Really rather like asking the ‘how long is a piece of string’ question, it varies. But you should know that when you purchase a high-end watch you really are paying for time.
Hours of expert labour.
Its what really separates the high end watch from the mainstream; not just the materials used but how it is all constructed and how well it works.
That said, you cannot ask the question without answering in several ways - how long does it take to assemble a watch? and now long does it take to design one? Two very different answers.
Rolex, for example, are very famous for saying their watches take over a year to make. Given that they also claim to make 9000 watches a year, I think they are joining both questions together for their answer. The design process, the milling process and the automated process. Did you know;they use a particular stainless steel (904L stainless steel) that is renown for being difficult to machine, and is a lot more expensive - simply because they believe it looks so much better, but takes longer to work with.
All top Swiss watches claim to take 12/14 months minimum to make. Every single watch, from every top brand, is given hands on personal attention by a trained technician. And precision micro-mechanical engineering - sometimes scanning to forty thousand times magnification!
Breitling have over 2000 drawings just to create a movement design - you can imagine this is not done overnight! Once a model has been designed it spends a year of tests in Breitlings lab. After that they turn 346 'really tiny' parts into pre assembled 71 ‘only small’ parts. and the watch begins to take shape.
Hublot tell us that each of their different movements takes over ten people to design and develop each one. The Hublot Unico Flyback movement took a total of two years to design, never mind build.
Of course all airtight and waterproof parts must be tested many times, on each watch, to make sure they are indeed faultless.
Virtually every watch company agrees the very basic assembling of movements takes between ten hours and two weeks. And thats just the movement; not the dial, the bezel, the case, the strap, the time tests, the water tests….
So you can see, you are buying something very, very special, each and every watch is result of hours of intense labour, design and passion.
How long to make a luxury watch?
Really rather like asking the ‘how long is a piece of string’ question, it varies. But you should know that when you purchase a high-end watch you really are paying for time.
Hours of expert labour.
Its what really separates the high end watch from the mainstream; not just the materials used but how it is all constructed and how well it works.
That said, you cannot ask the question without answering in several ways - how long does it take to assemble a watch? and now long does it take to design one? Two very different answers.
Rolex, for example, are very famous for saying their watches take over a year to make. Given that they also claim to make 9000 watches a year, I think they are joining both questions together for their answer. The design process, the milling process and the automated process. Did you know;they use a particular stainless steel (904L stainless steel) that is renown for being difficult to machine, and is a lot more expensive - simply because they believe it looks so much better, but takes longer to work with.
All top Swiss watches claim to take 12/14 months minimum to make. Every single watch, from every top brand, is given hands on personal attention by a trained technician. And precision micro-mechanical engineering - sometimes scanning to forty thousand times magnification!
Breitling have over 2000 drawings just to create a movement design - you can imagine this is not done overnight! Once a model has been designed it spends a year of tests in Breitlings lab. After that they turn 346 'really tiny' parts into pre assembled 71 ‘only small’ parts. and the watch begins to take shape.
Hublot tell us that each of their different movements takes over ten people to design and develop each one. The Hublot Unico Flyback movement took a total of two years to design, never mind build.
Of course all airtight and waterproof parts must be tested many times, on each watch, to make sure they are indeed faultless.
Virtually every watch company agrees the very basic assembling of movements takes between ten hours and two weeks. And thats just the movement; not the dial, the bezel, the case, the strap, the time tests, the water tests….
So you can see, you are buying something very, very special, each and every watch is result of hours of intense labour, design and passion.