Much like how Ferrari went into the car manufacturing business to fund their Formula One racing, Michel Parmigiani’s decision to make watches was originally borne out of the desire to continue his passion for restoration. In Michel’s early years of restoration, when there was only a team of six watchmakers, including him, they were quite literally working for nothing. At the end of a restoration, after as much as 20,000 hours of work, they would, at best, break even.

In 1980, Michel met the Sandoz family; he began restoration on their impressive collection of artifacts, but the family soon recognized his talent and encouraged him to pursue his ambition of building a watch company. In 1990, Michel established Parmigiani Mesure et Art du Temps, which the Sandoz family acquired in 1996, and together they formed the Parmigiani Fleurier brand.

When Michel Parmigiani, Parmigiani CEO Jean-Marc Jacot, and the Sandoz family deliberated over creating a watch brand, it was decided they had to first establish a manufacture. Everything else was secondary; in fact it’s only now that the company is catching up on communications and distributorship. Much of their resources in the last 12 years went into building an independent manufacture.

Today, the company has grown to over 600 employees, but produces only 5,000 watches per year. And when they say: “made entirely in-house,” they mean it. Parmigiani makes every single part that goes into its watches – from the screws, pinions and bolts; the hairsprings and escapements whose productions are extremely restricted to outsiders; simple to highly sophisticated movements; to the dials and cases that are decorated and polished by hand.

We were given the opportunity to peek into Parmigiani’s manufacture, and after three days of touring its workshops, one thing’s for sure: complete independence from outside suppliers most certainly comes with a very hefty price. Few of today’s brands are willing to pay this price, but as far as Parmigiani Fleurier is concerned, this was the only way.

Parts of this impressive whole

Atokalpa
In 2000, the Sandoz family acquired Atokalpa. Headquartered in Alle in the Jura, Atokalpa specializes in the production of wheel trains, pinions and micro-gears, and in 2005, also began to produce all the components of the escapement and the regulating organ, including the escapement wheel, the pallet fork, the plate, the balance and the balance spring. Although owned by Parmigiani, Atokalpa also makes specific parts for other high-end brands.

One of the main reasons Parmigiani purchased Atokalpa was to resolve the escapement issue. The Swatch Group supplied escapements, but for outside clients they would make only two to three kinds, and this did not sit well with Parmigiani because they wanted specific ones. They then bought Atokalpa and spent five years building and perfecting a machine that could produce their desired escape wheel. “We had to find our own ‘recipe’ for an escape wheel as Swatch did for their own, and after five long years, we succeeded,” the guide told us.

Production of hairsprings is likewise kept under lock and key. We were not shown the work area for hairsprings and were instead ushered to a meeting room and shown the finished product.

Elwin Manufacture
From Atokalpa, we drove to Moutier to visit Elwin, where axis, pinions and screws are manufactured. It boasts having attained a precision of 1/1,000th mm for its parts, which is very critical to building highly precise watches. Like Atokalpa, Elwin also supplies to other brands in Switzerland, as well as in Germany.

At Elwin, three kinds of machines are operated: one for the mass production of the same pieces; another modified by Elwin; and the last one, a completely new machine developed and made entirely by Elwin. The two latter machines incorporate computer numerical control (CNC) systems, and are meant for smaller quantity productions. They are capable of producing customized parts that are more efficient and precise; for instance, the screws that are produced here are completely flat, which while highly desirable, are also much more costly.

Les Artisans Boîtiers (LAB)
Dial, case fabrication, and case assembly takes us to Les Artisans Boîtiers (LAB) in La Chaux-de-Fonds. In 2000, the Sandoz family chose to acquire one of the most renowned high-end case production workshops in existence: Bruno Affolter SA, which is now known as LAB.

While LAB utilizes the most advanced computer-aided design (CAD) and CNC systems to produce its cases, craftsmanship is never undermined; each dial and case that comes out of LAB is hand polished. The company, which has some 40 employees, produces both unique and high production watches, in precious metals like gold, platinum or palladium, as well as in steel or titanium.

Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier
Last but certainly not least is Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier SA, which was integrated into the Watchmaking Centre (MHF) in 2003. Based in Fleurier, Vaucher specializes primarily in producing high-end, high quality movements for Parmigiani and other haute horlogerie brands. The Vaucher manufacture uses the most advanced CNC systems for plates, bridges and certain watch components; offers pre-assembly and assembly; training for case, plate and bridge decoration, including hand chamfering of all components.

Back to Fleurier

After the whirlwind tour, we head back to Parmigiani’s headquarters in Fleurier, where all final assemblies and quality control checks on the watches are done. There, we also visit the company’s repair and after-sales service center, and meet the design team that works directly with Michel Parmigiani and CEO, Jean-Marc Jacot.

We also spent a lot of time in the Restoration Department, where Michel devotes most of his afternoons generously passing on his immense watchmaking knowledge and expertise to his team of young restorers and watchmakers. It’s evident that his passion for restoration goes beyond the gratifying feeling that comes from admiring a beautifully restored artifact after months of research, documentation and hours huddled over the workbench.

He reasons that there is much to learn from watchmakers of the past: their astonishing work ethic, their supreme standard of quality, and unparalleled technical command. These values are engrained at the very core of the Parmigiani brand – its uncompromising stand on quality, even if it means that hefty profits will have to wait – a fate even its CEO accepts and spells out so candidly it’s unnerving.

Then again, it’s never been about the money with Parmigiani; it is, at the end of a very long day, all about the watches. In many ways, though Parmigiani is still a very young brand, it has already come full circle.

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2012 issue of Revolution