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Thread: Interesting Rolex read!

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    Master
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    Interesting Rolex read!

    This article was written by Wei Koh


    A WORLD APART
    INSIDE THE ROLEX MANUFACTURE

    REVOLUTION delves into the heart of the Rolex manufacture to discover a unique fusion between state-of-the-art technology and traditional human values that results in — hands down — the best performing mechanical watches in the world
    By Wei Koh



    It’s one of those moments in life when you know you'd never be the same afterwards. You'd be changed forever; your emotional fabric, your chemical composition, your perspective on reality, irrevocably altered. It must have been like this for Alan Shepard, sitting strapped to the chair of his space craft, the nose cone pointed at the deep, cosmic otherness known as space. And as the massive engines ignited beneath him, he felt their power shake him to his soul. As they propelled him into the unknown, he must have known what it was like to feel true awe. So it was for the small group of journalists selected to step foot, for the first time in decades, into the most foreboding realm in the luxury universe — the Rolex factory and headquarters in Geneva. Here it was, a totemic edifice to one of the most powerful, yet most secretive companies on the planet





    Outside the Rolex manufacture; stark glass facade shield a secret universe of watchmaking within

    Who is Rolex? Rolex is a company that has been the gold standard for brand equity, quality and function over the last century. A company known even in the farthest reaches of the world. Rolex watches hold their value with such stability that they could be used as an alternate global currency. The company makes such accurate watches that should all electronic navigational technology become irreversibly corrupted, ship captains and pilots could still plot their course with Rolexes. It produces more mechanical watches than all the other high-end watch companies in Switzerland combined, yet manages to outshine them all in performance, accuracy, ease of use and robustness. But for years, Rolex has also been an information black hole, where questions on movements, manufacturing techniques and technical innovations vanished as quickly as light in a world of total darkness. So, Rolex lovers became ciphers learning to read the language of its creators through the mechanical language of their movement, cultivating a comprehension of their grand ambitions and majestic achievements from the small evolutions that emerged each year in their watches.

    Then one day, just like Charlie’s Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, an invitation materializes; and you find yourself standing outside the shimmering reflective glass walls, built to intimidate and to ensure that the world within remains a world apart. So, you step inside its doors and already your head is filled with wild, hallucinatory thoughts:are you about to descend to a top-secret facility buried three miles underground, where captured alien space technology is harnessed to create watches beyond all human comprehension? As you open your eyes, your mind reels to comprehend the full magnitude of what’s passing before them. And suddenly, that deep, painful desire; that all-too-human yearning to learn more, to become the vessel of transcendent knowledge, is satiated. And as if you’ve looked upon the face of God, you are enlightened and changed forever.

    But hang on. We know what you want to know. Because we’ve heard the gripes, the asides, the whispers spoken with the venom of jealous courtesans. “Rolex only makes three movements,” they say, “How can they call themselves a manufacture?” This is largely true for their Oyster (although, this year, they added the Regatta chronograph caliber 4160), but they make these movements exceptionally well. In fact, I defy any other manufacture to submit their movements for comparative testing related to accuracy and shock resistance. Like Wesley says in The Princess Bride, “The end result can only be humiliation galore.”


    All precious metals are made from core elements by Rolex at the in-house foundry. This expertise allowed Rolex to create Everose, the only truly stable rose gold in the world



    So, is the inner world of Rolex devoid of human life and filled with futuristic robots and replicants that have walked off the set of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner? Yes, and no. Robots are used, but an immense amount of human involvement goes into the creation of Rolex’s watches. The word “manufacture” comes from the Latin description “to make by hand”, and there is plenty of this going on inside Rolex. Movements are hand-assembled and easily as artisanal in approach as movements assembled at similarly industrialized manufactures such as Breitling, Panerai and Roger Dubuis. Delicate operations such as coiling and separation of hairsprings are still exclusively performed by hand. These processes are artisanal and so far in advance of the rest of the watch industry that they do not exist at any other watch factory in the world.

