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Part 3: Quality Control In fact, each and every piece, before it can end up becoming a part of a Daniel Roth watch, goes through a very stringent quality control process, be it produced internally or externally. During our discussions with the head of the Quality Control department, we actually discovered that their internal production workshop is treated in the exact same way as any other external supplier, and even appears as such in their internal statistics! The whole process is now computerized, and the people doing it go through a step-by-step approach guided along by the computer interface itself, which lists out each thing they have to watch out for, depending on what they are checking.  Several pieces of equipment are used to perform various checks on the parts: metal hardness is tested through a dedicated machine which puts a given amount of pressure onto the metal, and then, depending on the depth of the dent made, is able to judge the metal hardness. Cases are tested for water resistance in water while they are empty, and again in air once they house their movement. Dials and movement parts are checked against their drawings through a profile projection machine, which basically projects an image of the part onto its corresponding drawing, immediately allowing one to see if anything is grossly out of alignment or out of place. Of course, more “traditional” equipment is used to test the rate and winding system of the watches.  Each faulty part detected is immediately photographed, so that evidence can be included in the letter which is then sent back to the supplier together with the bad part. In extreme cases, the head of Quality Control will actually go to visit the supplier to discuss how to resolve a problem, and by now he has actually taken the habit of inspecting most of the production runs directly at the manufacturer’s plant, whenever possible, so that he can refuse them right there and then if they are not up to specs.
All the rejection and acceptance figures are recorded in the same computerized system, so that they can easily tell over time who are the good suppliers with low return rates, and who are the bad ones with high rates. Normally, they will give bad suppliers a chance to get their act together, but if they do not, then they simply drop them and go elsewhere. The computerized system also tracks the time that the quality control team spend checking each element, so that at the end of each period they can monitor their work against these standards, and know whether they are performing well as a team or not. They also use these reporting facilities to give quarterly reports back to their suppliers, be these good or bad.  After each watch has been fully assembled, the watch heads are again tested by his quality control team, and if they pass the final tests they are fitted with the strap, polished if necessary so that they are impeccable, and put in a vacuum sealed back together with the bulletin indicating the watch's performance. This is how the watches go into stock; if the bag is then opened for whatever reason, the watch must come back to quality control before being able to reintegrate the stocks!!! Talk about stringent quality control procedures.
Part 3: Components Now that you have seen how the parts necessary to make up a tourbillon movement are made and checked for quality, I propose that we peek over the shoulder of the head of the “Atelier des Grandes Complications”, while he assembles a Daniel Roth 8-Day Tourbillon movement, caliber 720, just for ThePuristS’ benefit ... First, we’ll start by looking at all the various bits and pieces which he had laid out on his workbench in preparation for their assembly:
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