From crisis to innovation (From the archives)
Following the crisis caused by quartz during the 60's and 70's many Swiss companies found themselves at the point of extinction, or at the very least a severely diminished commercial position. The specialised manufacturing machinery used by some companies to produce the parts to build calibres, cases, and dials were on occasion scrapped, or worse, jettisoned into a nearby lake (possibly an urban myth). The unforeseen return in the 1980s of a market for mechanical watches led to the birth of a very new industry. Collecting of wristwatches began, initially in the vintage collectors world, and this renewed interest in vintage designs began to seep into the modern world of watches, with new products often influenced by the brand's original DNA.
The result was a market wherein the majority of designs were based on the vintage styles created during the first half of the 20th century. There are some notable exceptions with the most renowned being the designs of Gerald Genta, the Patek Philippe Nautilus and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak.
Patek Philippe Nautilus (Image courtesy of Christies Auctioneers)
Audemars Piguet (Image courtesy of Christies Auctioneers)
Despite the birth of the quartz watch and, in more recent history, the increasingly pervasive smart technology, the mechanical watch industry remains a significant machine. It produces, on occasion, single watches costing over a million dollars for a technical piece set into a titanium case – uniquely, the value found in its mechanics and craftsmanship and not in precious stones or metals.
There exist new technologies allowing us to produce increasingly complicated and original mechanisms in shorter periods of time than ever before. Today's reality is existing technology has not yet been fully explored, but it is advancing and evolving faster than our ability to exploit it creatively.
In all that exists today and has been created so far, we have seen only the tip of the iceberg. New technologies have been developed, such as UV-lega, a technique acquired from the IT industry that allows precision parts to be in essence, grown.
There are also new alloys, coatings, tools, and techniques, some originating from within the watchmaking industry itself, while others have been adopted from outside. In many large watch companies, there are employees whose responsibility it is to find, follow, and harness these innovative processes.
Over the coming years, as the fullness of what can now be created comes into focus, and we move past the difficult times we face today, there will be a new silent explosion of technical creativity unlike anything that has been seen before.