    What about the fabled robots? Well, they do exist. The entire inventory of parts in several of Rolex’s facilities is overseen in rooms five stories tall and the size of football fields, presided over by massive robotic superstructures with super-fast drones gliding at warp speed on surrealistically silent rails. Cases are similarly polished by robots. The result? Super-human production efficiency and perfection.

    Ultimately, what your mind struggles with is that Rolex is unlike any other watch manufacture. It is designed and built from the ground up to optimize quality as well as mass industrialization. It is totally integrated, and with the exception of making its own steel (they buy it from Austria and use surgical grade 904L, which surpasses the 316L used by everyone else, for corrosion resistance), it can do virtually everything involved in making its watches in its four sites: Bienne (where movements are built), Plans-les-Ouates (where cases and bracelets are made), Chęne-Bourg (where dials and gem-setting elements are fabricated), or at the Rolex HQ (where watches are assembled and hairsprings made). All precious metals are forged from raw elements, which allowed Rolex to create Everose, the only rose gold in the world with color that remains consistent even after exposure to chlorinated water.

    By fusing technology with traditional artisan values, Rolex is capable of creating close to one million watches a year (based on the number of COSC certificates it has applied for per annum), all of which exhibit perfect performance. The Rolex factory is more reminiscent of high-end car factories, like the Volkswagen Phaeton plant in Dresden, than anything related to watches. Its critical differences from other watch manufactures, as detailed in the following articles, make Rolex literally a world apart from all other pretenders to its famous crown.

    UNLOCKING THE MYSTERIES OF THE HEART
    THE PARACHROM HAIRSPRING



    In his novel The Pugilist at Rest, the author Thom Jones describes an American solider in the Vietnam War, reeling from the concussive fallout of mortar fire. He looks at his wrist and sees that the onslaught has been so brutal that orange dust has managed to penetrate under the acrylic of his Rolex watch. But amazingly, the watch continues to function. This fictional image is belied by an irrefutable truth. A Rolex is the only mechanical watch that will provide unfailing accuracy 100 percent of the time in the most hostile environments and the most brutal situations. It is one of the few luxury objects on earth that derive their value not just from quality and branding, but also from an intimidating level of reliability.

    THE REGULATOR — THE KEY TO ACCURACY

    The single most important component that distinguishes an accurate mechanical watch from one that isn’t, is the beating heart of the watch called the balance. Like in a human being, a watch’s heart regulates its life. The balance, in simple terms, is a wheel fixed with a spring. It receives pulses of energy that travel from the watch’s energy source, called the mainspring. Every time it receives a pulse of energy, it swings in one direction until spring tension forces it to swing back in the opposite direction. The action of this spring tensing and releasing is called “breathing”. This action regulates the locking and unlocking of power delivery which, if you can imagine, is like someone locking and unlocking a tap at precise intervals. The more regular the intervals, the more accurately time is kept. What makes for the greatest consistency in timekeeping? Absolute uniformity in the oscillation of the balance. And what accounts for this uniformity is the quality of the watch’s hairspring, and its ability to breathe regularly and concentrically.

    The hairspring is a miracle of micro-engineering. It is a piece of metal rolled finer than a human hair and coiled into the shape of a spiral spring, then expected to expand and contract with near perfect regularity and in perpetuity. To give you some perspective on how demanding this task is, measuring time with a precision within one second a day — which Rolexes do — is like measuring a kilometer with a discrepancy of less than a centimeter. Add to this that the watch is worn on the wrist, where it is subjected to impact, shocks and a myriad motions, and you can see how these could generate massive disturbances to the delicate regulating organ pulsing eight times per second. So, how is it that the Rolex Oyster can be worn while jogging, playing tennis or golf, scuba-diving, or even mountain biking, without diminishing its timekeeping accuracy? The secret is in the quality of the two components comprising its living heart: its balance wheel and its special Parachrom hairspring. Watch companies don’t tell you that creating a hairspring is an imperfect science. Tiny geometric and material variations, and the process of coiling result in every hairspring varying slightly in the rate at which it contracts and expands. To resolve this, watchmakers use balance wheels with small opposable weights that can be adjusted to make oscillations go faster or slower by altering the inertia of the balance wheel. Sometimes, inertia needs to be altered so radically that material is removed from the balance wheel by drilling holes into it. But due to the precision of Rolex’s hairsprings and balances, the only regulation needed to fine-tune its watches to an accuracy of one-eighth of a second is the turning of the well-designed Microstella nuts on the inner rim of its balance wheel. This balance wheel design is another example of Rolex’s dedication to optimizing accuracy. By placing the nuts inboard instead of on the outer rim where they are easier to adjust, Rolex massively reduces aerodynamic turbulence caused by weights as they tear through the air at the rate of 28,800 vibrations per hour.

