Now Loading...Only after carefully integrating hundreds of arts and skills does a watch truly come to life.
There are about 60 master craftsmen with ultimately refined watchmaking techniques. These are the independent-thinking artisans who constitute the heart and soul of Shizukuishi watch studio. From parts production through to processing, assembly, adjustment, on up to testing, the watch-making process is fully integrated, with master craftsmen offering their own techniques freely each step of the way. This enables a start-to-finish integration that is very rare in the world today, and is the very reason the studio’s watches boast timekeeping accuracy that is absolutely astonishing.
Precisely carved, meticulously finished, mere metal is brought to life.
The number of separate parts that are built into one mechanical watch can at times exceed 200. Optimum dexterity is required by the craftsmen for each and every part to be intricately shaped down in size by as little as 0.01 mm and minutely trimmed down in weight by as little as 0.01 g. The parts are then tempered degree by degree and second by second, and even the air temperature and humidity are painstakingly factored in, as a watch’s real precision is determined by the precision of its individual parts. In the final stage, state-of-the-art equipment and tools are used as extensions of the craftsmen’s hands, to allow them to hone the metal with infinitesimal precision.
Assembling the heart of the watch with unbelievable 0.01 mm precision.
Holding their breath while peering into the microscope in utter silence are about 20 craftsmen, the elite of the elite, who are entrusted with assembling and adjusting the watch movement. The thinnest movement is less than 2 mm thick. The assembly craftsmen very minutely and delicately position the gears that go inside, then the adjustment craftsman use an awl to intricately adjust the error imbalance in micron units. The accuracy is from minus 3 to plus 5 seconds per day*. The eyes and fingertips of the master craftsmen achieve an extraordinary precision that is beyond imagination. * NOTE: These figures are for Caliber 9S movements.
Repeatedly tried and tested until fully qualified
to tell time with the absolute accuracy.
A watch is not a mere ornament. The studio demands that its watches be of the highest utility.
To the static accuracy, required when the watch itself remains still, must be added a mobile accuracy when the watch is on someone’s wrist and subject to movement. Positions are changed, the air temperature is altered, but can even this minute attention to detail ensure absolute accuracy?
Computer simulations are also used, but actual measurements are still scrupulously repeated until there is complete assurance that the watch is genuinely dependable.
