Instead of showing at Baselworld this year, Swatch Group invited press to come to their top six manufactures in Switzerland in a whirlwind tour. Swatch not only wanted to show off the innovative watches from each brand but also how they’re made and where. Small groups of journalists spend three days traveling around Switzerland viewing the ateliers and manufacturing process for the brands: Blancpain, Breguet, Omega, Jaquet Droz, Harry Winston, and Glashütte Original.

Press got to see watch production through the stages, or a T-Tour as its called; T for Terminaison, French for “finishing”. There are five stages of production from T0 (the making of movement parts) to T4 (packing and shipping). While a lot of parts are machine made to begin with, most parts are hand made and finished and then hand assembled; it can take a week to produce a dial or a movement by hand. But the finished piece shows that all this effort is worth the time. After an intense and immersive tour, these journalists got to see first hand all the hard work and dedication that goes into watchmaking and gained a deeper appreciation for the complexity and difficulty of the craft.

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