    It is in the alchemic realm of the hairspring that Rolex has achieved an industry leading level of technical innovation. In recent years, we’ve seen the emergence of watches with hairsprings made from silicon and even diamond. But these watches are mostly concept pieces, and their total number is no greater than a few hundred. The rest of the watches produced in the world rely on a type of ferromagnetic alloy made from a mixture of iron, nickel and chromium discovered in the 1930s by scientist and Nobel Prize winner Charles-Edouard Guillaume.



    Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona

    GUILLAUME — THE ROOTS OF ACCURACY Due to temperature changes, the elasticity of the hairspring actually varies depending on the ambient temperature. If temperature increases, a carbon steel hairspring (the type used prior to Guillaume) will lose its elasticity, resulting in a tendency for the watch to start to lose on its rate. A decrease in temperature will have the opposite effect. Cut, bimetallic compensation balances partially canceled out temperature error, but imperfectly; and in addition, carbon steel hairsprings are extremely prone to becoming magnetized. Guillaume’s invention of a form of nickel steel, known as Invar, resulted in the ability to create so called “self compensating” hairsprings, in which temperature error is almost completely eliminated, and the descendants of such hairsprings are still in use today.

    A NEW ERA OF ACCURACY INTRODUCED BY ROLEX All that changed in the 1990s when Rolex discovered and patented a new alloy they named Parachrom that they would use to create hairsprings capable of unprecedented levels of performance. But what makes Parachrom superior to Invar hairsprings? For one, Invar hairsprings are easily susceptible to magnetic influence. Place your watch too close to a stereo speaker and it can easily become magnetized. The coils of the spring attract each other and no longer breathe regularly or concentrically, resulting in major loss of accuracy. Watches becoming magnetized are, to this day, one of the most prevalent service problems. While many manufactures make anti-magnetic watches with soft-iron inner cases, it is only Rolex that has decided to “treat the disease” and not simply alleviate the symptoms of magnetic influence on the hairspring.

    The second marked superiority of Parachrom to Invar is its greater suppleness, resulting in hairsprings that are ten times more shock-resistant. The real-world application to a watch equipped with Rolex’s Parachrom hairspring is that you can go through life confident that your watch will not be affected by the vast majority of magnetic fields; that you can wear your Rolex for the most rugged sport without fear that shocks will cause loss of accuracy or, even worse, permanent damage.



    Daytona caliber 4130 chronograph movement



    WHAT IS PARACHROM? What exactly is Parachrom and how is it made? Its base material consists of 85 percent niobium and 15 percent zirconium. These materials are also used to create heat shields in nuclear power plants, so their melting point is supremely high. To merge the two materials, Rolex utilizes electron bombardment inside a high vacuum condition, which creates an environment of 2,300 degrees Celsius. It is remarkable to witness these two materials becoming one. They are fed vertically through an arc-melting ring, and while they appear as solid metal below the melting point, they transform into a ring of fire at the point at which they combine. To ensure that the two materials are perfectly combined, this fusion takes place three times, with the bar of Parachrom rotated at each pass. The end result is a bar of Parachrom 30 centimeters long that can be used to create 10,000 hairsprings.

