Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. Understanding Schwarz Etienne & How Hairsprings Are Manufactured
We go inside Schwarz Etienne to discover fascinating watches and step into E2O Innovations, a sister-company specialized in the manufacture of hairsprings.
Today MONOCHROME is visiting Schwarz Etienne, an independent watchmaker with an impressive level of vertical integration. We will first explore the brand and its nicely manufactured watches. Also, we’ll discover one of the best-kept secrets of the watch industry, the manufacturing of one of the most crucial parts of a watch: the hairspring.
The hairspring, the small spring that allows the balance to swing back and forth and that regulates the speed of the movement, is an extremely complex component to craft and only a few companies in Switzerland manage to manufacture this key element of a watch. Step by step, you’ll discover how the hairspring of a watch movement comes to life and how precious it is for the accuracy of your watch. This is a topic that we already explained in one of our “A Technical Perspective” columns. However, we wanted to know more – and to show much more too.
To give you an idea of how complex the process is, everything starts with a round wire that needs to be reduced in diameter from 0.6mm to 0.07mm. The process is called drawing and the wire is passed between 45 to 70 times in different diamond dies. And that is just one of the multiple necessary steps to go from a wire to a functional, perfectly balanced and accurate hairspring.
Since images are better than words, we encourage you to take a look at the video on top of this article to discover the original and complex watches of Schwarz Etienne and the process behind manufacturing a hairspring in the traditional way.
More details on www.schwarz-etienne.ch.
4 responses
Fascinating, thank you. I really like the music you select for these videos.
Felicidades Sr. Schwarz Etienne. El trabajo que esta haciendo con estos balances, me ha encantado ver el video.
What’s with the extremely loud music? In many parts of the video I could not hear the voice over the music. Disappointing – not up to the usual Monochrome standards.
Great Video but the music in the background is most of the time way too loud so one can hardly understand what the gentleman is saying. Very annoying.