(Part III) AP: The CNC Department
(Cases, bezels and rotors ready to go to quality control and finishing departments)
The second stop on my Audemars Piguet factory tour, was the CNC department. In this department, automated CNC milling machines are used to manufacture cases, bezels, watch hands and more. Most of the machines in this department are controlled by CAD/CAM software, however, some machines are still operated the old-fashioned way, by hand.
AP recently added the capability of making watch hands in-house. (Below are a few shots of the area where watch hands are now made.)
(Part of the milling process that still requires the use of hand operated machines)
(Gold watch hands ready to go to quality control and finishing departments)
(Machine used for milling watch hands)
(Drill bits used to mill watch hands on automated CNC machine.)
Below is a CNC machine used to produce the casebacks for the Royal Oak Offshore. The caseback pictured in the machine below and the casebacks sitting on the finished rack, are actually casebacks for ROO "Survivor" timepieces.
(Royal Oak Offshore caseback in CNC machine)
(Finished Royal Oak Offshore casebacks)
(Metal rods for watch cases and bezels.)
(Gold shavings that are left behind after machine milling process.)
I offered to help clean up these shavings, but my offer was kindly turned down.
Please click the play button below to view a slideshow of all the photos I took in the CNC department.
(Slideshow of entire CNC department tour)
Go to Audemars Piguet tour:
Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V
