Various Blancpain innovations.
The Decoration workshop is where Blancpain movements are painstakingly finished
MILESTONES
Blancpain’s history is peppered with major milestones such as the first
automatic women’s wristwatch, the first modern diving watch, the thinnest
automatic chronograph, the first automatic split-seconds chronograph,
the most complication series-production automatic wristwatch, the first
perpetual calendar tourbillon with an eight-day power reserve and the first
wristwatch fitted with a traditional Chinese calendar.
Visiting La Ferme is similar to touring a private horology museum
with plenty of impressive, historically significant timepieces on display.
My visit began with a presentation of the brand, complete with a short
movie dedicated to Blancpain’s history, followed by a tour of four major
departments: Atelier Decoration, Atelier Assemblage, Atelier Métiers d’Art,
and Atelier Vintage.
ATELIER DECORATION
The Decoration workshop is where Blancpain movements are painstakingly
decorated before the watchmaker can assemble the watch. Blancpain makes
all the necessary tools in-house and some tools follow traditional methods
54 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | WINTER 2020
such as using polishing sticks made from the local yellow gentian plant.
Decorating movements is detailed work. For example, to mirror polish or
black polish a movement component, a Blancpain artisan places an abrasive
paste called diamantine onto the surface and rubs it against a zinc block in
a precise circular motion to achieve a shiny finish. This can take up to four
hours of work before the finishing is deemed perfect.
Another famous watch movement decoration technique is called “Côtes
de Genève,” characterized by perfectly proportional stripes on bridges and
oscillating weights made using a small grinding wheel. To attain this level
of Geneva stripes finishing calls for great dexterity and know-how. Other
intricate decoration techniques that require an experienced hand to carefully
manipulate machines and tools include anglage (chamfering) and stippling.
ATELIER ASSEMBLAGE
Atelier Assemblage is also home to the repetition minute, tourbillon, and
carrousel workshops. A minute repeater is a complication in a mechanical
watch that chimes the time on demand by activating a pusher or a slide
piece. Minute repeaters chime three different sounds: the hours, the