SJX Watches
Industrial Artisanship and the Paradox of Independence
Independent watchmaking is often discussed as a world apart from the work of major brands. But the distinction becomes less clear when we look at how specific watches are made and who makes them, especially when it comes to artisanal watchmaking within industrial brands. From this perspective, the qualities that once distinguished the work of independent watchmakers are increasingly evident within major brands. Yet historical manufactures remain under-appreciated for exceptional hand finishing, distinctive movement architecture, and small-scale production that would attract considerable attention with an independent’s name on the dial. An objective measure Back in 2022, we published a widely cited market map of the fine watchmaking sector based on the concept of watchmaker-hours. The goal was to look beyond brand positioning and establish an objective, quantitative basis for comparing different approaches to production. The A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Handwerkskunst is a prime example of small-scale artisanal watchmaking taking place within a larger organisation The methodology was simple: take a company’s available employee hours — essentially the headcount multiplied by the number of hours in the working year — and divide it by its total output, in terms of watches per year. The result is a theoretical maximum number of human hours available for each watch. The cal. 31-260 inside the Patek Philippe In-Line Perpetual Calendar ref. 5236P typifies the industrial-haut...
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