Making a Move: How Panerai Became a Manufacture


A tour of Panerai’s three production sites begins at the Panerai manufacture in Neuchâtel, which commands a lovely view of the lake. The building formerly housed the Swiss watch brand Bertolucci. Prior to that, it served as Neuchâtel’s police station. Heading up operations here is Jean-Robert Martinet, a 41-year-old mechanical engineer. He directs about 100 people; about one-quarter of them have undergone a complete watchmaker’s apprenticeship. His team takes care of everything needed to produce a complete watch. They check the precision of arriving merchandise and scrutinize the kits for movements delivered by Valfleurier. The number of components that they keep track of totals more than one million a year. To avoid wasteful downtime, everything must be where it needs to be at exactly the right moment. The team’s most important tasks are the assembly and fine adjustment of watch movements, as well as equipping them with dials and hands. Monitors above the workstations display in detail whatever task needs to be done. Lubrication occurs completely automatically, ensuring that only a measured amount of each lubricant is applied. Casing takes place under near-clean-room conditions. The final step is a scrupulous quality control of the finished product.

Typical Luminor cases: from top to bottom, the models are the 1950 Chronograph, Base and Submersible.
Typical Luminor cases: from top to bottom, the models are the 1950 Chronograph, Base and Submersible.
Caliber P.2002, introduced in 2005, is a hand-wound movement with eight days of power.
Caliber P.2002, introduced in 2005, is a hand-wound movement with eight days of power.

A research and experimental laboratory is also on the premises. The building is already bursting at its seams, so Panerai operates a second site, also in Neuchâtel. The strained situation should improve in 2010, with the opening of a new 16,000-square-meter building. The brand’s origins and corporate identity as maker of divers’ watches will be underscored by a huge basin of water, into which a passenger elevator will descend.

Caliber P.2003 is an automatic version of P.2002 with 10 days’ power reserve.
Caliber P.2003 is an automatic version of P.2002 with 10 days’ power reserve.

Panerai’s technical partner, Manufacture Horlogère Valfleurier, is housed at two separate sites. Some 30 workers doing research and development are housed in Neuchâtel in Richemont’s former administrative building. Visitors are not particularly welcome here because the work is almost as secret as when Panerai took orders from the Italian Navy.

On Caliber P.2004, a chronograph movement, one sees mostly bridges rather than wheels, typical of Panerai’s movement architecture.
On Caliber P.2004, a chronograph movement, one sees mostly bridges rather than wheels, typical of Panerai’s movement architecture.

Things are much less confidential at the rapidly growing complex of buildings in the small town of Buttes, located in the Fleurier Valley (hence the name Valfleurier), about a 30-minute drive from Neuchâtel up into the Jura Mountains. Richemont bought a small factory in Buttes in 2005 to produce Panerai calibers. When the factory quickly expanded and ran out of space, Johann Rupert gave the green light to construct new buildings. The staff in Buttes has grown from the original 30 to 255. (All in all, the Valfleurier firm employs 355 workers.) Richemont has invested heavily in Buttes, where computer-guided, fully automated, manufacturing machines stand side by side in the new halls. Some 60 of them are already in operation here. For tasks requiring human hands, the staff works in two shifts. The automated machines have four axes and can work around the clock, if need be, without any problem. Valfleurier produces more than a million components per year. Certain highly complex components for the tourbillon Caliber P.2005 require machines with 10 different axes. The most demanding component is the column wheel for chronographs. The machines that manufacture these pieces have 11 axes.

Coming soon is a brand-new assembly line for Panerai. At a price of two million Swiss francs, it is believed to be the costliest of its kind. Its development and installation will take 18 months. “Seven of its 25 positions work automatically; human beings will man the other 18,” Klein says. “It will be as flexible as a modern assembly line in the automobile industry.”

This article was originally published in August 2013 and has since been updated.

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  1. Joshua

    PAM233 original dot dial with the 8 day power reserve manual wind movement is the best for me.

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