“For Bilan, Rolex opened the doors of its new Plan-les-Ouates site in Geneva for the first time. The largest watch manufacturer in the world, owned by the Wilsdorf Foundation, has equipped itself with state-of- the-art technology from A to Z to make its watches. You are about to enjoy a guided tour of a universe that has until now been kept secret.

By Philippe Le Bé

On the ground floor of the immense Plan-les-Ouates complex, one of the four Rolex sites in Switzerland, which has been in full operation for only nine months (see our information graphic, page xxx), the grey glass facade conceals a surprising world. A man dressed in white fireproof coveralls is melting 24 carat gold, copper and platinum in a crucible. A foundry! Rolex is the only watch making company in the world to have installed a foundry within its own walls. The subtle alloy whose pouring we observe through a glass panel yields a very special pink gold that holds its colour better than traditional pink gold. In fact, it also looks better with the grey steel of the pink Rolesor watches. In the development of this new alloy, the company’s engineers made measurements on a nanometric scale (1 nm = a millionth of a millimetre), which allowed them to understand the process of the colour formation. From this molten metal, heated to 1,400 degrees centigrade and weighing some 70 kg, ingots will be formed in the shape of bars, tubes, coiled wire or flat bars, to make the cases and bracelets.

Is this foundry but a crazy idea from a company whose yearly turnover, although a closely guarded secret, is estimated at two billion Swiss francs and whose yearly watch production is estimated at more than 750,000 pieces? In truth, in the eyes of Rolex, this high-technology gem of a production site is entirely justified. To be sure, for standard materials, the manufacturer continues to obtain supplies from Swiss foundries that produce high-quality alloys. But when it comes to its own exclusive discoveries, Rolex is committed to developing them itself, without owing anything to anyone and without asking anything of anyone. Besides, by melting its own gold and other precious metals, it realises considerable savings in time and money! The material treated no longer needs to be sent to a supplier who then resends it, in a cycle that ends up being time-consuming and cumbersome. Rolex press attaché, Dominique Tadion, sums up the company strategy, “We rely on our own strength and resources. All the same, we pursue collaboration with our usual partners. This has the advantage of maintaining a healthy competition that facilitates progress.”

An in-house hairspring

In the spirit of the company, independence is completely compatible with openness. One thrives in the presence of the other. The venture surrounding the hairspring, the essential regulating component of a mechanical watch, illustrates particularly well this approach dear to the management of Rolex. Early this year, Nicolas Hayek, president of the Swatch Group, revealed that his company, Patek Philippe and Rolex had participated together in the development of a new manufacturing process for the famous hairspring, patented by the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM), in Neuchâtel. The use of a composite material with a silicon base constitutes a major advance with regard to the traditional hairspring produced almost exclusively by Nivarox-FAR, a company of the Swatch Group. This new material is in fact unaffected by magnetic fields and resists shocks. Although Rolex was a participant in this collaborative venture, it asserts that it did not wait to develop its own revolutionary hairspring that has been used in its Daytona models since 2000. “The Parachrom hairspring made by Rolex, from a niobium and zirconium alloy, today performs better than the one we developed in the CSEM project”, states Jacques Baur, who is in charge of R&D. Unwilling to depend on a monopoly for a component as important as the hairspring, Rolex launched its own research, without rejecting a fruitful collaboration with its competing partners. “With others and without others” could be the slogan of this unusual company, whose pride is sometimes mistaken for arrogance by some watchmakers who, nonetheless, praise the prowess of the brand with the crown.

The pursuit of industrial independence is not just limited to controlling the entire chain of production, from the molten precious metal, to the machining and assembly of almost all the components that make up the watch, to the final control procedures (see box: “Six years of vertical integration”). Rolex has pushed to the limit the enhancement of production methods. Independence is not a right. It has to be earned. The Rolex stock management is worth a look.

Automated stock management

On the second floor below ground in the Plan-les-Ouates building, that has 11 storeys (five of them below ground), we find the company “safe”. You can only enter after showing your credentials, or rather your registered eye. Electronic security, in the form of an iris recognition system, is in place. In reality, no one can enter, except the people in charge of maintaining the stock area. The entirely automated stock of the company is located here. Its treasures. Twelve metres high, 35 metres long, 25 metres wide. The environment is futuristic. Small machines in perpetual motion, the “automated conveyors”, locate, fetch and return to their place the parts required for the manufacture of the cases and bracelets, which are stored in more than 60,000 compartments. Thanks to a conveyor system, trays travel on rails throughout the entire building. Thus any employee can receive the parts he needs to perform his task at his work station in less than eight minutes. Railroad terminology has been adopted to describe this computer controlled system that boasts more than 1,500 motors, 5,000 sensors, four kilometres of belts and 60 tonnes of aluminium rails.

