Is there any "handmade" part in a Rolex?

[padi56]

"The assembly of a Rolex chronometer is still done entirely by hand"these IMHO are just words.Much like Rolex used to boast it take 12 months to make a Rolex oyster,now at one time Rolex was producing around 900000 plus units a year.Now if all these movements were 100% assembled by hand they sure must have a lot of watchmakers on there payrol.And Switzerland is one country with the most public holidays in a year and production must be run 24/7 with a huge workforce to completely hand assemble remember there are only almost 8760 hours in a year .

[Adam K.]

Originally Posted by Fredrik

For me, this means that the mating of case, movement, dial and hands are made by hand. I would still assume the movement itself is machine assembled.

I realize that Rolex has some of the most advanced automated technology on this planet to make a whole shyt-ton of watches, but it had better be some level of insane awesomeness if it can take the 200+ parts (notably more in movements like that in the YMII) in a current movement and throw them all together with surgical accuracy in a completely functioning whole that requires little or no adjustment, to say nothing of fine regulation. I've watched (hand) assembly vids of the 3135 and there's quite a bit going on, to say the least---I have a hard time seeing how anything without fingers...or, finger like structures with similar dexterity to a human hand....could manage the task. Its not just like bolting two things together and *BAM* yer done.

Maybe Rolex has an army of watchmaker androids like Bishop from Aliens? Maybe the machines get a basic "head start" on assembly and leave the remaining 65-75% to an assembly staff who then pass that off to a regulation team who get those bopping within COSC specs before the suckers are shipped off uncased for testing? Maybe the assemblers have access to a few specialized machines that greatly enhance the assembly operations they do? Even AP has some things like this...I recall reading about an automated station that applied various viscosities of lube in exact amounts to various places on 3120 movements undergoing assembly. Another possibility is that movement assembly is divided so that teams of specialists devote the efforts to specific assembly tasks so that the construction process is as streamlined and fast as possible to achieve the desired productivity:quality ratio.

(Maybe I'm wildly guessing? Oh for sure on that! )

The thing is none of us really know as the brand is secretive as hell, and understands "efficient" better than just about any company on the planet. Its definitely a bit alchemic and spooky, honestly, but whatever they do behind the green glass works like crap through a goose. And so long as the watches themselves ain't craptastic quality--and they certainly aren't--I really can't fault the robots/androids/oompa loompa slaves/Swiss orphans/etc.