WristWatch Magazine #18 | Page 46

COVER STORY the production of “turned parts” such as screws, pinions, wheels and crowns. This specialty, known as décolletage in French, involves feeding long metal bars—sometimes brass, other times steel, titanium, or copper-berylium alloy—into long lathes to shape and refine the features of individual micro-components. Perfecting these small components involves multiple steps. The teeth on gears must be polished and finished before they can be sent to a watchmaker. All of the microcomponents made from stainless steel are subjected to extreme temperatures in an on-site oven as part of a critical tempering process. This hardens the components, increasing robustness. 46 WRISTWATCH | 2016 But the critical distinction between Meyrin and most of Franck Muller’s other facilities is that machines and their technicians play the central role. Knowledge of cad cam design and CNC operation is likely to land someone a job at Meyrin. Assembly, finishing and other skilled handiwork are performed at the next two sites I visited. CRAFTING MOVEMENTS AT WATCHLAND When most people think of where Franck Muller timepieces are made, they think of Franck Muller Watchland, a bucolic campus in the tony Geneva suburb of Genthod. Anchored by a beautiful, art nouveau chateau on a sprawling piece of real estate reaching all the way to the shores of Lake Geneva, Watchland is an almost Disney-like representation of Swissness. In addition to hosting the assembly of movements and the fabrication of a number of the components, Watchland is the administrative hub of Franck Muller. Management, product design, R&D, marketing—all of the