The carts pushed from workshop to workshop, come what may, have been banished forever! This new type of stock management has a triple advantage: the parts are all stored in their respective places; the risk or disappearance by theft or accident is reduced to a minimum; the circulation and flow are perfectly adapted to the needs. The same sort of system exists at the Chêne-Bourg site where the dials are made and the jewellery and gem-set elements are assembled. At Plan-les-Ouates where the cases and bracelets are manufactured, the architecture of the building was especially designed to host this ultramodern labyrinth.

A single reference model

Less visible than the automated stock management, but at the heart of the production process, the three-dimensional model of the Rolex product, defined by the design engineers, serves as an absolute reference. It contains the geometry of a part, the surface finishes, as well as the all the materials necessary for its manufacture. The same information is available to all company employees. From this digital model (a constant reference) flow all the machining and control programmes, as well the geometry of the tools needed for the manufacture of the parts. To be sure, computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) have become commonplace in the industry, but their integration on such a large scale remains exceptional. This large-scale implementation has led to Rolex being approached by aeronautic industry leaders such as Airbus.

Let’s take the example of a bracelet, composed of some 200 parts assembled one after the other. At any time, it is possible to measure precisely if these parts match exactly the specifications set in the reference model. As long as the indicator light on the computers is green, everything is all right. But if the indicator turns red, it means that a tolerance threshold has been exceeded. The employees intervene immediately to correct the error detected in the machining of a given part. Time is saved. Waste is reduced to a minimum. Reliability is ensured. The advantages of this system are obvious. A “self-service” tool, valid for a multitude of measuring operations, is available to all employees. When these staff members need to verify the quality of a component, they call up the appropriate control programme and then need only check the conformity of the said part to the reference model.

Automated polishing

The industrialisation is entirely innovative at the Plan-les-Ouates site. This process is intended to guarantee the aesthetic and technical quality of thousands of parts.

In the vast workshop where the bracelets are machined, very precise enormous machines process minuscule components. Gulliver and Lilliput cohabit happily. Will the human hand that fashions the object, progressively disappear from the Rolex universe? Yes, where machines can do better — without a doubt. Thus, unique in watchmaking, a robot with six axes polishes certain watch components. Imitating the movements of a wrist, an articulated arm accomplishes its delicate operation before our eyes. The middle, the part of the watch case that houses the movement, is polished in two minutes. But this is only the next-to-the-last stage of polishing, when an awkward hand could deform the geometry of the piece. The final lustre will, of course, be achieved manually under the watchful gaze of an experienced eye! No machine can yet replace man in this final polishing operation. But tomorrow, who knows?

The tour ends in a research and analysis laboratory, still at Plan-les-Ouates. A scanning electronic microscope detects the smallest of foreign bodies that may have invaded the raw material and determines their nature. In the next area, wear tests are done on the clasps of the bracelets, opened and closed more than 10,000 times. Elsewhere, an aging-acceleration device carries out several years of wear in two hours of testing. Rolex is not satisfied with keeping time. It manipulates time. In yet another area, the bracelets bathe in abrasive liquids that simulate perspiration and atmospheric pollution. Tracking down flaws wherever they may be hiding in order to improve the product, again and again, has become the daily bread of this manufacturer for whom perfection is never reached, but relentlessly pursued.

2005, a record year

Not far from the terraces where employees and visitors can enjoy superb landscape gardens, between the Alps and the Jura, Patrick Heiniger receives us for a few seconds. Wearing a wide yellow tie, the managing director of Rolex appears rather serene. “In terms of sales, 2005 was a record year”. Faithful to his legendary discretion, he will say no more. Unless there is a catastrophe on the planet, like an avian flu pandemic that interferes with all human activity, he knows that Rolex should continue in its path without too many concerns. A real locomotive of luxury watchmaking on all markets, the brand will not allow itself to rest on its laurels. Two major risks lie in wait for any empire, watchmaking or not: the certainty of having attained its goals and the belief that it can systematically do without others. As long as Rolex resists complacency in these two areas; all things are possible.”

