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PIAGET: PuristS On Tour 2008 Part 2

PuristS On Tour (POT) 2008  Part 2:

PIAGET Manufacture La Côte-aux-Fées

Piaget has been one of the most important Swiss makers of ébauches or movement components for more than 130 years.  Their "unknown" clients included Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Cartier, Ebel, Longines, Omega, Rolex, Ulysse Nardin, Vacheron & Constantin, Vulcain, Wittnauer and Zenith.  Some clients still cannot be identified in public.

In 1874, Georges Édouard Piaget founded the movement workshop on his family farm, at the age of 19 years, and devoted himself to perfecting the lever escapement to new levels of thinness.  His credo was “Always do better than necessary” and within a few decades, Piaget was compelled by success to build new workshops in the Swiss Jura town of La Côte-aux-Fées.

In 1943, Gérald and Valentin Piaget (grandsons of the founder) registered the Piaget brand name and the old workshop began making watches signed and sold as Piaget watches.  In 1945, again Piaget was compelled by success to build a new Manufacture in La Côte-aux-Fées.  The cal.9P hand-wind (1.35mm) ultra-thin movement and cal.12P automatic (2.3mm) World’s thinnest self-winding movement established Piaget as ultra-thin watch specialists.  In 1976, Piaget produced the cal. 7P, the smallest quartz movement of its generation.

Previously in Part 1 of this PuristS On Tour (POT) 2008 Report, we had spent an evening of revelry click here

Dawn over Lake Geneva (Lac Leman)

I was so excited that I did not even eat breakfast (gasp!); was the Wine Food and other Epicurean Delights (WFED) moderator afflicted by a maladie?

I've been to quite a few watch factories before but Piaget is special because they have 2 Manufactures that are relatively secret, mainly because Piaget has not really publicised that they were the watchmakers' watchmaker for 70 years BEFORE they even put their own name on the dial.

Crossroads in the Vallée de Joux

The road through the Jura countryside was long and winding as we switch-backed to and fro across valleys and pine-covered forest ridges. The towns on this signpost means something to PuristS horology fans because we have manufactures for Chopard LUC, Parmigiani and Bovet in Fleurier and Vianney Halter in Sainte-Croix. For the more musically-inclined, the Reuge factory is also in Sainte-Croix.

Those with loupes may also notice that Le Locle is mentioned on the signs and that means Ulysse Nardin, Tissot and Zenith factories. However, we were more interested in La Côte-aux-Fées because of Piaget's place....

Piaget Val Fleurier Manufacture, La Côte-aux-Fées  -  POT 2008 group photo

The Manufacture Val Fleurier concept was set up by the old ‘Vendôme Luxury Group’ before it became the Richemont Group. At that time, there was case-making expertise within the Group through Cartier but to strengthen the manufacturing capability, they decided to buy LMH after beating off LVMH and Swatch Group.

The Haute Horlogerie division of Richemont was created and huge investments made to expand the established manufactures at Jaeger-LeCoultre and Piaget. The plan called for more vertical integration at IWC and Lange & Söhne; a huge Cartier factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds; and smaller facilities built for Panerai, Montblanc, and Baume & Mercier in Brenets. The ultimate goal of such a ‘mechanical movement strategy’ was so that each brand could produce its own movements.

Some Richemont brands had their own movement, or the capability to design and manufacture them. Others needed a bit more help and the multi-site Manufacture Val Fleurier was conceived to design movements based on the needs of the brands, and then to produce the components. Eventually, the assembly and modifications to the calibres should become the responsibility of the individual brands.

Val Fleurier is an integrated manufacture, that is spread over three sites:
1) R&D at Neuchâtel;
2) Production and machining at Buttes in the Val de Travers;
3) Finishing & decoration in La Côte-aux-Fées.

I guess it was too much of a mouthful to call it the 'Manufacture Vals des Fleurier et Travers' since Buttes is in a different valley. We focused on the Piaget site anyway.

PIAGET hosts:  Stéphanie Arrondeau (Office of the CEO), Pierre Guerrier (Product Manager), Yves Bornand (Head of Human Resources), Jean-Pierre Schafer (Manufacture Director) and Vasco Belo (Movement Development Manager)

The final 'work-station' of the Val Fleurier manufacture is within the Piaget Manufacture at La Côte-aux-Fées. A large part of the facility is dedicated to Manufacture Val Fleurier for mounting, decoration and movement assembly. About 100 people, including 30 watchmakers, are based here and are in:

A) ateliers where they perform purely manual and artisanal work (hand chamfering, decorating tourbillon cages, circular-graining, satin-finishing, stripes, guillochage, barrel assembly, adjustment of screw balances, etc…)

B) ateliers that are partly mechanised

Piaget watchmaker with finished movements sealed in their inert packages

More proofs below that Piaget watchmakers are, in general, an attractive lot

It's tough maintaining concentration when all eyes are on you but they managed very well indeed.

Those rubies are tiny.......I mean REALLY tiny! 

FINISHING

Hand-chamfering

Hand-polishing by drawing the component across emery board

Hey! That's not a Piaget Inspector  -  it's our own Don Corson of AHCI & Independent Haute Horlogerie Forum

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

Movement Assembly

Piaget 504P movements with either black or white date rings

Haute de gamme Atelier

Most of Piaget's movements are cased-up and finished at the Geneva Manufacture but the haute de gamme and complicated watches are completed in La Côte-aux-Fées.

Piaget Polo Quad-Timezone

Limited Production and Not for Sale to the public

End Products

These are some of the the haute de gamme watches that bestilled our PuristS hearts......

Mr Bornand illustrating the raison d'être of haute horlogerie

Using a haute de gamme version of a watchmaker's mallet that belonged to the watchmaker in the background, Mr Bornand explained that this personal tool has an ebony shaft and handle.  Why?  Because that is the best material for "feel" and dampening characteristics........besides, it looks really cool. 

To be continued in Part 3

Text and Photos Copyright  Melvyn Teillol-Foo, 2008

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