这里果然很冷--------转篇瑞宝工厂的游记（2007年）

jjxing

原文作者：Joel。
原贴地址：forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=msg&th=1152432&rid=0#msg_4027210

Chronoswiss factory tour report (from 2007)	Oct 10, 2008 - 04:41 PM
This is an archive backup of the Chronoswiss factory tour report from October, 2007. I hope you enjoy the trip. Best wishes, Joel --------------------------------- "First Watch Factory in Bavaria" - A report of the Chronoswiss Factory Tour. Please allow a few minutes for the report text and images to load before scrolling down. Trust me on this one. It's a modem burner :-)

With the Oktoberfest celebrations striking in full swing in Germany, my trip to Europe last weekend was something that I had been looking forward to for the past month.

The simple pleasures of travel to the vibrant city of Munich, enjoying great Bavarian foods, and sightseeing was further sweetened with an invitation to participate in the "International Grand Opening of Bavaria's First Watch Factory". The man behind the invite was Hartmut Kraft; watch collector, fellow Timezoner, and Executive Vice President of the Chronoswiss Watch Company.

The Chronoswiss open-house invite was extended to over 130 people globally. The group was a mixture of international press and magazine editors from all corners of the world, as well as local and international authorized distributors and retailers of the brand.

At the airport we were greeted by Sven. He's wearing a Timemaster.


Inside the Audi 8 and down the autobahn towards Munich.

Munich is a city of culture, arts, and history. In 1359, the population of this city had just gone over 10,000 people. Today it is over 1.3 million people. Along with it's Bavarian traditions, modern industry, world famous beers, and companies such as BMW, Siemens, Munich had established itself as a major center in precision mechanics as early as the 19th century.






Inside the official Chronoswiss shuttle bus we made our way towards Karlsfeld - heading north-west of the city from the Sheraton Hotel in Bogenhausen area of Munich. The small town and quiet roads of Karlsfeld is roughly 8 miles on the outskirts of Munich.

A little travel tip when you get to Karlsfeld. One landmark that may help with locating the Chronoswiss factory is this radio/cellular tower. Look up and head towards it... directly across the street is the Chronoswiss facility itself.

(building photo courtesy of Chronoswiss)

As our group gathered outside the factory building, we are served refreshments and greeted by the founder and president of Chronoswiss, Mr. Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, along with staff from administration, marketing and sales department.



Sarah, Maik, and Kristine from the marketing and sales department.

One of the things I noticed first at arrival is this Jaguar parked outside. Besides watches, we find out that Herr Lang has a natural and curious appreciation for technology and all things mechanical. In the basement of the building are more vintage Jaguars automobiles. In the press conference that followed our tour, Mr. Lang pointed out strongly that history has much to teach us -- his collection of Jaguar automobiles are a symbol of fine mechanics, construction, and built with the purpose of performance --and a continual progress to 'improve and make it better'. Not by adding more components, but by simplifying the existing components and optimizing only it's most useful parts.











Mr. Hartmut Kraft and me. Hartmut was wearing a Chronoscope in stainless steel case.



And a bit more information regarding the Chronoscope.

Before the tour of the factory begins, a brief summary and background of the Chronoswiss story.

Mr. Gerd-Rüdiger Lang founded the brand Chronoswiss almost twenty-five years ago in 1983.

His Swiss watchmaking career started with a brief stay at Hamilton and later in 1964 was employed by Charles Heuer as a junior watchmaker for the Heuer company in Biel, Switzerland. The majority of his work was on stopwatches. Mr. Lang, still with Heuer was transfered to Frankfurt in the early 1970s and eventually moved to Munich in the mid 1970s to work for a branch of the parent company. It was called Heuer Time GmbH. But by 1980, the Germany company shut down and Mr. Lang was out of work at age 37-years old. [ That same year he attends the master school in Würzburg and graduates with the title of master watchmaker - from the book Sign of the Times ].

Several years would pass doing repair work out of a small workshop he set up. He collaborated with such brands as Kelek and Alfred Rochat -- and with some of these timepieces showing the name Chronoswiss on the dial. Officially registering the name "Choronoswiss" in 1984, the first serially *manufactured with a regulator-type dial* was issued in 1987.

Mr. Lang's original 1987 Régulateur hand-wound wristwatch was a limited edition production and sold out within three years. The watch was a benchmark for Chronoswiss - a fine example of Herr Lang's work that shows dedication to assembling timepieces with a perfectionist skill and high standards learned from many years of working in the Swiss watch industry. From the materials used, maintaining the traditional Swiss watchmaking craft to offering good value for consumer and watch lovers alike (retail price was suggested 900 Duetchmarks). An automatic version of this watch would debut in 1990.