    The processes after this reduce the thinness of the metal to the diameter of a strand of human hair. During these operations, the 30-cm bar of Parachrom comes to occupy a length of two kilometers. It is rolled, heat-treated to temper it, and then wire drawn. In the first pass through a wire die, it is pulled with a force of 100 kilograms. After this, an additional element, oxygen, is introduced to the alloy. By passing the wire through a furnace, the Parachrom is encouraged to absorb oxygen through its surface. Oxygen changes the thermal coefficient of the material, allowing it to react in the desired manner when the balance wheel’s inertia changes.

    Finally, the wire goes through its last drawing when it is reduced to 100 microns in diameter, resulting in a length of three kilometers. The wire is then flattened using high-pressure rolling, reducing it to 50 microns in thickness and 150 microns in height. It is cut into sections 20 cm in length, which are placed inside a mold to provide the coiled shape of the hairspring, and then handrolled in the traditional technique. Remarkably, for all the work done by the massive and intimidating drawing and rolling machines, the operation to create the hairspring’s form is conducted by the human hand. Once the springs are separated, they are given a final heat treatment to relieve stress and ensure that they stay permanently in shape. The blue color of the springs is not due to flame bluing, but added during an electro-chemical process, which stabilizes the properties of the hairspring by adding a layer of oxide — essentially oxygen ions bonded to the exterior of the spring. After which, the hairsprings are given their signature Breguet overcoil, where the exterior of the spring is bent across the top of the entire spiral to aid concentric breathing, before being fixed to the collet and stud.

    The strictest levels of precision are observed throughout the entire manufacturing of the hairspring — an embodiment of Rolex’s philosophy of ensuring that quality is optimized right from the very start of production. Says Rolex’s technical director Jacques Baur, “During hairspring manufacturing, precision is of incredible importance. A variation between 44.9 and 45.1 microns represents a difference of four minutes in error per day. At Rolex, our philosophy is always to focus on quality right from the beginning.”

    ROLEX GMT-MASTER II: FIELD TEST

    I like to think of these scenarios in my head. What if I got approached by a group of scientists to re-enact the social experiment experienced by Robinson Crusoe? But the catch is, instead of being stuck on some godforsaken rock with the unappealing troglodyte that was Crusoe’s trusty manservant Friday, here, my Fridays would be four highly eroticized, long-toed Ukrainian fashion models suffering from clinical nymphomania, and who, through a long process of electrolysis, have had every hair follicle below their collar bones permanently removed. Even better, as a big believer in hygiene, at our disposal would be freshwater showers, L’Occitane en Provence toiletries, endless baskets of Santa Maria de Novella soaps, a bidet that shoots high-pressure jets of Chanel No. 5, a pedicurist and a whole lot of toothpaste.

    Now, say I could only bring one watch with me to this island. And I would need it to coordinate my lady friends to pick up food drops and rotate my beach chair at certain hours to optimize my suntan. I would also need it to allocate appropriate lovemaking time to each of them so they wouldn’t descend into jealous rages, which we all know could lead to unwanted weight gain. Time here is the lord that dominates all order in our delicate social structure, so I need a watch that I know will function flawlessly in the most challenging conditions. I also need a mechanical watch because of its ability to function in perpetuity. Immediately, the Rolex GMT-Master II with its sexy ceramic bezel comes to mind. But would it survive the punishing series of tests I would submit it too? With no other option, I purchased one and torture-tested it to see…


  2. #2
    Grand Master
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    interesting read , thanks bry


    cheers
    mike

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    Grand Master Daddelvirks's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Cheers Bry!
    Very nice reading, and now I'm even more in love with my Rollie :) .

    Cheers,

    Daddel.
    Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!

  4. #4
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Interesting reading!
    You get to understand where your money it´s going :roll:

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    Master Mr Stoat's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Good read, thanks for posting.

    At the risk of being shot down in flames, I'd be interested to see a response from one or two of the Seiko lovers on the forum to get there take on this.

  6. #6
    Journeyman
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    What a fascinating read... THANK YOU!

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    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Stoat
    At the risk of being shot down in flames, I'd be interested to see a response from one or two of the Seiko lovers on the forum to get there take on this.
    <grin> I await the flame-war with interest....

