IF ONLY WALLS COULD SPEAK - Blancpain

Manually calibrating
the balance spring
of the tourbillon.
This traditional
hand-craft method
is still practiced
by Blancpain
Waters. This stereotype also trespasses on
her turf. This woman chef not only is one of
the most celebrated in the world, but she
transformed restaurant cooking in the
United States. More than that, she completely
revolutionized food production and
food markets. Remember spam in the US
actually is a food made up of meat parts of
je ne sais quoi. Thanks to Alice, markets now
brim with artisanal, organic, sparkling fresh
ingredients.
Had enough? So far our stereotypes seem
not to be holding up very well. Maybe there
is a reason these things should never be
spoken. It’s because—to put a fine point on
it—they are so often wrong. But living
dangerously, let’s spin another one.
4. Watchmakers who work on the most
complicated watches are grizzled gray old
men.
Well, we seem to have put a false foot down
again. And to demonstrate that point, enter
Blancpain’s 22 year old prodigy. In a little
over two years of working at Blancpain, his
first and only employer since graduating
from the Ecole Technique du Vallée de Joux
(Switzerland’s most prestigious watchmaking
school), he has sprinted up the ladder
of his profession to work in Le Brassus
on Blancpain’s complicated watches. I first
met him during a visit to the atelier to learn
about the plans for the renovation (now
completed) of the farmhouse. Accustomed
as I was to seeing if not grizzled, at least
senior watchmakers working at the
benches in Le Brassus, I gazed in
and saw this unmistakably young,
(could this even be a teenager?), hunched
over a bench (or if you are building your
French watchmaking vocabulary “etabli”)
upon which was perched a tourbillon. Freely
confessing to age prejudice, I lurched to halt,
mouth gaping with the same disbelief as if I
had seen Paris Hilton sliding into the captain’s
seat of a 747. Summoning my most
diplomatic French, I muttered something
sotto voce to the senior watchmakers squiring
me around about le jeune homme in
the atelier with a tourbillon! “Of course!”
they replied he is one of our most talented
young watchmakers. Two days later, attending
the Blancpain summer picnic in
Lausanne, along the shores of Lac Léman I
struck up a conversation with him. After
amiably chatting the usual cocktail party
… AND OF THOSE THREE GRADUATES FROM
WATCHMAKING SCHOOL TWO CHOSE BLANCPAIN
TO BEGIN THEIR CAREERS.
fluff, I mentioned that I had seen him the
other day up in Le Brassus working on a
tourbillon. I might as well have thrown a
switch. Immediately his eyes sparkled and
his demeanor became all business. Indeed,
that was the first tourbillon upon which he
had worked and making that unmistakably
Gaullic gesture of thumb and forefinger
brought to the lips, it was working “sweetly”.
At once, I concluded I must write a story
of how this 22 year old has achieved so
much in his profession.
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