complication to reduce the influence of the Earth’s gravitational force to the oscillating system. And so on. “More common are complications which change the aesthetic aspects of the watch. There is a moon phase, day-date and full calendar indication, chronograph functions, jumping hour or jumping seconds, retrograde displays and power reserve indications. In short, lots of complications. “The effect of the design of the watch is often not in relation to the complication of the movement. With small things like day-date or small seconds you can change the view of the watch completely. But some complications like the double barrel or tourbillon can be hidden by the dial.” Producing cogs, wheels and springs “For prototypes and low-edition series we’re able to produce nearly everything in-house, though often we’ll
change existing parts to our requirements. But for all bigger series and more complicated systems we buy the parts from our partners here in Switzerland. In the last few years we’ve created strong relationships with the best manufacturers of watch parts. Some of these parts are so complicated that nobody can have all the best, newest equipment and know-how to make everything. There are suppliers who only make screws and others produce just pins and stems.” Working with designers on the watch’s look “The faces are usually created by designers, so engineers have to find solutions to fit the movement to them. There’s excellent communication between the designers in London and the engineers in Switzerland so we can make worthwhile final tweaks to both the watch and the movement. That’s teamwork.”
th e f o r c e pat h user surface Rotor handwinding
time setting
Crown
setting wheel
Reduction gearing
centRE wheel crown wheel intermediate wheel
minute pinion
Barrel
hour wheel third wheel
Escapement
second wheel
Dial
Balance
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