  8. #8
    Grand Master
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Thanks Bry, Nice snippet of information
    RIAC

  9. #9
    Grand Master Daddelvirks's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by markrlondon
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Stoat
    At the risk of being shot down in flames, I'd be interested to see a response from one or two of the Seiko lovers on the forum to get there take on this.
    <grin> I await the flame-war with interest....
    Why :roll:
    I love my MM300 just as much :)

    Cheers,

    Daddel.
    Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!

  10. #10
    Master Mr Stoat's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by Daddelvirks
    Quote Originally Posted by markrlondon
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Stoat
    At the risk of being shot down in flames, I'd be interested to see a response from one or two of the Seiko lovers on the forum to get there take on this.
    <grin> I await the flame-war with interest....
    Why :roll:
    I love my MM300 just as much :)

    Cheers,

    Daddel.
    Because recently they've been some excellent threads on Grand Seiko and inparticular a recent thread on where movement technology will go next in the quest for ever greater accuracy. From the above OP Rolex have applied improved materials technology in an attempt to control the accuracy and robustness of the main spring - is this the way to go? Are Seiko, for example, going in a different and better direction? Have we really reached the pinacle of accuracy for a "conventional movement"?

  11. #11
    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by Daddelvirks
    Why :roll:
    I was only teasing. Seiko versus Rolex always does seem to create a bit of an upset.

  12. #12
    Master
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    IMO both can be very good but not fair to compare as both totally different breeds!

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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    A worthy read Bry :)

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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    A very interesting article.. i saved a copy for myself.. :)

  15. #15
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    From the beginning of the article:

    It’s one of those moments in life when you know you'd never be the same afterwards. You'd be changed forever; your emotional fabric, your chemical composition, your perspective on reality, irrevocably altered. It must have been like this for Alan Shepard, sitting strapped to the chair of his space craft, the nose cone pointed at the deep, cosmic otherness known as space.
    That would be a fantastic PR angle for a watch company, imagine if you could say that your watches were NASA certified!

    /runs

  16. #16
    Master
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Very interesting, thanks Bry. I am sure those who have a rabid hatred of Rolex will be all over it this thread though.

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    Master SternG's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by NJH
    Very interesting, thanks Bry. I am sure those who have a rabid hatred of Rolex will be all over it this thread though.

    A good read indeed, Thanks for sharing.

    I can't wait for Huertecilla to get a load of this :D :D


    Cheers

    Stern

  18. #18
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Agree a great read, I have saved it to refer to one day when I have the money to buy a roles but the way they go up, not sure when that will be

  19. #19
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Stoat
    Good read, thanks for posting.

    At the risk of being shot down in flames, I'd be interested to see a response from one or two of the Seiko lovers on the forum to get there take on this.
    I love both brands equally; while both have designs that don't inspire, I admire both for their ability to mass produce and have fantastic high end quality control.

    While Rolex has three production sites; two in Biel and one in Geneva plus all the small factories around them that supply and produce for them; Seiko is more like the Swatch group, a very large group that produces more watches than the whole of Switzerland and Germany combined per year. And yes Grand Seiko are hand assembled, Rolex is mostly automated assembly; therefore they manage to produce near a million pieces per year.

    Here is a factory tour of one of the many operations Seiko have:

    http://www.watchtalkforums.info/forums/ ... japan.html

  20. #20
    Master Mr Stoat's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by Dibetu
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Stoat
    Good read, thanks for posting.

    At the risk of being shot down in flames, I'd be interested to see a response from one or two of the Seiko lovers on the forum to get there take on this.
    I love both brands equally; while both have designs that don't inspire, I admire both for their ability to mass produce and have fantastic high end quality control.

    While Rolex has three production sites; two in Biel and one in Geneva plus all the small factories around them that supply and produce for them; Seiko is more like the Swatch group, a very large group that produces more watches than the whole of Switzerland and Germany combined per year.

    Here is a factory tour of one of the many operations they have:

    http://www.watchtalkforums.info/forums/ ... japan.html
    Top man! Some great photos in there - the Credor movements inparticular - thanks Dibetu.

  21. #21

    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Interesting article - thanks for posting.

