Everything you need to know about the steps involved in assembling a watch

At Charlie, assembly in France is not just an argument: it's a concrete commitment. It's a conviction, almost a given. From the beginning, we have chosen to assemble our products in France, first in Morteau, then in Paris since 2020, in order to be as close as possible to our clients, with the aim of enhancing the value of the know-how local.

To make a watch Being 100% French remains a complex challenge. However, each piece assembled in the workshop reflects our high standards, our passion, and our commitment to doing things right, with complete transparency. Behind each model, there is more than just assembly: a watchmaker, an approach, a precise gesture, rigorous control. It's about ensuring that every watch that leaves the workshop is ready to accompany you over time and for a long time. It's this attention to detail, this care taken at every stage, that makes the difference. And it's what we will continue to champion, in our own way, day after day.

The multi-step assembly process

A) The pre-assembly phase

1. Sorting and preparation
It all starts long before the smallest component finds its place in a Case. The pre-assembly phase marks the true start. At this stage, each part is received, inspected, and then precisely sorted in order to prepare all the elements needed to assemble a watch model.
This preparatory work, discreet but essential, conditions everything that follows: it allows our watchmakers to concentrate on the precision of the gesture, without interruption, when bringing each watch to life.

2. Installing the dial
The installation of the dial onto the movement marks the true starting point of the assembly. Whether it's a quartz, meca-quartz, or automatic movement, each index and hand will be aligned with this dial, which must be perfectly positioned and secured. It's a work of precision and sure movements, where the eye and hand are in constant dialogue, so that time is expressed accurately.

3. A point of vigilance specific: the switch
Fitting the hands is undoubtedly one of the most delicate steps in the assembly process. It allows for optimizing the assembly workflow in the workshop, ensuring the proper functioning of the movement, and above all, guaranteeing customer satisfaction when reading the dial.
In practice, the pointing consists of positioning with extreme precision the hour, minute, and then second hands on the central pinion of the movement, a rod of infinitesimal diameter, surmounted by a microscopic pivot invisible to the naked eye.
It is important to emphasize that the placement of each hand requires millimeter adjustment: an oriented positioning, a homothetic spacing (sharing of the hands), or other more technical interventions such as a date jump at midnight in the event of the presence of a date complication.

Once the hands are fixed, multiple checks are carried out to avoid any misalignment, which could ultimately compromise the movement's accuracy. Our watchmakers test their synchronization by turning the crown to ensure there is no friction or resistance, and that the hands glide smoothly without touching the hour markers or each other.
In this way, mechanical performance and aesthetic requirements go hand in hand to guarantee the reliability of our watches.

Anecdote: we use gantries to guarantee this regularity.

B) The nesting

Casing is the process of a watch taking shape under its final adjustments, which is the complete assembly of a watch head.

4.An initial quality control check
Each piece is carefully placed on a tray for an initial quality check. This inspection step is essential: it allows us to identify, from the outset, any anomaly that could compromise the precision or reliability of the timepiece.
Working with local partners and assembling in France demands high standards and comes at a cost commensurate with the expertise involved. Here, every minute counts: our watchmakers' time is precious, and every intervention must be precise. This initial quality control check is therefore our best ally in preventing costly errors and guaranteeing a high level of finish for every Charlie watch, right from the first stages of assembly.

5. The Case (or build)
A watch can be equipped with the best movement on the market, and exceptional components, however if the assembly of the Case is not flawless, the durability of a watch will be tested against the realities of everyday life.
At Charlie's, the assembly is done from the front or the back of the Case, depending on the design and specifications of the watch. For example, a dive watch will favor a back-mounted case to optimize its water resistance. This method allows for precise insertion of the movement and dial, while also ensuring easier maintenance: each component can be removed without damaging the Case or sapphire crystal. Conversely, some watches require assembly from the front, before the bezel (bezel-glass assembly) is driven onto the case.
It should be noted that our front-assembled watches allow us, thanks to our new Cases, to no longer use plastic interlocking rings. Our overall approach is part of our vision of sustainable watchmaking, designed to be repaired, not replaced.

6. The final steps
After the assembly of the CaseThen comes the moment to integrate the crown stem prepared beforehand. Once fixed, the watch is almost ready.
The joints are greased, the bottom of the Case is screwed in.

Only the final key steps remain: final quality control, leak testing, and for automatic models, measurement of operating frequency and regulation adjustments.

C) Testing and quality control

In addition to the initial quality control performed after the dial is installed, we carry out several post-assembly checks to prevent any costly errors and ensure that each watch meets our rigorous standards of accuracy and water resistance.

7. Walking (or drift) test
Although perfect assembly is essential, it is the watch's ability to tell time accurately that determines its quality. Our quartz and meca-quartz watches offer perfect accuracy with a maximum tolerance margin of ±20 seconds per month. In contrast, automatic mechanical watches are generally less accurate. Therefore, during assembly, each movement is tested and adjusted to ensure the lowest possible drift.

8. Leak test
Once the accuracy of our watches has been validated, one final essential step remains: the water resistance test. Contrary to what one might think, this test does not involve immersing the watch in water. The most commonly used method is a "dry" pressure test: a technical process that simulates extreme conditions by applying controlled air pressure in a vacuum chamber.
This allows us to check the deformation rate of the Case accurate to the micron, a first indicator to determine if the Case reacts well to this pressure.
All this without ever exposing the watch to water, in order to guarantee its perfect resistance on a daily basis.

9. The final check
Once the assembly is complete, each watch undergoes independent quality control, not always by our team of certified watchmakers within our Parisian workshop.
This step allows us to validate the work done in the workshop and to ensure a constant level of requirement. Despite the rigor of the upstream process, 1 to 4% of watches are sometimes rejected at this stage: they are then set aside for cleaning or checking the hands, for example. An extra effort to ensure that every part delivered is flawless.

Promoting French watchmaking expertise

At Charlie, we choose to be rooted locally. By assembling our watches directly in France, we support skilled jobs and contribute to the transmission of valuable skills for the future of watchmaking. This responsible approach also allows us to better control our production chain: maintaining, repairing, or recycling a watch is much simpler and more sustainable when everything happens locally.