The original 1987 Régulateur watch also highlighted several design elements for the young company that would remain consistent to present day in the watch case design, fluted bezel, display of movement, onion-shaped crown, and right down to the small points such as screwed bar strap lugs instead of using spring-bars.

Fast forward to 2007 and we are at the site of Mr. Lang's own factory. Billed as the first watch factory in Bavaria.

The modern "Régulateur" dial is available in different color options. Retail price is about 3000 Euros.


With a staff of 40 people working inside the building he now owns - the company is currently capable of assembling and issuing 7000 pieces yearly. Chronoswiss exports watches to over 40 countries with a distribution channel of approximately 500 retailers and specialty shops.

During the course of the factory tour, I could not help but have the impression that the people at Chronoswiss are ones that enjoy their work and share the same passion as Mr. Lang for creating and innovating above-average timepieces. The staff is a combination of young and old, their work environment being set in a beautifully designed building; complete with a museum, vintage cars, art, heritage and tradition production methods.

Just some of the watchmakers and apprentices that I had the pleasure to meet at the new facility.

The company had moved from its rented spaces in Munich to this location at the end of 2006. Here is an excerpt from the official press release regarding the new factory, courtesy of Josephine Müller, Chronoswiss Director of Marketing.

[ Due to the continual growth of Chronoswiss, founding father Lang was no longer content to continue running his business on rented premises. He had long cherished the dream of having his own manufacturing site for wristwatches. By choosing to establish his factory at this site, he consciously placed his faith in Germany, an undeniably costly location for a manufacturing enterprise. It goes without saying that the same meticulousness which Gerd-Rüdiger Lang and his daughter Natalie give to their wristwatches was also invested in this new building, which has significantly been christened "Zeitpunkt"("Moment/Point in Time"). A transparent construction with expansive planes offers visitors the opportunity to observe watchmakers as they painstakingly complete the assembly of mechanical timepieces....

The new building unites administration, development, production, service, sales, marketing, warehousing and shipping under one roof. Of course, the watchmaker's craft is the centerpiece. This awareness led to the idea of embedding the workshop in the middle, on the so-called belle Ètage with its spacious windowed fronts, and subordinating the "servile" functions to the ground floor. Timelessness and longevity are represented by the edifice's materials: brick, cotto, aluminum, copper and glass, oak, Solnhofen slate (150 million years old!) and plaster.
]

The scale model of the factory. (photo credit of model and illustration: Chronoswiss CD press kit 2007)

The illustrations below shows in sequence the South side/West side/North side and East side of the building.




Alongside Mr. Lang in the day to day business of the company is Ms. Natalie Lang. Ms. Lang, who is a proven watchmaker herself and member of the Chronoswiss management team, will eventually lead the company into the future. Though at a young age 63-years old, Mr. Lang has still the strong passion and involvement in the company's operation.


Inside the "Point in Time" building, one of the most noticeable item that is at the center-point of the ground floor foyer is the Clemens Riefler pendulum clock. This specimen is #498 of 700 (circa 1927) made in Germany and is the pride of Mr. Lang. Accurate to within 10-15 seconds per year. The Riefler clock is one demonstration of the past art of quality and craftsmanship. In essence, the same approach that Chronoswiss follows in assembling precise mechanical watches.



Sharing the floor in the main lobby with the vintage Clemens Riefler clock is the HP5061A atomic clock. Made in Braunschweig, Germany. The city is also the birthplace of Mr. Lang. This modern marvel is accurate to within a second in 5000 years.


At the reception desk, we get our name tags and lab coats to begin the factory tour. The young woman is Ms. Suzanne Rolf of Chronoswiss. The fellow with a nice smile is Mr. Jean-François Meyer. Mr. Meyer is the Head of Promotional Affairs Department for the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry in Bienne, Switzerland. He was one of about 20 people in my group.


On the second floor is where we begin our orientation tour. Here we observe the testing/service centre. Further below is the watchmaking training facility.




One of our tour commentator and guide, along with Hartmut Kraft, is Mr. Christian Heigl. Mr. Heigl heads the production department of the company.

Chronoswiss has a remarkable program for young people who want to learn and become watchmakers. The Apprenticeship Program is headed by service manager Reinhard Teuscher. In a given year, Mr. Teuscher takes on two to three students. It's a program that secures the future of watchmaking.


One graduate of the program is award-winning designer and watchmaker, Thomas Schnelle. Thomas graduated from the Chronoswiss program over a decade ago. He has since developed the reputation of being one of Germany's best young watchmaker. Doing so by winning a practical competition and today suppling Chronoswiss with escapements of his design and production from his workshop.

The apprentice study room with water resistant testing machines, lathe, and bench tools and parts for the students. The goal is that after three years, each student should be competent to be able to do restoration, make and assemble a complete caliber/movement from scratch.