    This though:

    'It’s one of those moments in life when you know you'd never be the same afterwards. You'd be changed forever; your emotional fabric, your chemical composition, your perspective on reality, irrevocably altered'.

    .....deserves a place in Private Eye's 'Pseuds Corner' :lol:

    Hilarious bollocks!

    TTPS

  22. #22
    Master
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by Dibetu
    And yes Grand Seiko are hand assembled, Rolex is mostly automated assembly; therefore they manage to produce near a million pieces per year.
    no, read the article


    Movements are hand-assembled and easily as artisanal in approach as movements assembled at similarly industrialized manufactures such as Breitling, Panerai and Roger Dubuis. Delicate operations such as coiling and separation of hairsprings are still exclusively performed by hand.



    They employ ALOT of skilled people, that's how they manage to produce one million chronometers per year. :roll:

  23. #23
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    A very interesting read, thanks for posting. The author could have done with a slap or a spot of lithium at a couple of points on our "tour" however ;)

  24. #24
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Now that was terrible! Hairless Ukrainian catalog brides and a bidet that squirts Chanel No. 5 instead of water? Seriously??
    Not to mention the "bow down to the mighty Rolex" attitude throughout the article, f.e.:
    It produces more mechanical watches than all the other high-end watch companies in Switzerland combined, yet manages to outshine them all in performance, accuracy, ease of use and robustness.
    And I do like Rolex, I just don't like this article- at all. I also didn't find it very informative.
    Waiting for the flames...

  25. #25
    Master Mr Stoat's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by 744ER
    Quote Originally Posted by Dibetu
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Stoat
    And yes Grand Seiko are hand assembled, Rolex is mostly automated assembly; therefore they manage to produce near a million pieces per year.
    no, read the article


    Movements are hand-assembled and easily as artisanal in approach as movements assembled at similarly industrialized manufactures such as Breitling, Panerai and Roger Dubuis. Delicate operations such as coiling and separation of hairsprings are still exclusively performed by hand.



    They employ ALOT of skilled people, that's how they manage to produce one million chronometers per year. :roll:
    Thanks for the mis-quote - I never said that at all :evil:

  26. #26
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    [quote=Mr Stoat]
    Quote Originally Posted by 744ER
    Quote Originally Posted by Dibetu
    Quote Originally Posted by "Mr Stoat":2a8pl6zo
    And yes Grand Seiko are hand assembled, Rolex is mostly automated assembly; therefore they manage to produce near a million pieces per year.
    no, read the article


    Movements are hand-assembled and easily as artisanal in approach as movements assembled at similarly industrialized manufactures such as Breitling, Panerai and Roger Dubuis. Delicate operations such as coiling and separation of hairsprings are still exclusively performed by hand.



    They employ ALOT of skilled people, that's how they manage to produce one million chronometers per year. :roll:
    Thanks for the mis-quote - I never said that at all :evil:[/quote:2a8pl6zo]

    edited, sorry for that, forgot a tag


    The article is indeed very sycophantic but I guess he wouldnt dare write it up any other way after being let in, perhaps theres a curse on him :mrgreen:

  27. #27
    Master Mr Stoat's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by 744ER
    edited, sorry for that, forgot a tag

    The article is indeed very sycophantic but I guess he wouldnt dare write it up any other way after being let in, perhaps theres a curse on him :mrgreen:
    No worries :D

    Regarding the sycophantic comment - perhaps he got a nice goodie bag when he left the factory :wink:

  28. #28
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Stoat
    Quote Originally Posted by 744ER
    edited, sorry for that, forgot a tag

    The article is indeed very sycophantic but I guess he wouldnt dare write it up any other way after being let in, perhaps theres a curse on him :mrgreen:
    No worries :D

    Regarding the sycophantic comment - perhaps he got a nice goodie bag when he left the factory :wink:
    Or a perfumed enema from a Swedish model with alopecia. Or something. :|

  29. #29
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by Plake
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Stoat
    Quote Originally Posted by 744ER
    edited, sorry for that, forgot a tag

    The article is indeed very sycophantic but I guess he wouldnt dare write it up any other way after being let in, perhaps theres a curse on him :mrgreen:
    No worries :D

    Regarding the sycophantic comment - perhaps he got a nice goodie bag when he left the factory :wink:
    Or a perfumed enema from a Swedish model with alopecia. Or something. :|
    Ok... that was random... :?

