There are a variety of fine watches produced today by a multitude of companies, both old and young. Part of the appeal of luxury mechanical watchmaking is in the complexity and fine details of the ticking mechanisms which make these marvels work. Within the specialized market that luxury watches represent, few terms raise the pulse of the horological devotee like the term "manufacture". What is a true Manufacture? What does it mean when one hears that a movement in a given watch is "manufacture"? This article will briefly touch upon these questions, and attempt to offer some insight.
A "Manufacture" is a company who produces at least one movement in house, as opposed to purchasing complete movements--however excellent--from an outside supplier. The term "in house", although elusive to define, generally means that the movement is conceived with the near exclusive guidance of the company in question and produced in a factory owned by that company. If a few parts, such as the hairspring (the circular spring thinner than a human hair mounted in the balance wheel), screws or jewel settings are made by an outside supplier, that movement is still considered a true manufacture movement because the great bulk of the mechanism is an exclusive design. Some companies, however, are nearing 100% autonomy with movement production, one example being Roger Dubuis, who has finally gained the ability to produce even their own hairsprings. This part is typically purchased from Nivarox, which is a subsidiary of the massive SWATCH group of companies, and their client list in the watch industry for this critical component is long and illustrious. Glashutte Original too, has great autonomy of manufacture in their facility, and even the screws are produced on their own premises, to say nothing of plates, bridges, wheels and other "large" components.
Examples of "manufacture" watch companies today include Audemars Piguet, which has within the last several years introduced two new in-house conceived and built movements---the manual wind caliber 3090, and the automatic winding C.3120. These two "basic" movements join a long list of exclusive in-house movements that Audemars Piguet has constructed to showcase their highest complications, including tourbillons and minute repeaters. Chopard, with their exceptionally fine L.U.C. calibers, have distinguished themselves in a short period of time as a premier manufacture of the highest quality. Girard-Perregaux, too, has shown themselves to be notable as a manufacture, both of basic automatic movements, and masterpieces of great technical complexity; they have also been developing exclusive movements for their subsidiary, Daniel Jean-Richard. As mentioned above, Roger Dubuis has attained the status of an exceptionally self-reliant manufactory with it's very refined and technically demanding movements. IWC has also gotten itself back into the manufacture game with a reintroduced "Pellaton" caliber that made them famous in the 1950's---such movements are found in some of the new Ingenieur line, as well as the Big Pilot, the new Portuguese perpetual calendar, and others. For years now, Piaget has been a highly respected movement producer who specializes in ultra-thin movements.
Other notable companies producing one or more movements in house include in alphabetical order, A. Lange & Sohne,Jaeger Le-Coultre, Minerva, Parmigiani,Patek Philippe, Rolex, Vacheron & Constantin, and Zenith. Some gifted independent watchmakers such as George Daniels, Philippe Dufour, Roger Smith, Francois-Paul Journe and others have made their own movements as well. Breguet too, could now probably be considered "manufacture", because the SWATCH group, which owns it, has also acquired the traditional movement producer Nouvelle Lemania, and utilized this resource to produce exclusive movements for Breguet's complicated watches. Blancpain might fall in this category as well, since both it and it's movement producer Frederic Piguet are also both under the stewardship of the SWATCH group, and many of the Piguet movements are specifically built for Blancpain.
In some cases, companies offer their own movements to an exclusive few high-end producers. This tradition is not new, and indeed, in the late 1800's through early 20th century, many fabulous complication pieces by Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and other elites were built upon "ebauches" (raw movements) made by LeCoultre, Victorin Piguet and other specialists. Before Rolex developed their own chronograph movement in 2000, Zenith supplied them with it's "El Primero" chronograph caliber; Zenith still delivers the movement to Parmigiani. Today, Girard-Perregaux supplies it's fine movements to Harry Winston for some of it's models, and Audemars Piguet, while increasingly becoming an independent force in it's movement production, still uses certain base calibers from Jaeger-LeCoultre, a company whom it has had a long relationship with, and shares many historical roots with in Switzerland's Vallee de Joux--- the Swiss nation's most traditional watchmaking location, sometimes called the "Cradle of Watchmaking". Besides Audemars, Jaeger Le-Coultre also supplies it's excellent Manufacture base movements to a few other choice clients.
Not all companies believe in the sanctity of the word "Manufacture". Ulysse Nardin, as a prime example, largely shuns the term, even though several of their movements, such as those found in the Sonata, and the Freak, certainly fit the definition, and cannot be attributed to anyone else. Rolf Schnyder, who directs Ulysse Nardin, takes great pride in offering movements, which are built upon tried and tested technology from both ETA and Lemania, but contain innovative and exclusive modifications which elevate them far above the basic kit form in which the movements are received. IWC too, while branching more into manufacture calibers, continues to offer many basic models with ETA technology, and feels no need for apology. It should be noted that IWC receives such movements in kit format, and modifies these considerably, even replacing many parts with their own more deluxe components.
There seems to be a consensus that "manufacture" movements will probably become more widespread in the industry as suppliers such as ETA, Frederic Piguet and Lemania (all owned by the SWATCH concern) increasingly restrict their movement production to companies outside of their group. Girard-Perregaux has also indicated that it will tighten the reigns on it's 3300 caliber automatic movements and not make it available to others, even though their client list is already extremely exclusive in scope. Zenith has made it clear that it's "El Primero" chronograph movements will only be made available to the most exclusive of outside companies, reasoning that the only time their watch movements should be in a watch other than their own, is when the movement is appearing in something even more expensive and exclusive! Parmigiani meets that criteria, and because of that, it remains one of the very few companies Zenith still supplies to.
"Manufacture" movements remain a source of pride for companies, because it demonstrates their technical expertise and depth of horological experience. Watch lovers too, greatly prize the cachet behind the knowledge that the mechanism in their watch is not found in many--if indeed, any---watches other than the one whose name is on the dial. As producers of both widely available movements, such as ETA, and smaller producers too gradually restrict their sales to outside companies, movements made in-house may eventually become an industry necessity, rather than a mere point of prestige, as is now the case. Only time will tell.