Tudor : from design to production
Collected statements between the designer and the engineer, in the Tudor�s watches creation backstage.

� In my design, the notion of industry is necessarily present. A design is successful when it has an industrial vision of manufacturing.� � We work together every day, we are in a perpetual discussion. � Ander Ugarte and Eric Pirson are respectively designer and chief of production at Tudor. The watch manufacturing is based on this dialogue, this back and forth game between one�s drawing and one�s technical realization. � I improved the stature� Take a look at this horn aesthetic� Do you think that bezel is feasible? � are part of their daily exchanges.

Everything moves faster in this proximity where the workshop is a laboratory which lets intuition run freely. �We get around in an intuitive way. We are looking for something, then a door opens, and we discover a universe that we can exploit in another way by going further �, Ander Ugarte explains.

� We introduce elements, historical codes of the establishment and, like a recipe, we have to find the right balance between the object itself, the brand and its story. And that is the Tudor style. The fact, for instance, of putting a red piece on a model�s hand can change everything. �

His inspiration, Ander Ugarte finds it in everything that is happening in society, in architecture, art or even automobile: �I try to transmit a mix of all of that through a contemporary watch.� It is in that search for modernity that design and production express their collaboration with the highest intensity.

A design is successful when it has an industrial vision of manufacturing. � Ander Ugarte, designer for Tudor

The new Heritage Black Bay Bronze is a good illustration of that. The designer wanted to adapt this historical model for bronze. � There are many bronzes, all different. Which one should we choose, which one fits us, which one passes the tests? �, Ander Ugarte explains. Eric Pirson continues : � The establishment never made bronze so we were starting from scratch. Ander had an additional constraint: we wanted a patina watch, which lives. But that did not correspond to Tudor�s DNA, to the typical reliability of the brand�s offer. So we worked on an alloy giving a patina and where some of the risks linked to reliability and durability are annihilated. � Ander Ugarte adds : � �This project required a lot (three year) of work. We chose a material which we subjected to very advanced tests. We wanted a homogenous patina, not one that would look dirty or stained. It was a very important technical argument and, once we found the good potential alloy, there was all the industrial process.�

� We do not do just two pieces, they are not limited sets. So we must be able to produce an important number. � The stake is indeed the transition between design and production: � Creating beautiful things and repeating them. Today, the technical challenge is mastered, the industrial challenge is to increase the production capacity.�

In the same way, the fabric bracelets manufacturing became very technical and the two men are consulting each other: � The weavings are complex, they mix tradition and technology and use hundred-year-old professions. The crossroad between industrial universes is interesting: the pure watch manufacturing and the weaving. � Ander Ugarte points out. Eric Pirson takes over: � We launch aesthetic researches by changing the threads, the potential is incalculable. � They only ask to blossom in this team work where voices mingle and answer each other.