What we do to a watch before you see it

Why any of this is published at all

Every shop in this trade says the words quality control. Almost none of them say what is measured, against what, or what happens when a piece fails. The difference between a claim and a check is whether it can be described, so here is ours described.

First inspection: against the reference, not a photograph

A piece arrives from the atelier and is measured before it is admired. Case diameter, lug-to-lug, thickness, bracelet taper and clasp width against the reference's own dimensions. Dial print under magnification: the crown coronet, the depth rating line, the position of the minute track, the font of the date wheel. Bezel action counted click by click — 120 on a dive bezel, and if it is 119 or gritty on one of them, it is not sold.

Lume is charged and photographed in the dark for colour and evenness. Weight is put on a scale, because weight is the one thing a photograph cannot fake and the first thing a hand notices.

Then the movement, over a full day

The watch is wound, set, and left on the timing machine for 24 hours in more than one position. We are looking for rate, beat error and amplitude that hold rather than a single good reading. The date is run forwards through midnight to see whether it snaps or drifts. Chronograph pushers are cycled, reset and cycled again. The crown is screwed down and unscrewed enough times to find a bad thread.

Anything that hesitates goes back. The rate we end with is the figure that appears on your film, for your watch — not an average across a batch.

Second inspection: the one before it is boxed

Days may pass between the first inspection and your order, and a watch can be knocked in that time. So it is checked again the day it is packed: glass and case under a light for marks, hands aligned at 12, the bracelet cleaned, screws seated, and the crown down.

The film, and your yes

Your exact watch is filmed under macro — dial, caseback, clasp, and the movement running — and sent to you before anything is sealed. You watch it, and either you say yes or you do not. Nothing leaves the bench on an assumption.

A watch is not sold in a photograph. It is sold the moment somebody turns it over and finds nothing to forgive.

Once you approve it, the piece is sealed, double-boxed in an unbranded outer and handed to an insured courier: one to two business days to prepare, five to ten to arrive, tracked door to door. Fourteen days to return it, thirty to exchange it, two years of warranty against mechanical defects.