«La Ferme» by Blancpain, showcase of arts and crafts

Created in 1735 by Jean-Jacques Blancpain at Villeret (in the Bernese Jura), the manufacturer has seen seven generations of the same name at its head. In 1932 it was taken over by Betty Fiechter, a loyal collaborator who had been working in the business since 1915. In 1983 Blancpain was acquired by Jacques Piguet, the son of Frédéric Piguet and director of the business of same name, together with Jean-Claude Biver. In 1992, Blancpain passed into the hands of the Swatch Group. Today the brand is headed up by Marc A. Hayek, Chairman and CEO of Blancpain, Breguet and Jaquet Droz. The enterprise currently has just under 800 employees in Switzerland.

While the site in Le Sentier focuses more specifically on the manufacture of components and research and development, the Le Brassus operation concentrates on the arts and crafts and grand complications. Commonly referred to as «La Ferme», this centuries-old building houses the Blancpain craftsmen and the watchmakers who assemble grand complications. Located on the forest edge, this house gives employees a haven of peace and an unrivalled setting to work in all tranquillity on their respective tasks which require great concentration. Workshops for production of grand complications, engraving, enamel painting and damascening are all brought together under one roof and make this a prime location for the arts and crafts of watchmaking.

«La Ferme»
The different workshops in this house are tranquil and flooded with light. Here there is no production line but craftsmen and watchmakers who pay tribute to their art by perpetuating the techniques and expertise developed by their distant forefathers. Blancpain is one of the few manufacturing facilities where watchmakers who work on the grand complications assemble a movement from start to finish.

While the excellence of a Blancpain timepiece is determined by its technical choices and reliability, it is also shaped by its standard of finish, the distinctive sign of luxury watchmaking. The finishing and decorating techniques are part of a craft tradition and ancestral expertise. They are produced using stones, files, burnishing tools, buffs or abrasive paper, even on components which are hidden from the viewer’s gaze. Like every aspect of watchmaking, this type of work calls for dexterity, expertise and great patience.

The range of finishing and manual decoration techniques implemented by Blancpain is vast and represents a centuries-old watchmaking heritage. At «La Ferme» each different technique has its own dedicated workshop from which the components emerge embellished and ennobled.

Circular-graining
Circular-graining consists in producing small concentric circles that are very close together and overlap one another slightly on the bottom-plates and bars. The position of each circle is decided by the craftsman and not by a machine. Great dexterity and exceptional practical experience are needed to ensure perfect regularity and placing of the «circles»

Côtes de Genève
Bars and oscillating weights used in movements are generally decorated with regular waves produced using a small grinding tool. Here too, regularity of the decor must be impeccable. This manual technique therefore calls for great skill.

Bevelling
While bevelling is a routine operation in watchmaking, it takes on a totally different aspect in the workshops at «La Ferme» where this operation is performed by hand. The craftsman has the task of breaking and polishing the angles of a component which are called «chamfers». The authenticity of hand chamfering can be recognized by the cleanliness of the inner and outer angles which no machine is capable of achieving.

Mirror polish
Mirror polish or black polish is achieved on a zinc block on which the craftsman places a thin layer of abrasive paste known as «diamantine». The craftsmen-decorators delicately rub the component to be polished on the zinc in a circular movement to obtain a surface which is as brilliant as a mirror. Here too the regularity of the gesture imparts a dazzling finish to the component.

Engraving
Man has always paid particular attention to the decoration of art objects, pocket watches or wrist watches. Blancpain continues that tradition and has dedicated a workshop to this ornamental technique. Using a small graving tool and a microscope the engravers reproduce sketches drawn by hand by making incisions in the material. When the theme emerges from the material, the effects of light are created by polishing the component to obtain a perfect result.

Bridges, oscillating weights, figurines for automata and watch casebacks are decorated entirely by hand before being assembled to form part of a collection or series consisting of unique pieces. For personalised timepieces, the engravers work to a drawing chosen by the future owner, so guaranteeing the unique quality of the watch which becomes an authentic art work produced in a single copy.

Creation of dials
Making sophisticated dials is one of the foremost specialties of watchmaking. The particular elegance of Blancpain dials is the outcome of intransigent research and countless trials to obtain proportions, colours, textures, blanking and reflecting qualities that are absolutely right. Only that meticulous approach and work done hand in hand with the movement designers enable a degree of legibility and aesthetic quality which satisfies the brand’s own strict criteria to be achieved.

However, only a handful of dial makers are capable of living up to this stringent standard. Dial design has also become a subject of study as part of the brand’s inventive quest involving the introduction of materials such as grand feu enamel, mother-of-pearl and carbon fibres, to say nothing of the creation of enamel painting and damascening workshops. Among its specialties Blancpain has developed two specific techniques of its own: Shakudo and Rokusho.

