| Despite the broad scope and tremendous numbers of watches created and presented
each year, only the merest fraction of these will be eligible to carry the predicate
hand made. In the distant past, hand made pocket and wristwatches were the only
kind available, yet the march of industrialization through the centuries means
that today such creations have become the object of dreams for collectors and
connoisseurs of watchmaking across the globe, cloaked in an aura of exceptional
rarity.
There are many reasons for this situation. The intensive amounts of handwork involved
in the creation of such timekeepers requires a great amount of devotion, time,
patience and skill that finely weaves together many different disciplines and
techniques into the final product. A watchmaker working in this manner will have
direct control and responsibility over all the aspects of the watch; the entire
design and manufacturing of the movement including the escapement, dial, hands,
case, polishing, assembly, testing and a myriad number of other details too numerous
to mention. This is perhaps the greatest and clearest distinction between a hand
made watch and the rest: all of these decisions will have been made by only one
artisan; an artisan who has become a master of several inter-related disciplines.
In the following pages we hope to be able to unveil some of the mysteries and
work that lay at the center of the watchmaker's art, when handwork is able to
imbue life and breath to simple pieces of metal, and the result equals more than
the sum of the parts. |
