MASTER MECHANICS

34 MANUFACTURING europa star
clones, but they are compatible.” In passing,
we might add that Laurent Besse casts a
doubtful eye on the famous ETA clones. In his
opinion, “ETA is absolutely unbeatable in the
domain of cutting tools and not one of its rivals
can touch it, at least not for now”.
The thought behind this approach has permitted
LAH to offer a complete range of classic
complications, a totally personalizable range
that will allow the creation of their specialties,
which include the tourbillon in first place. This
approach also lets them plan for the longterm
vision, to think globally about the collection
and the reliability of its production. By
standardizing a large part of the components
and by being able to purchase in large quantities,
they ensure their production according
to industrial criteria, thus offering better reliability
and greater precision.
Since 2008, LAH has proposed five basic calibres,
ranging from 8'''3/4 to 13'''3/4, available
in more than 40 versions, with manual
winding, automatic winding (equipped with a
circular oscillating weight, their great singularity
or a small exocentric weight), and even
manual winding with a tourbillon escapement
(another great specialty).
The importance of dialogue
In a few years, their proposition, coupled with
their ability to personalize products to the
extreme, attracted strongly different brands
that asked for specific movements. Among
these brands are Maurice Lacroix (Mémoire 1
and Pontos Excentrique, for example), MB&F
(with which it has a very close collaboration,
resulting in notably the HM1 and the HM4
Thunderbolt), Harry Winston, Universal Genève,
British Masters, Peter Speake-Marin, Rebellion,
Zeitwinkel, etc. Clearly these brands are quite
different from each other.
“In the approach to design and construction,
it is necessary to have a very detailed dialogue
with the brand that asks you to design a
movement,” explains Laurent Besse, “because
each time you have to find the internal logic of
the brand and succeed in mechanically express-
ing its DNA. So, in order to take this logic to its
full potential, we will go as far as creating the
case in certain cases, and even in designing
the final packaging. We are, of course, watch
engineers, but we are also closely interested in
industrial design”.
Economies of scale
One of the reasons for this success is due to the
economies of scale that are fostered by the
‘Lego method’. Despite the fact that they make
essentially only small series of timepieces, LAH
can still offer an extremely attractive price/quality
ratio thanks to the economies realized as
much in the realm of construction as in production,
stock management, assembly and the
ability to meet deadlines.
“Today, we make 1,000 movements per year,
but our goal is to increase this number and to
lower our costs even more, while remaining a
small player, working exclusively in specialty
watchmaking. We hope to increase these
numbers to 5,000 to 10,000 movements per
year within five years.” Is the moment right?
“It is correct to say that movement makers
are currently suffering more than during the
height of the crisis. Brands are apprehensive,
fearful. They want to offer exclusivities, amazing
products, but they don’t dare move for-
ward. Pressure on pricing has also increased.
Investors are holding back. We recently studied
a demand that would have resulted in
50,000 movements, with the creation of a
factory, but the green light never came…”
Another savings factor is the modesty and
flexibility of LAH’s own structure. Today 15
people are divided between R&D, construction,
prototyping, logistics, controls, the preparation
of kits and the assembly of small series
(assembly of more than 200 pieces is done in
partnership.)
“We don’t want to grow too big and, notably,
we do not envision producing the pieces ourselves.
On the contrary, as indicated by the
three wall clocks at the entrance, we operate
between Le Locle, where we are based, La
Chaux-de-Fonds, and Neuchâtel, where we
have developed a dense network of favoured