Shakudo
The ancient Japanese art of Shakudo was used by the samurai to embellish some parts of their katana (long swords). Blancpain craftsmen have mastered this art which they use to create unique watch dials. Technically, Shakudo is a process which enables the natural yellow orange hue of a gold and copper alloy to be transformed into a dark grey with subtle shades. The surface is then brushed to add texture to the colour obtained in this way. This technique requires a great deal of trial and error until the desired colour is finally obtained. Shakudo can be associated with other decorative techniques such as engraving, damascening and chasing.

Ganesh Shakudo is a magnificent example of the use of this technique. The cult of Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, is a common feature of the Hindu and Buddhist religions. Blancpain has created a number of watches whose dial is decorated with a Ganesh, but each piece is unique because the hues and reflections vary as a function, among other factors, of the temperature or length of immersion in the bath. The process always begins in the same way. The craftsman draws a sketch on paper. The image of Ganesh always corresponds to an «applied» pattern made in solid gold and engraved by hand. A number of versions of this «god» have already been made by Blancpain.

Rokusho
Rokusho is another art form mastered by the firm from Le Brassus. This Japanese patina has been given pride of place on the Grand Wave model against a background of silvered obsidian from Mexico. A vitreous volcanic rock, obsidian is known for its soothing virtues. Its mysterious colouring interspersed with flaky silver-coloured clouds confers upon it the charm which is sought after to make an exceptional timepiece. This fine stone provides the backing for the applied «Grand Wave» décor in white gold. The technique used by Blancpain to design this decoration requires a number of different phases. First, it is fixed on a base in Shakudo before being patinated with Rokusho. The latter process consists of immersing the piece in a bath of copper salts. Once the patina has been obtained, the Shakudo is withdrawn. Then some parts of the rolling wave are polished to intensify the sensation of a menacing wave. Finally, the engraving is fixed on the silvery obsidian from Mexico. All of these phases confer upon the piece a changing aspect playing on the tones and mystery of the dial. The engraving is inspired by the Grand Wave of Kanagawa, a Japanese etching made by
the artist Hokusai.

Erotic watches
A description of Blancpain’s arts and crafts would be incomplete without mention of watches incorporating automata whose subjects are often erotic. These very special pieces which made their appearance in the late 17^th century have an immediately recognisable appearance. Watchmakers went on to rival one another in imagination and ingenious ideas to seduce potential purchasers of these rare and costly items. However, this evolution soon attracted the attention of the religious authorities. They immediately joined forces in the Swiss cantons of Geneva and Neuchâtel to combat this art which was in their view overly libertine. The production of erotic watches was then prohibited and the existing models were liable to be confiscated. The destiny of the confiscated watches was at one and the same time foreseeable and sinister: they were simply destroyed outright.

Watchmakers’ inventiveness went on to save a few of these rare examples because instead of putting the automata in a visible place on the dial or back of the case they created a separate cover on the caseback which protected the scene from an inquisitive eye. When the hinge is closed there is nothing to distinguish an erotic watch from a conventional timepiece.

Despite the skilful resources deployed to escape censorship and impounding of the objects concerned, the creation of these prohibited erotic watches was in real jeopardy. Moreover this complication did not move on from pocket watches to wrist watches when the watch industry underwent its transformation in the early 20^th century.

In 1993, Blancpain gave a second lease of life to this complication that is as famous as it is clandestine by presenting its calibre 332. This is a landmark in the wrist watch universe with the world’s first minute repeater incorporating automata. As a true prowess of the watchmaker’s art the figures (erotic or otherwise) are associated with the delicate movement mechanism. The incorporation of automata into a minute repeater is a highly delicate operation because animation of the personages uses a great deal of energy. To measure the ingenious summit of the watchmaker’s art, remember that the automata must be made to move in such a way that they do not interfere with the working of the delicate minute repeater mechanism. Made on the scale of a wrist watch this constraint, already challenging for a pocket watch or clock, becomes nothing short of a prowess. To make the challenge still more astonishing, the automata in Blancpain’s erotic watches figure on the world’s smallest minute repeater movement. In the same spirit the house has made another great modification to these new erotic timepieces. They no longer have covers to hide the decried scenes. The latter can now be admired simply by turning over the timepiece while the dial side is a model of sobriety and discretion.

Each of the timepieces leaving the art workshop of the house is unique. That fact is even engraved on the back of the watch.

Watch complications
Last but not least, the complications workshop brings together the master watchmakers of the house who assemble from A to Z the movements of these exceptional timepieces such as moon phases, a flyback chronograph, perpetual calendar, ultra-flat calibres, a flying minute tourbillon, the flying karussel, the Chinese calendar or minute repeater … the list is not exhaustive. Nothing escapes the lynx-like eye of these professional assemblers of minutiae who do not hesitate to set about their task again if the timepiece is not precise enough or if the sound of the minute repeater is less limpid than expected.

A veritable showcase for the arts and crafts in which unique, sophisticated and ultra-precise timepieces, numbered for easier traceability, are created, «La Ferme» remains a magic place, a crucible of the arts and crafts where perfection is the only order of the day. 

January 19, 2017