Horological Meandering

Ornatus-Mundi
[Zenith]
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DeWitt: Construction & ‘Méchanique’

The open and light atmosphere continues with the ateliers and workshops. DeWitt is fully equipped to develop, prototype and industrialise any mechanism possible. Ideas (mostly from Mr de Witt) are entrusted to teams of engineers and watchmakers, who have state of the art CAD design technologies at their disposal.





Once the construction is finalised, the crew of the ‘Méchanique’ department takes charge. This team is one of the core assets of the manufacture. It is equipped with an impressive range of machinery, comprising of traditional lathes…





… multi-axis CNC machines…









… and wire erosion equipment.









The electrolyte cutting wire is used in individual thicknesses which, according to task, are between 0.003mm and 0.25mm. It is made either in brass, brass zinc or steel.





The variety of parts manufactured in this department is impressive. From rather substantial levers and bridges...









... to tiny escapement wheels, gears and levers:





DeWitt is capable of machining quite elaborate, three-dimensional shapes.




To demonstrate DeWitt’s technical prowess I was shown the parts of the transmission chain that is used in the Academia Tourbillon Force Constante À Chaine (recognise the part above?).









While such a chain already is a rare and much admired device (and even the author admits its old-world charm), this one goes a distinctive step further…





Have you ever seen this? Every part of the chain, the internal and the external fitting plates carry the ‘DW’ logo – simply stunning attention to the detail!









This little tiny detail I guess exemplifies well I consider the industrial set-up of the DeWitt company so well thought through. They used their financial means to build up the essential capabilities to innovate, yet do not (yet) lock capital with expanded manufacturing equipment.

But it does not stop here. The machines are also quite useful to produce the base disks and decorative elements of the dials:





With this last image, I elegantly pass over to the dial manufacture workshop! Next post please …!