Number of Hours Spent on Hand Finishing for Various Watch Brands

[lencap]

Greetings!

The following article is a bit dated (2022), but discusses the number of hours a watchmaker spends creating/assembling/finishing many different brands. The top tier watches have 300 or more hours per watch.

The article breaks down several categories: over 300 hours, 100-299 hours, 30-99 hours; 10-29 hours, and 1-9 hours. Rolex, on average, is toward the bottom, in the 1-9 hour range. I was surprised by many of the results.

15 companies are in the top tier - Philippe Dufour and Roger W Smith among them. Second tier includes A. Lange & Sohne and F.P. Journe. Third tier includes PP, AP, VC. Next tier JLC, GP. “Industrial tier is 1-9 hours, anchored by Rolex, Omega, Panerai, Tudor.

Each category has several additional brand's, each described in the article.

I was frankly not aware of many of the brands in the top category - and after looking up some prices I can see why!

I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did!

https://watchesbysjx.com/2022/11/wat...#gallery-popup

[Bazil]

Will read, thanks …

[Easy E]

Thanks for posting, very interesting. I was surprised by Brequet, Blancpain, Glashutte being in the same range as VC, AP, PP and JLC was much lower than I would have guessed- now that I write that I can’t tell you why I expected JLC to be higher on average, just did.

[WatchEater666]

Originally Posted by Easy E

Thanks for posting, very interesting. I was surprised by Brequet, Blancpain, Glashutte being in the same range as VC, AP, PP and JLC was much lower than I would have guessed- now that I write that I can’t tell you why I expected JLC to be higher on average, just did.

Breguet definitely has better finishing that Patek or AP on lines like the Tradition. Loads of sharp angles, and the anglage does not have nearly as much chatter on it...

[mchu004]

Great read. Sorta reaffirms how much value you get with Glashutte Original, IMO.

[Mr. Drunmond]

The article assumes hand finishing is always better than automation. And usually it probably is. But with some of those brands, I don't see where the time is going. They either need to overhaul their processes or invest in some automation because there is no reason for some brands to be up there in hours when looking at their watches.

I could spend 1000 hours making a watch and it would look like trash, doesn't mean it would keep better time than an omega, or look better than a VC etc etc you get the point.

[Andad]

Originally Posted by Mr. Drunmond

The article assumes hand finishing is always better than automation. And usually it probably is. But with some of those brands, I don't see where the time is going. They either need to overhaul their processes or invest in some automation because there is no reason for some brands to be up there in hours when looking at their watches.

I could spend 1000 hours making a watch and it would look like trash, doesn't mean it would keep better time than an omega, or look better than a VC etc etc you get the point.

Ummm…no….?

[ts3]

Thanks for posting.

[MILGAUSS88]

I think they stole the idea for this article from my thread here on TRF:

https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=837072

[unknown]

Originally Posted by MILGAUSS88

I think they stole the idea for this article from my thread here on TRF:

https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=837072

While I appreciate the effort, yours and that in SJX

I’m sure it’s wrong… no idea what we miss…. Probably a lot

But just to give you an example
In your theory it takes longer to make a blancpain than to make a Laurent Ferrier
I guess we ik know this can’t be correct

[MILGAUSS88]

Originally Posted by unknown

While I appreciate the effort, yours and that in SJX

I’m sure it’s wrong… no idea what we miss…. Probably a lot

But just to give you an example
In your theory it takes longer to make a blancpain than to make a Laurent Ferrier
I guess we ik know this can’t be correct

You have to remember some of these numbers are skewed.
LF (which I love) does not make their watch from scratch, most of the movement and case? are made for them.
They may spend more time finishing them than Blancpain.
Likewise some brands make parts for other watch companies.
There was no way, I could adjust for that, so it is just raw numbers.

The other thing that can skew the numbers is how many complications they make, which I think is part of the reason GF is on top. Everyone of their watches are tourbillons.

[Russell996]

Very difficult to be accurate for brands that make watches ranging from simple two hander to perpetual Tourbillon minute repeaters and beyond. For example all high grande comps at Patek (Rattrapante and above) are double assembled and start at 2-3 months per piece.

[Ichiran]

Trust your eyes - the first things I look out for are the spokes of the wheels. Those watchmakers who spent a lot of time on hand-finishing tend to carve their spokes to an impressive 3D effect, for which you can see the anglage of each spoke from an overhead position. Then there are obvious signs like sharp interior angles which are time consuming for watchmakers to do. The curvature and depth of each anglage suggest the difficulty and the hours involved.

A short video of beautiful finished spokes.

[Calatrava r]

Great article and similar thread referenced.

[Paul C]

Cool thread.

RM is grouped with PP, AP and VC while Hublot is grouped with Cartier and Rolex. Makes sense