How Bulgari, Jaeger-LeCoultre and others are rediscovering the forgotten skills of watchmaking

The current hipster craze for handmade stuff has officially entered horology. Handmade artisanship has always been part of high-end watchmaking, but the Hand Made 1 from Greubel Forsey really deserves its name. Ninety-five per cent of the parts – 272 in the movement and 36 in the case – are produced using only hand-operated tools. Each one takes 6,000 hours to execute, which works out to about three years in terms of man-hours. The goal of the project is to resurrect the forgotten skills of the pre-industrial revolution days of watchmaking.

The tourbillon movement (not used for any other models) may not be the most technical invention from Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey – but the Hand Made 1 still ranks at the top of what is humanly possible.

Ulysse Nardin, pioneer in horological silicium technology, takes this technology (which is occasionally frowned upon by traditionalists) to the next level with the concept watch Freak neXt.

The innovation has replaced a traditional balance wheel with a multilayered flying oscillator moving at 12 hertz.

A construction of 32 silicium micro blades stacked three-dimensionally on top of a solid layer that serves as a flywheel makes the balance cock obsolete. And, as there are no traditional pivoting points, the only friction is with the air; so there is no need for oil. The automatic movement with 70 hours of power reserve is driven with grinder technology, which is twice as efficient as a normal oscillating weight. What I also like is that cutting-edge technology like this gets an equally contemporary housing made of platinum and titanium.

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel could be seen as a nod to Brexit. Why? The minute repeater is a so-called Westminster carillon – it repeats the famous four-note sounding of Big Ben with the aid of four sets of hammers and crystal gongs activated by the slider on the left flank of the 43mm white gold case.

As for the rest: there is a gyrotourbillon, easy-to-use perpetual calendar and a one-minute constant force mechanism providing consistent energy, which improves precision and allows for jumping minutes. This solution improves the accuracy of the minute repeater. Besides looking good, the gyrotourbillon improves accuracy, which Jaeger-LeCoultre has proved by winning the most important Chronometrie competitions with watches using this technology.