FORWARD MARCH

Since it opened three years ago, the Tudor Manufacture and the Kenissi movementmaking facility next door have gone a long way to give Tudor independence and a stronger identity. WatchTime India visited the state-of-the-art facilities...

- Preetika Mathew

As I enter the Tudor Manufacture in Le Locle, Switzerland, in the Jura mountains, a voice floats above the small crowd of noisy journalists that I am part of, announcing that we could take as many photographs and videos that we wanted inside the facility. “If fact, we encourage you to create as much media as you can,” it states. This is the first of many things, as I realise over the course of my visit, that sets the relatively new Tudor manufacture apart from other watch manufactures I have visited. While watch brands encourage questions and are open to providing information on how their timepieces are developed, they generally draw the line at carte blanche photography and videography at the facilities (there are usually designated areas where this is allowed) given the risk of misinterpretation, or worse, the leaking of proprietary information. But Tudor seems to have no such qualms.

The brand’s enthusiasm borders on the celebratory, and that is understandable.

The Tudor manufacture officially opened during last year’s Watches and Wonders, though it was completed in 2021 after three years of being under construction. That’s a period that includes the pandemic, and harsh winters when temperatures dropped to -30°C. “It has been a challenge to build this manufacture,” says a Tudor spokesperson who is responsible for the production facility. “But we were lucky as the builders didn’t stop, and worked under protection to finish the project. Also, this location is in a wet terrain, which created an issue with a lot of water in the ground. So, to stabilise the building, 30m-long concrete was drilled into the ground to touch the bedrock. After that, the building itself was made within six months, with 8,050 cubic metres of concrete, and 1,000 tonnes of metal.”