An information display listing some of the accomplishments and awards gained by Chronoswiss

With a large group of people marching through the production floors, it is important to keep the work environment under careful check. A basic yet effective tools to track room temperature.

We move to the Service centre.


Mr. Jürgen Cordes is one of the top repair/service watchmaker. He's wearing a Delphis with a personal engraved case.




Master watchmaker Mr. Jochen Müller. Wearing his Opus skeleton watch.


The workbench is long enough to comfortable sit six watchmakers. Here they repair and test watches that come in for service or sometimes pieces that are going out to distribution.

The room ceiling has a system that allows for a 'vacuum' to clean and flush out airborne contaminants that might find their way into the sterile room.

Natural light is an important consideration. Here you can see the wide windows to allow light to shine in.


The bread-and-butter automatic movement from Chronoswiss is the caliber 122. Here is a display showing the steps to disassembly of this movement.






From the repair and service centre, we move to the other opposite side of the second floor. Here we find the quality control room.


This room also serves as supply storage space for straps and bracelets. The company is very open about where these wristbands and bracelets are from. Some of their suppliers are Camille Fournet of Paris, Eulit-Werk in Peiting, Germany and Fricker in Pflorzheim. But note that each accessory that enters the factory is ordered with the high standards set by Mr. Lang and company. For example, the leather bands are ordered to have water-resistant filler between the upper and lower layers, hand sewn in some cases, and in construction , "the holes that accept the prong and crosspiece are reinforced all around their circumferences" (from the book "Sign of the Times")

Ms. Thi Lien Hang Vo at quality control. She was testing a batch of the Kairos model.


Alongside the quality control room next door is the production and assembly area. The workstation and watchmakers here combines the major components of a wristwatch to finish product: case, hands, dial, movement and other components come together.



One very important point stress by Mr. Hartmut Kraft during our tour is that the parts of watches assembled by Chronoswiss are made to spec by the company and using only 100% Swiss-made production. Openly discussing the original manufacturers/suppliers such as movements from ETA and Arola (formerly Rochat & Fils), dials from MOM Le Prélet, and hands from Aiguilla SA of Biel, Switzerland.

A tray of dials for our inspection.







Mr. Walter Wallner is one of the watchmakers stationed in the assembly department.

Ms. Julijana Rebel.



Cases on display.

Hands and crystal. And in the lower portion of this photograph shows the crown assembly.

The Art of Enamelling




The Orea dial from Chronoswiss. The name Orea translate to 'the beautiful one'

Case polishing and refinishing. Here Mr. Heigl demonstrate how it gets done.




This concludes the assembly and manufacturing area of the tour.

The watchmaking tour session over, I had some free time to admire the 60 pieces of watches/pocketwatches on display that make up the watch museum before the lunch break and press conference to follow.

Mr. Lang addressing the group (along with Keith Strandberg of InSync and Michael Thompson of International Watch looking on) and giving us a brief introduction about the Chronoswiss museum. These pieces were carefully displayed and cared for by Mr. Lang. Many of the rare items are original without being serviced/retouched.













As you can see, inspiration of design comes from the past. From history some of the dial and design elements make their way into the timepieces offered by Chronoswiss. Going back to the Jaguar cars earlier in the report, Mr. Lang states in his book "Sign of the Times" that [ "for me, to embellish means to perfect a modern classic through reduction of it's essential components. And this reduction is based, of course, on the philosophy embodied in timepieces crafted by the great old masters..." ]


After the museum tour, we were treated to a special appearance by musical talents Mr. Marc Gremm as "King Ludwig II" and Ms. Janet-Marie Chvatal as "Sissi". This musical duo are the highlights of a current musical performance at Neuschwanstein Castle in the Allgäu part of Swabian Bavaria.

[ In honour of our "fairy tale king", King Ludwig II., a world premiere musical was created and performed across from Neuschwanstein Castle between 2005 and 2007. Today we are proud to welcome the two stars of this musical Janet Marie Chvatal as "Sissi" and Marc Gremm as "King Ludwig II.", who will take us on a journey into the world of musicals and opera. ]




For lunch, Chronoswiss brought in celebrity and award winning chef Ms. Kim Kocht. The theme was "Flyhigh-Buffet" and it took place at the top floor of the new building. Ms. Kocht, originally from Korea, created and served up some of her greatest dishes.

(photo credit: Chronoswiss press)

A few photos of the dishes and desserts. The panna cotta is awesome.

This hot dish is Monk fish on a potato mousseline and decorated with vegetables.

My favourite and taking two servings of was this veal filet with potato gratin in a basil sauce. Heaven!


and of course, leave gun, take the cannoli sicilian mixed with tiramisu!

After the lunch, the official press conference and question period got under way. We viewed a short video that summarized the almost 25 years of Chronoswiss history and accomplishments.


