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Piaget Technique & Aesthetic Part 6: Engineering

Piaget Technique & Aesthetic Part 6 – Engineering

 Piaget CEO – Philippe Léopold-Metzger – wrote in his Welcome Message to this forum:

"Piaget is very proud of its history in Watchmaking, that started back in 1874. In the past 10 years, developing new and beautiful movements has become our key focus. Our own developed and manufactured calibers include the Tourbillon and the Tourbillon Relatif, the Quantième Perpétuel (QP) and the Flyback Chronograph.

Each movement is designed in the Piaget tradition of extreme thinness, so that we can express our philosophy : "Technique at the service of design".

We are very happy to have a PuristS Piaget forum so that we can establish with you, afficionados and collectors, an ongoing dialogue. Together, we will write the next pages of our history book."

Since that was written, Piaget has advanced further on their Milestones to the Big-5 of horology: Tourbillon, Chronograph, Perpetual Calendar, Minute Repeater, and Grande Sonnerie. They added Automatic ultra-thin and minute repeater movements to their repertoir.

Piaget has created (in-house) no less than 35 movements, including 11 with major complications, within the space of just 14 years. 

We started this Piaget Techniques & Aesthetic series with Part 1 – 'Design', that being the logical origin of form and function.

In subsequent instalments, we featured the fabrication and decoration of various components.

The integrated manufactures at Piaget maintain over 40 types of craft and professions that are vital for the production process.

With a history going back nearly 140 years, Piaget uses both modern technology and handicraft methods to produce their wares.

Traditional handicraft

One of the unsung specialties is Engineering. This vital department is usually forgotten by horology writers and watch collectors because, quite frankly, it is not a sexy craft! Except for mechanical 'gear-heads', the traditional view of an oily, dirty, hot and dusty engineer is not a pretty sight.

This instalment of the Piaget Technique & Aesthetic series will change your view of Engineering.

The photos in this report have been cropped or blurred to protect iintellectual property.

One of the surprising things that I discovered is that modern engineers in Piaget manufacture are not typically dirty nor hot and dusty.

Admittedly, they still have to work with their oily hands and get down in the machinery but for the most part, modern engineers use the computer mouse almost as much as their spanners.

Their primary function is 'translation. They translate the design specifications into useful tools used in actual production processes.

There are actually two types of engineering. We are familiar with the engineering processes to shape raw metal bars into watch components but before those engineers can get to work, the tooling engineer has to produce the machine tools that are used to shape the raw metal.

This paradox then leads the observer to perform mental gymnastics to figure out what tools are used to produce the productions tools from ever earlier raw material?!? 

The production tools are dies and jigs that hold the raw material in position within the cutting machines.

The dies and jigs protect parts of the component during the manufacture to prevent overlap of the cutting or pressing actions.

 
Starting with a solid block of steel

 
Machining the tool

 
The tool is made and could be used to make the actual watch component.

Actually, this Master Reference tool will be used to make the final sets of  manufacturing production tools.

 
Sometimes, a bit of "engineer persuasion" by hand is the solution......of course, that is written in jest.

In reality, the tolerances are very fine indeed,  Some gear wheels are a mere 0.12 mm thick, scarcely more than a hair’s breadth (0.08 mm). Some components even measure as little as 0.07 mm so the tolerances that the production tools are subject to in order to achieve those production tolerances are even smaller.

 
Before and After the Tooling Engineer has made his contribution

The engineers work closely with the designers during the design, prototyping and re-design cycles. The same data from the CAD (computer aided design) drawings are used directly into the engineering specifications to program the CNC (computerised numerical control) milling machines.

For some complicated prototyping work, the engineer has to manually work the machines.

Here are some examples of the process from Design through Engineering to Products. 

Piaget Technique & Aesthetic series:

Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 1 – Design: CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com

Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 2 – Enamel: CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com

Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 3 – Gem-setting (Watch Making): CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com

Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 4 – Gold Thread Embroidery: CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com

Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 5 – Hard Stone Dials: CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com

Piaget Technique & Aesthetic: Part 6 - Engineering: CLICK the following link
piaget.watchprosite.com

By: Dr Melvyn Teillol-Foo (2013)

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