How long does it take to produce a watch?

[MILGAUSS88]

There was another thread were I had discussed how many watches are made per employee each, for different major brands.
I thought it would make it more relatable to figure out how long it takes to produce one watch based on a companies annual production and number of employees.

I could not use several fine watch companies, because the produced jewelry as well and could not find the number of employees that were exclusive to watches. Such as Breguet, Bvlgari and Chopard.
I understand that this is not perfect, it does not take into consideration companies that have the plates created by another company, like Gronefeld or companies that make parts for other companies like Voutilainen.

I received all my information from google searches, no professional newsletter.
I listed the producer, the number of watches they produce each year, the number of employees, how many watches the company produces per employee/per year, and finally what that would translate into how long it would take one employee to produce one watch.

And here are the results:

[MILGAUSS88]

Results that surprised me:
Wow, 15 months for Gruebel Forsey. Incredible.
Blancpain and PF spend more time on there watches than any of the Holy Trinity.
Speaking of the Holy Trinity, it appears Vacheron, spends considerable more time than AP or PP.
Moser and GO spend more time on there watches than FP Journe or Patek.
Richard Mille spends less man hours than Rolex producing there watches.
IWC and Panerai produce about the same number of watches, yet IWC has 400 more employers.

[l_chissle]

RM time might be thrown off if they have a just a ton of people doing marketing.

[MILGAUSS88]

Originally Posted by LPC6

RM time might be thrown off if they have a just a ton of people doing marketing.

There is an inverse relationship. So, if true, that would indicate it takes less time for them to produce a watch. Not more.

[enjoythemusic]

Interesting chart. Thanks for dedicating your time, looks quite interesting indeed!

[brandrea]

There you go … you can build a Patek do faster than a Rolex

[gilluminati204]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I am shocked to see how fast RM produces their watches.

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[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by gilluminati204

I am shocked to see how fast RM produces their watches.

Why?

[gilluminati204]

Originally Posted by enjoythemusic

Why?

Because 10.5 days seems quite fast when compared to GF/ALS/KV/Debethune.

I was expecting the production time to be somewhat in their ballpark given the high demand/resale.

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[solaire]

Interesting post but the major bone of contention for me is that not all employees make watches.

Then you have to factor in how many complications and employees trained at that level, then adding in manual v machine work on movements, case etc


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[sgrossma]

Love this chart. Thanks for sharing

[Russell996]

Interesting chart but very hard to draw too much hard info to be honest.

I understood from various sources that Rolex employs no more than 4000 in it's watch production, I would be surprised if it takes more than a few hours to make a watch?
Additionally many companies (such as ALS) outwork all their case and buckle production which means they can devote considerable extra time to movement work per employee.

[JakeK]

very interesting. thanks for sharing.

[ts3]

Interesting data but I cannot believe Rolex to have 30000 employees as wikipedia suggests. I have read 7000 combined in Geneva and Biel and a total of just above 10000.

[CoveWatch]

That's really interesting. Appreciate you sharing.

[WatchEater666]

I wonder how much is due to better production methodology and scale efficiency though. Cool regardless. Thanks.

[malba2366]

Very hard to make this comparison based on number of employees. An independent watchmaker such has Rolex would have a lot more workers in non production roles (ie. finance, business functions, marketing, service departments, R&D, designers etc.) than would watchmakers such as Omega or TAG Heuer where many roles would be employed throuh by their corporate owners and shared amongst multiple brands. Also, many sites show Rolex having much fewer employees than 30000 as Wikipedia says (Wikipedia also says Rolex annual production is 2000000+, which is higher than most other sources).

[nicky77]

Interesting numbers, I however would also think that Rolex production time is in hours not days, as they are not hand made other than the gem set ones (the setting being done by hand).

[JR16]

Sooooo… love the data in the first few columns but the last column (days/months to make a watch) should be deleted as it is entirely inaccurate . As another poster mentioned, not all employees make watches. Watchmakers make watches. And not every watch maker can make every watch. Some can make simple uncomplicated watches while maybe only a few can make a PC or tourbillion.


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