  30. #30
    Master lysanderxiii's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    The author does go into a bit of literary hyperbole at times...

    A Rolex is the only mechanical watch that will provide unfailing accuracy 100 percent of the time in the most hostile environments and the most brutal situations
    They never fail? Really?

    ...what makes Parachrom superior to Invar hairsprings? For one, Invar hairsprings are easily susceptible to magnetic influence.
    The only trouble here, is nobody used Invar any more in watches, everybody uses a variation of Elinvar or Nivarox, which were developed to be non-magnetic.

  31. #31
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    They never fail? Really? :roll:

  32. #32
    Master Plake's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by 744ER
    Quote Originally Posted by Plake
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Stoat
    Quote Originally Posted by 744ER
    edited, sorry for that, forgot a tag

    The article is indeed very sycophantic but I guess he wouldnt dare write it up any other way after being let in, perhaps theres a curse on him :mrgreen:
    No worries :D

    Regarding the sycophantic comment - perhaps he got a nice goodie bag when he left the factory :wink:
    Or a perfumed enema from a Swedish model with alopecia. Or something. :|
    Ok... that was random... :?
    Well, our hero breaks from his effusive praise of all things Rolex to go off on a bizarre tangent fantasy clearly dredged from his murky subconscious including:

    Ukrainian fashion models suffering from clinical nymphomania, and who, through a long process of electrolysis, have had every hair follicle below their collar bones permanently removed

    a bidet that shoots high-pressure jets of Chanel No. 5

    I realise he wanted a Ukrainian but really a Swede would probably suit him just as well.

  33. #33
    Grand Master boddah's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Thanks for posting, a rare glipse into the secret society :wink:
    "I looked with pity not untinged with scorn upon these trivial-minded passers-by"

  34. #34
    Master lysanderxiii's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by Bry1975
    They never fail? Really? :roll:
    I take it you don't think the phrase quoted was a little...much.

  35. #35
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by TTPS

    Hilarious bollocks!

    TTPS
    Nicely summed up. :D Pretentious bollox would have sufficed.

  36. #36
    Journeyman
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    absurdly over-written, and clearly by a one-eyed Rolex fan: would have been much more interesting to have a 'drier', more balanced article covering the same topics.

  37. #37
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    .
    Interesting. Thanks. What I noticed what the amount of space given to the new hairspring ... well :idea: ... the new Tag Heuer Pendulum actually eliminates the hairspring all-together.

    Will that mean that running the balance without a hairsping will be the way to go?

    Let's see. Fun times ahead.

    john
    Costume jewellery. Ouch!!!

  38. #38
    Grand Master abraxas's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    [quote=Mr Stoat][quote=Dibetu]
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Stoat":3fxx8ef5]Good read, thanks for posting.

    At the risk of being shot down in flames, I'd be interested to see a response from one or two of the Seiko lovers on the forum to get there take on this.[/quote]

    I love both brands equally; while both have designs that don't inspire, I admire both for their ability to mass produce and have fantastic high end quality control.

    While Rolex has three production sites; two in Biel and one in Geneva plus all the small factories around them that supply and produce for them; Seiko is more like the Swatch group, a very large group that produces more watches than the whole of Switzerland and Germany combined per year.

    Here is a factory tour of one of the many operations they have:

    [url="http://www.watchtalkforums.info/forums/japanese-asian-watch-forum/17883-tour-seiko-epson-factory-shiojiri-japan.html
    http://www.watchtalkforums.info/forums/ ... japan.html[/url]
    Top man! Some great photos in there - the Credor movements inparticular - thanks Dibetu.[/quote:3fxx8ef5]

    You want Seiko tours …

    Morioka Seiko Instruments Inc
    http://www.shizukuishi-watch.com/eng/
    http://www.morioka-seiko.co.jp/Eng/

    A Tour of the Seiko Instruments Factory
    http://www.watchtalkforums.info/forums/ ... japan.html

    john
    Costume jewellery. Ouch!!!

