who take the time to visit the place where they work, the Manufacture, a kind of Town into the Town.

They all are magicians, alchimists, who are to transform the more common things in pure Marvels.

I highly recommend those of us who can pay them a visit, to share a bit of our time with them, to see them working.

This is the only way to fully appreciate our friendly and faithful companion, THE watch, OUR watch, but also THEIR watch.

These pictures will allow you to realize how difficult, how incredible is their work.

This is pure Art, pure Surgery, too.

Look at this ribbon of metal:



The machine drills it regularly, under the Human Control.

The outcome is here:



From the Brut metal, the pieces are shaped by the machine, once again, and controled.

They look nice!





The transformation is impressively illustrated on these 2 follwing pictures.

From the big metal bars, you get these microscopic parts:





You have to wash them in a bath of water and small stones whose size depends on the outcome you want to get, then you put them in alcohol.

Some of these components are hardly visible, so you can imagine the difficulty to put them together.

Here, a dirty pic, but to give you an idea, these 2 parts were put side by side at a distance of maybe 1 centimeter.

On your left, the piece before, and on your right, the piece after, called " Dard ", which has to be located at the middle of the basis of the anchor.



It is that small that it took me almost one minute to find it and to make the focuse on it!

So you can imagine the complexity of the task!

Now, the work done on a wheel...

On your left, before...On your right, after:



Once all is checked, cleaned, polished, you can begin to put the blued screws, and the jewels, and then again, things are not simple, as these components are veeeery small:





The processus to get heated blue srews is very complex and precise, too, as the outcome will depend on the temperature and the time you heat them, because the color changes with these factors.

Yes, we don't have to forget that sometimes, the machines are not only helpful for Humans, but were, before being helpful, created by the watchmakers, like this pignon tool:



Or the famous Millionometre, created by Antoine Lecoultre in ...1844!



Let's not forget that behind the machines, there are great people, with an awesome skillness and mastery, who are the genius the DNA of the Brand, TRUE Artists, creating TRUE watches.

Huge thanks for all the amazing work they all do!

Best,

Nicolas This message has been edited by amanico on 2009-10-16 06:31:58 This message has been edited by Dje on 2009-10-21 03:48:43 This message has been edited by amanico on 2009-10-21 07:20:12 This message has been edited by amanico on 2009-10-25 06:44:29