BOX

Six years of vertical integration

Rolex has systematically integrated its suppliers into the group. It also bought its movement manufacturer in Bienne, legally a separate entity for historical reasons. Brief outline of six years of vertical integration:

1998

Acquisition of Gay Frères SA, manufacturer of the bracelets, in Geneva

2000

Birth of Rolex Industrie SA, merger of Gay Frères SA and Genex SA, manufacturer of Rolex watch cases.

Acquisition of Beyeler SA, dial manufacturer

2001

Acquisition of Boninchi SA, manufacturer of the winding crowns

2002

Creation of Rolex SA, merger of Montres Rolex SA and Rolex Industrie SA

2004

Acquisition of Manufacture des Montres Rolex SA, in Bienne, manufacturer of the movements.

BOX

Grey matter, the engine that runs Rolex

Some 200 persons are active in research and development and 230 others in the process of the industrialisation of Rolex watches. Among them, there are 160 engineers, graduates of renowned specialised schools (Hautes écoles spécialisées) or the equivalent; 110 engineers, graduates of the federal technical schools (Écoles polytechniques fédérales) or the equivalent; and 24 PhDs. The specialties required are physics, microtechnique, materials science, mechanics, chemistry, information technology and electronics. In addition, Rolex collaborates with the Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique (CSEM), in Neuchâtel, EPFL, the HES, the Universities of Neuchâtel and Geneva, as well as certain prestigious research centres abroad, like the German Fraunhofer Society and the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon, (INSA).

BOX

The four Rolex sites

Acacias (GENEVA)

World headquarters

General Management

Administrative activities

Export and worldwide after-sales service

Final assembly of the watch

Assembly of the movements, only in part

1,200 employees

Plan-les-Ouates (GENEVA)

Foundry, wire drawing and lamination

Manufacture of the cases and bracelets

Machining and assembly

1,500 employees

Biel (BERN)

Manufacture of the components of the movement

Assembly of the movements

1,800 employees

Chêne-Bourg (GENEVA)

Activities related to the jewellery and gem-set elements

Manufacture of the dials

600 employees.

Over the years, Rolex Oyster has acquired an unmatched reputation for timeless elegance, combined with exceptional ruggedness and dependability.

Rolex watches have traveled the entire earth from the highest picks to the deepest oceans.They have become truly synonymous with success and excellence in all aspects of  human undertakings.

Rolex is without doubt the most recognized watch in the world, what is not so well known is that the modern Rolex is the basis of almost all modern watches. The waterproof case, the self winding movement, the date window in the dial, the GMT two time zone watch and the diving watch are all Rolex inventions.

The Company itself is unique in that it is still privately owned and that the principal shareholder is a private family trust all of whose profits are given to charity. Due to this unique structure it does not have to concern itself with short-term profit goals and can therefore plan for the long term.

Each Rolex Oyster begins its existence in the form of a block of stainless steel, 18 ct gold or platinum.

The quality of those materials is constantly checked and analyzed.For Rolex each metal is a precious metal.

Powerful processes are used to sculpture the distinctive shape of the Oyster case from this mass of metal.

Such power is necessary to the extent that the case modeled must  itself be exceptionally solid to protect the miniature masterpiece that it will contain: the Rolex movement.No less than 150 operations are required to stamp and machine each Oyster case.When these operations are completed, the case is identified by means of  two numbers: the number of the Oyster model and its serial number, which is unique.

THE CASE-BACK

In order to ensure perfect water resistance, the back of the Oyster case must be fitted and screwed on extremely carefully.The torque applied during this tightening operation must be perfectly controlled.Only specific equipment designed for Rolex cases can ensure the precision of this fastening.In fact, the only people authorized to have access to the movement are official Rolex distributors and their watchmakers who have received special training.

THE CRYSTAL

On all the current Rolex models, the crystal is cut out of a synthetic sapphire.

Created in a laboratory, this translucent mono crystalline material is extremely hard and virtually scratch proof.Each  crystal is cut out of synthetic sapphire, then undergoes meticulous shaping and polishing.The Cyclope lens-also of sapphire – is then added, and the lens facilitates reading of the date by magnifying the numerals by two and a half times.

The movement of each Rolex Oyster is designed entirely by a team consisting of experienced engineers and watchmakers.Each movement, from the very first operation carried out on the first component until final assembly performed by the Rolex specialists in Geneva, requires one year’s work.No less then 400 operations are performed on the base-plate of the movement alone.

The movement of an Rolex Oyster comprises more then 220 components.Assembly, for its part, is performed by skilled personnel who patiently build the complex structure of the watch.

