Manufacture is the short name for a manufacture d’horlogerie: a watch factory that makes its watches almost entirely itself. It does not just finish them. Its movements are usually called in-house movements. The term sets such firms apart from those that use bought-in base movements. Even in Switzerland, though, it has no fixed definition.
What counts as a manufacture?
There is no single agreed test. The loosest one asks only that a firm does not use bought-in base movements from suppliers such as ETA or Sellita. A stricter test asks the maker to produce movement parts itself. The most respected manufactures go further and develop their own materials. A firm can still count as a manufacture if it buys in some parts, such as the watch glass or the hairspring. Rolex and Grand Seiko are described as true manufactures. They make everything themselves, which is known as full vertical integration.
Where it comes from
The word first comes from a French word for a factory or a workshop where things are made by hand. The full French term, manufacture d’horlogerie, means a watchmaking manufacturer. English has borrowed it, and watch people usually shorten it to manufacture. In 1866 Antoine LeCoultre and his son Elie founded LeCoultre & Cie. It was the first full manufacture in the Vallée de Joux, and it brought their workers’ skills together in one building. The words manufacture and in-house first became popular as marketing terms in the 1980s.
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