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Philippe Dufour
After regrouping for a wonderful lunch at Hotel Des Horlogers, the two groups split again; ours headed to Le Sentier just down the road for our tour of the facilities of Philippe Dufour, housed in this modest building: 
M. Dufour was born in this watchmaking town 59 years ago; after graduating from technical school, he worked for Gerald Genta and Audemars Piguet before going independent and in 1983 introducing his first timepiece, a pocket watch version of his Grande and Petite Sonnerie Minute Repeater. In 1992 he was awarded Baselworld's Gold Medal for technical excellence for the wristwatch version. Here, M. Dufour explains his watchmaking philosophy to Jacqui and Brian: 
In this small manufactory are created all of his hand-made timepieces; indeed, the only major movement parts not made on the premises are the balance springs. 
One of the Schaublein lathes that are as close as Dufour comes to automation of parts manufacturing: 
Here's your author presenting Philippe with a picture I took of his then-beardless self during our 2005 visit: 
Now for a sampling of his meticulous handiwork: first up, the most recent of his three serially-produced models, the Simplicity, created to demonstrate that precision timepieces can still be made in classic sizes (this one is produced in 34 and 37mm versions) and with only basic timekeeping functions. It should be noted that the production series of 200 timepieces has been fully subscribed and orders are no longer being taken for this $60K masterpiece, arguably the finest time-only watch ever serially produced. As of our visit, he was working on number 130. 
The display back, showing the superb anglage and detailing of the movement: 
The version in 18K yellow gold: 
Next, the deceptively-simple-appearing Duality, with its revolutionary dual escapement (first ever in a wristwatch), of which only ten examples have ever been produced: 
Finally, the Grande and Petite Sonnerie Minute Repeater (picture borrowed from his web site, as there were none on the premises): 
Interestingly, most of M. Dufour's creations are sold to the Japanese market, where he is regarded as something of a demigod and where he is recognized as an icon by people on the street in Tokyo! A two-hour movie of him and his work is still quite popular throughout Asia. Thus, it wasn't surprising to find a Japanese watchmaking apprentice studying his methods and taking great pleasure in turning the tables on our picture-takers (is that an IWC on his wrist?):-)) 
Here, Philippe reviews a brochure on the Duality with (l to r) Christian, Doug and Allen: 
We were treated to a demonstration of perlage application to a main plate: 
Easy when you know how :-)) 
"Viola!" 
Brian gets a chance to inspect the results... 
...before Jeff and Christian record the event. 
Here, Philippe runs a test, while in the background Joe takes one last picture. 
Before ending our visit, we were able to ask a few more questions of our gracious host, here talking to Jacqui while Ed observes. One question asked was why all of his watches are hand-wound. His reply was that there is something elemental and wonderful about winding one's watch each day; indeed, he cited a Japanese customer who said he had essentially rediscovered his love of watches by this very simple routine. 
I don't think any of us came away from our visit without a new respect for the dedication and skills required for a master watchmaker to not only survive but to thrive in a world of mostly machine-made goods. * * * * * * * * | 
发表于 2007-11-27 07:21:00
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