TAG Heuer - Avant-garde watchmaking know-how
PHILIPPE MARTI
Nonetheless, within these large workshops, people work in almost the same way as the 'Manufactures' of yesteryear, thanks to the system of 'islands' developed by Philippe Marti, director of manufacturing operations. 'Each island comprises three versatile staff members in charge of the entire assembly process (placing the dial and hands, casing-up, testing), which has enabled us to eliminate the monotony of chain work and to enhance quality by a factor of 10, to give members of the island individual responsibilities and to ensure great flexibility. Naturally, we had to train these people to acquire such versatility, but the system has nothing but advantages."
Philippe Marti was able to launch such an exercise thanks to the perfect organization of production. 'We work to tight flow schedules because we have totally integrated the market and its sales forecasts. Through our 17 subsidiaries, we have a permanent overview of our stock available which is of course managed by computer, enabling us to react directly and in time to needs as they arise."
CASES, DIALS, WATCH BANDS
Trained as a mechanical engineer and as an electrical engineer, as well as researcher on supraconductors at the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a specialist in industrial management, Philippe Marti supervises all industrial operations. He also performs this role for the various TAG Heuer industrial subsidiaries: CorTech in Cornol, with its 110-b personnel involved in making watch cases; Artecad in Tramelan employing 45 dial-makers; and Artelink in Padua (Italy) with 130 members of staff dedicated to making high-end bracelets.
Moreover, Philippe Marti works in close cooperation with his suppliers and subcontractors. "We develop or modify movements in-house and we often ask our suppliers, such as ETA, for improvements which they apply afterwards to their entire production." We also work closely with Dubois-Depraz in the area of new complications, such as the central minute totalizer hand on our new 'Aquagraph' diver's watch.
The team of TAG Heuer engineers and watchmakers analyzes any new component right from the development stage and a range of more than 60 official tests are applied in order to identify and eliminate any flaw. This work of analysis, improvement and optimization is conducted both in-house and with external suppliers which they consider as genuine partners, enabling them to achieve an almost absolute degree of reliability. 'We do not merely say there is a flaw; we analyze the flaw. Our level of quality is thus among the highest in the watch industry, which means that the return of watches that have been sold is virtually inexistent.'
JEAN-JACQUES RACINE
Each year, 400,000 watches come through the customer care service run by Jean-Jacques Racine
Flaws rejected in quality tests.
The ties between TAG Heuer and the Neuchâtel-based Racine family go back a long way. Jean-Jacques Racine, who manages the brand's entire customer care service, is part of the third generation of Racines to work for the company as a watchmaker. His grandfather began the tradition in 1912. Moreover, each of the family members specialized in split-seconds chronographs, a very difficult complication in watchmaking.
When he began working for TAG Heuer in 1960, Jean- Jacques Racine was making around forty split-seconds chronographs per month until the advent of electronics in the 1970s eclipsed this speciality. Passionately enthusiastic about new developments, the young watchmaker came to specialize in testing electronic modules sent from the United States. He then worked on the first quartz diver's watches in the 1000 and 2000 series, after which he was entrusted with structuring and establishing an efficient customer care service around the world, with its central workshop in Saint-Imier maintaining close contact with each of the subsidiaries.
TWENTY YEARS OF SPARE PARTS
'More and more, owners of antique watches want to set them working again, since they are back in fashion. We have spare parts for models made over the past 20 years, together with a stock of tens of thousands of older parts.
To give just one example, this enables us to overhaul or repair each year a hundred chronograph counters for the Hong Kong firemen who still use them.'
TAG Heuer customer care services handle around 400,000 watches per year. A colossal figure that should be mitigated in that 60 to 70% of this amount relates to battery changes, but which also include an electric test and a water-resistant quality test at 200 meters, at a total cost to the customer of 35 to 60 Swiss francs.
TRANSMITTING THE RIGOROUS SWISS METHODOLOGY
The rest of the care concerns mechanical watches requiring timing, adjustment, an overhaul, a polish or even a change of glass. A mechanism may be thrown out due to a b blow, or in the case of self-winding movements, to an overload due to great amounts of activity, as is often the case with athletes, for example.
Jean-Jacques Racine's work is therefore extremely diverse: for each new model, he has to create tools enabling easy opening of the watch or facilitating the fitting of a new glass.
Above all, however, he is in charge of training the watchmakers working for the customer care service around the world. 'They come from very different countries and it is fascinating to transmit to them our rigorous approach and our working methods, to ensure that TAG Heuer service is as perfect everywhere else as it is in Switzerland.'
Tribune des Arts - Numero special TAG Heuer - avril 2003
[Rating: 5 / 5 stars]
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