 The Production of the up to 420 parts of our complex movements takes time. Engraving the scales for a silvered dial alone takes 50 minutes. A clockmaker needs a full working day to make a matching set of hands: the hour, minute and second hands. Each hand is filed in the traditional way to produce a half round shape, the clockmaker calls it »profiling«. Afterwards the hands are sanded, polished, and heated with a gas flame until they have an even shiny blue colour. Our plates, between which all moving parts are mounted, are made from hardened brass. They are up to 5 mm thick and extremely solid. Each bearing hole is individually positioned and drilled in our CNC controlled machine. This takes longer than simultaneous drilling in multi-spindle machines, but it is much more precise. The elegantly shaped wheels centres are not punched out, but are milled. They are mounted on solid, hardened, arbors with precisely milled teeth. For lasting protection against oxidation all brass parts are gold-plated. The use of agate pallets, jewelled bearings and modern ball bearings optimizes performance and avoids material wear. The clocks require relatively small driving weights and run a long time without servicing. The use of high-grade materials and our computerised machines, but most importantly the high standard that each employee expresses in his work, result in the unique Sattler quality. Completion of a new Sattler movement, before it can be fitted in its case, can take up to 2 years. A long time, but actually nothing, compared with the centuries a Sattler clock will last: clocks for generations. |