The structure basically consists of parts moving in rotation on synthetic jewel bearings that are inserted between the base-plate and special bridges.

However, the production of a Rolex movement does not depend solely on the human eye and hand.Ultra-modern equipment helps the skilled personnel at each stage of production of the movement; design and manufacturing are computer-assisted.

Each stage of manufacturing is under constant control so as to ensure the required level of quality.

THE PERPETUAL ROTOR

In 1931, Rolex invented and patented the very first Perpetual rotor self-winding mechanism.

This consists of a weight which oscillates freely on a central staff, sensitive to the slightest wrist movement.This natural energy is transmitted to the main spring, maintaining it at a constant, equal tension, thus ensuring regular long – term operation.

Once removed from the wrist, after a normal day’s wear, the power reserve build up can ensure operation of the watch  for between 40 and 72 hours depending on the model, before it is necessary to perform manual winding.

The laboratories, likewise very well equipped, check the dependability of new products.The procedure makes it possible to verify and improve Rolex’s quality image constantly.

Manufacturing control is a decisive factor for compliance with quality standards.All the workshops are equipped with modern machinery and powerful computer systems controlling all  the parameters necessary to satisfy our customers.

Certified quality officers form part of the work units that monitor quality constantly by taking localized measurments.

Workshop personnel are regularly trained in new technologies and take part actively in monitoring quality – related problems.

Rolex wristwatches assembly is a painstaking operation that is crucial for the final quality.In this operations, quality is treated as a priority.Before leaving the workshop, a final check is systematically performed on every wristwatch.Unique equipment, entirely developed by Rolex, enables simultaneous inspection of the essential functions.

Waterproofing, operation and winding power are just some of the criteria by which it is possible to ensure and confirm to the customer the validity of the confidence they place in the Rolex product.

One last examination of aesthetic aspects is given by specialist who, over the years, have become steeped in quality criteria.

It is this knowledge that is perpetuated over time and ensure the Rolex wearer of the level of excellence that he is entitled to demand.

WATERPROOF TESTING

One of the factors that has contributed most to the international success of Rolex is the waterproof case.It is therefore vital to make sure that each watch offers a guaranteed level of protection.

To this effect, each watch is checked individually in actual condition of use.

The watch is submerged in a tank of water in which the pressure is raised to a value exceeding the guaranteed water resistance depth.Rolex Oysters are guaranteed waterproof at depth of at least 100meters/330 feet.

The Submariner and Sea-Dweller Deep Sea models are guaranteed at depth of 300 meters/1000 feet and 3900 meters/12000 feet respectively, thereby giving ever greater security to the diver.

DEPENDABILITY

Each Rolex undergoes tests designed to check its precision and its perfect operations of use.These tests concern, initially, the movement alone, and then the complete watch.

Electronic equipment enables simultaneous testing of ten complete watches.

The tests are carried out over 24-hour period, in five different positions.The results are then stored in a computer memory and printed, so that any necessary adjustments can be made and any potential faults eliminated.

A Rolex Oyster watch is designed to provide stable operation for years.Accordingly, no effort is spared to ensure that each watch will be able to survive in the most severe conditions of use.One of the most stringent tests involves taking a few Oyster models at random and shutting them up in a test chamber subjected to severe climatic conditions.In this simulated environment, they are exposed to an extremely corrosive climate of recycled steam which, in the space of four weeks, can replicate a stay of several years in the ambient humidity of Hong Kong!

“SUPERLATIVE CHRONOMETER OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED”  C.O.S.C.

Rolex customers sometimes confuse the words “chronometer” and “chronograph”.

A chronograph is a watch – instrument designed to measure a time interval precisely.That is why a chronograph seconds – hand is found in the center with two counters that can count the total hours and minutes.

A Swiss chronometer, on the other hand, is a watch that has successfully undergone the stringent tests of the Swiss official chronometer testing organization “Controle Officiel Suisse des Chronometres” (C.O.S.C.).

The title of chronometer is therefore an official title that a manufacturer cannot assign to its watches itself.

Each Rolex Oyster movement is tested by the C.O.S.C. for 15 days and 15 nights.

During this period, the watch undergoes tests in five different positions and rapid temperature cycles.It should be noted that these tests are carried out on every movement equipping Rolex’s models not just a few samples.

The red seal that accompanies each watch and the marking “Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified” on the dial means that each Rolex Oyster has deserved the prestigious official commentary: “Especially good results”.