  39. #39
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Bollocks or not...........they are still very good all-round watches aren't they 8)
    People who never bother to be fussy about their watches, are not carefull with them, buy most of the Rolex watches. They throw it on to the bedside table, on the metal tray at the airport, swim with it
    etc.
    If Rolex ever failed in producing watches that couldn't handle the treatment of the "yuppies" that buy them, they would lose their indestructable watch reputation in an instant.
    Nearly happened to Mercedes at the end of the eighties.

    Cheers,

    Daddel.
    Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!

  40. #40

    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    My original 'b***ocks' reference was towards the flowery style of journalism used in the article and not the watches. I have owned several Rolexes in the past and I appreciate them as utalitarian tool watches. I am not a Yuppe, but I can spot hyperbole and exaggeration in an article a mile off :wink:
    Nice pictures though.

    All the best

    TTPS

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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by Bry1975
    They never fail? Really? :roll:
    It's like the challenge to all others; bar Seiko (and Citizen) offcourse :wink:
    It's like the origin of the heart of the matter; the balance spring :idea:

    You can certainly understand where the money is in; in the buildings, organisation structure and marketing; in overhead and selling that as product :mrgreen:

    Print 'superlative' on the dial yourself and nobody asks how you need to read that phrasing.

    It gets a bit long in the tooth and the ts title reads like a contradictio in terminis.

  42. #42
    Master Wooster's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    The article tries so hard to present Rolex as THE uberwatch that it almost leads to allergic reactions in my case.

    In the words attributed to Mrs. Thatcher, 'being a leader is like being a lady, if you have to go around telling people you are one, you aren't.' :P

    PS: Thanks God I already own and love a 14060M.

  43. #43
    Master
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Rolex certainly make some good watch but some of the statements are alittle ott. :|

  44. #44
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Print 'superlative' on the dial yourself and nobody asks how you need to read that phrasing.

    If you produce a superlative watch, why not print it on the dial :roll: :D

    Cheers,

    Daddel.
    Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!

  45. #45
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by Daddelvirks
    Print 'superlative' on the dial yourself and nobody asks how you need to read that phrasing.

    If you produce a superlative watch, why not print it on the dial :roll: :D

    Cheers,

    Daddel.
    Because it's not true ?

    Superlative
    adjective
    1.of the highest kind, quality, or order; surpassing all else or others; supreme; extreme: superlative wisdom. Better than all other watches??? I don't think so.
    2.Grammar. of, pertaining to, or noting the highest degree of the comparison of adjectives and adverbs, as smallest, best, and most carefully, the superlative forms of small, good, and carefully.Compare comparative (def. 4), positive (def. 20). Again the best watches out there?? Nope.
    3.being more than is proper or normal; exaggerated in language or style. Ok this one might be truish, especially the leopard print and diamond models

    :D

  46. #46
    Grand Master Daddelvirks's Avatar
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Because it's not true ?

    It is....... :D
    They say so, don't they?
    If it's on the dial, it must be true!

    Cheers,

    Daddel.
    Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!

  47. #47

    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Thanks for sharing...worth reading

  48. #48
    Craftsman
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Absurd piece of text. I thought those references to Ukrainan women and such were a joke by some poster until I re read the story to the end :shock:

    I suspect he was required to write an overly positive report and being pissed off not being able to write a down to earth story he decided to go so over the top that there'd be no mistake of it ;)

  49. #49

    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Nice article. Thanks for posting.

  50. #50
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    Re: Interesting Rolex read!

    Quote Originally Posted by PekkaM
    Absurd piece of text
    ....
    so over the top that there'd be no mistake of it ;)
    Nevertheless it will once again only add to the myth and not deflate ány of it. Just read the responses here too.
    Rolex image is like a black hole. Everything gets lost in it but it gathers mass anyway :mrgreen:

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