Yahoo Lifestyle Here’s Why Greubel Forsey’s Latest Handmade Watch Is So Important
There are plenty of watchmaking companies (nearly all of them in the high-end market) that love to wax on about various elements of their timepieces as being “handcrafted.” Still, none of them can claim a watch almost entirely made by hand. [An exception would be independent watchmaker Roger W. Smith, who makes roughly just 12 watches a year.] Greubel Forsey is the exception. Its first timepiece crafted by hand, the Handmade 1, debuted in 2019 and was notable as a watch made 95% by hand with hand-operated tools—effectively, the way its Swiss ancestors used to make them before electricity and the industrial age. Ironically, that watch has made headlines for appearing on the wrist of tech tycoon Mark Zuckerberg, who has a slew of ultra-high-end important watches, proving he clearly has an appreciation for past technological achievements that continue to find relevance throughout time. This week, Handmade 2 made its debut and boasts a 1% higher handmade percentage than its predecessor. It may seem like a silly exercise in today’s time, but let us explain why it’s important to the industry as a whole.
The Handmade watches are about a lot more than bragging rights. When watchmakers Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey began planning the first model, the mission wasn’t just to prove they could do it. It was about preserving the know-how and passing the knowledge along to future generations. Greubel and Forsey use the exercise to teach young watchmakers the nuance of making a watch from scratch to become true experts in the craft to preserve the tradition at the highest level.
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The stunningly beautiful work of horology is 40.9 mm, and everything—save for the sapphire crystals, case gaskets, spring bars, mainspring, and most jewels—was painstakingly crafted by hand. The components that were not made by hand are notoriously difficult to produce. Ruby jewels, in particular, are almost always outsourced by every watch brand. For this piece, however, the Greubel Forsey team managed to create a conical jewel for the power reserve indicator. That may sound simple to the horologically uninitiated, but it is, in fact, a huge feat. The handmade components are crafted using traditional watchmaking tools such as lathes, jig-borers, and a pantograph—all hand-operated tools that starkly contrast with today’s pervasive computer-operated CNC machines used in modern watch manufacturing. Each component is manually machined on the Handmade 2 to within tolerances of just a few microns. And, as always with Greubel Forsey, each piece is hand-finished to the utmost standards of high horology.—it’s a big calling card of the house.
If you think all of that is impressive, then you might find the numerical stats of this watch even more shocking. Just one watchmaker assembles each piece, which has 270 components and requires 5,000 hours of work. It’s certainly not the kind of thing to build a profit on, but of the three watches that will be able to be made per year, those who do get to wear one on the wrist will have a hell of a story to tell. For the lucky few end clients, visiting Greubel Forsey’s manufacture should be a requirement. There, you will see the young watchmakers who are skilled enough to work on a piece of this caliber—a rare experience indeed.
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