Ms. Josephine Müller and Hartmut Kraft were the moderators of the conference. One question that was asked is "Why Swiss Made"? for a company based in Munich. Mr. Lang's explained that "Swiss Made" on the dial these days does not mean much actually. There are many ways that companies can do sub-par production and still receive the rights to put this label on their dial. But in the case of Chronoswiss, Swiss-made on the dial is his idea of finishing his watches to high standard, to producing watches by traditional methods. A promise of quality that comes from the many years he spent working in Switzerland, and using 100% Swiss parts for his watches, without compromises.


Another question was "will the company's future include being sold to a bigger owner?" The answer was that Chronoswiss is very healthy financially, the company is not for sale, or looking for a partner and the desire to stay a family business is the direction even after Mr. Lang retires. Ms. Natalie Lang points out that she still has much to learn from the business and from her father, but is as committed to staying independently operated.


Along with answering questions from the international press, we were showed timepieces that were highlights of the new models introducted at Basel 2007 this past spring. Below are some photos I was able to shoot and a few interesting specs about these watches direct from the company.

A wrist shot of the Imperia. Modeled by a journalist with a slight wrist from Asia. The watch case is ergonomically shaped to sit around the wrist instead of 'flat', for example, unlike the Jaeger leCoultre Reverso.

Imperia and Imperator: Specs
Model: Imperia with Reference: CH 2071 Displays: Hours, minutes, seconds and date

Case: massive rectangular, polished case; width = 30 mm; length = 48 mm; height = ca. 9 mm; with a sapphire crystal domed on both sides and one-sided antireflective. Water-resistant up to 3 atm (30m).Movement is based on ETA 2000-1, 40-hour power reserve.




Model: Imperator Reference: CH 2871. Displays: Hours, minutes, seconds and date
Case: rectangular polished case, width 36.7 mm, length 56 mm. Case Height: 10 mm with a sapphire crystal domed on both sides and one-sided antireflective. With four screws tightened open case back with one-sided antireflective sapphire crystal. Screwed-on strap bars with patented system Autobloc. Massive crown at the "12". Water-resistant up to 3 atm (30m). Movement: ETA 2892-A2.



Timemaster: With a replaceable short screw-down tube. Exclusive Replacement Kit for our Timemaster collection (CH-6233, CH-6433, CH-2833, CH-7633, CH-7533). This kit enables the customer to exchange the standard tube and crown stem with a shorter version. The Replacement Kit includes the new shorter screw down tube with new triple or double gasket, a new crown with shorter winding stem as well as a special tool to fit the hexagonal bolt of the tube. Exchanging the standard tube with the sorter tube requires basic watchmaker skills only and takes no more than 15 minutes.




Grand Régulateur in 18k red gold case and one example in stainless steel. Model: Large hand-wound wristwatch with regulator dial. Reference: CH 6721 R Red gold Reference: CH 6723 Stainless steel version. Case: Massive 20-part case, ground and polished, diameter of 44 mm, height: 13.45 mm; screw - on bezel with one-sided non reflective sapphire crystal with surrounding phase, screw-on case back with full-thread and one sided non reflective sapphire-crystal; massive onion-shaped crown made of same material as case. Movement: Exclusive Chronoswiss Caliber C.673, hand-wound, 17 jewels, Incabloc shock absorption, ca. 40-hour power reserve, all bridges and cocks manually beveled and polished, gold-plated settings for the jewels, high-gloss polished steel screws and click, sun-pattern engraving on the transmission-wheel and ratchet-wheel; each movement is individually numbered to match the serial number on the dial. Dial / 925 Sterling-Silver dial, guilloche finish;







A great ending to the press session was a quick ceremony of recognition to Mr. Tauscher for his decade long service with Chronoswiss. I'm pretty sure there will be a gold watch for him when he retires:-)

I must admit that before I had set off to Germany and visited the Chronoswiss factory, I knew very little about this brand other than handling a few timepieces that were brought in from various watch collector dinners that I have attended. The history and inner workings of the brand and the watches they assemble are outstanding and good value. My overall impression coming home is that this company and their approach to business and watchmaking is honest. I like the openness in which they discuss and disclose fully their strengths, limits, and shortfalls. Chronoswiss does not have illusions/pretentiousness as some Swiss brands with nothing more than a revived name from the grave and a deep budget to market a good history lesson to the unaware consumer.

Mr. Lang referred to watches as 'jewelry for men' and obviously understands what makes collectors and consumers tick. He's proud to say that he builds watches for himself first, and is always Chronoswiss's first customer and critic. The factory visit proved to be very informative and enjoyable. I saw for myself a very organized way of doing production and business in today's modern world of horology. At the same time, I became a big fan of their timepieces.

Thank you. I hope you enjoyed the factory tour report.

Best wishes,
Joel

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