If one was to characterise Pratt’s work, then the following comes to mind:

• Tradition, particularly the use of ancient techniques and machines
• Perfection, to the most stubborn degree
• Complexity, even if that impinges on commercial use of a mechanisms

I’ll come back to this later.

Fast forward, to a day in late April this year. I head over to Vaumarcus Castle near Neuchâtel to visit Atelier 7h38 (not sure if that’s the time they start working in the morning or when they close in the evenings, probably both…), the watchmaking workshop of Luca Soprana and his team of 5 watchmaker colleagues. I wanted to understand why ‘Derek’ made such an impression on me.

As soon as the doors open, I cannot help but feel transported well back in time:

This comes as close as possible to a boy’s dream of a place where a medieval alchemist practices his magic. Decades, if not centuries old lathes, jig borers, angling or stamping tools and many more are there in splendid abundance (the youngest machine is a home-made CNC which technically is 15 years old… but all the components except motors and control are from the 1960’s!), and one gets the impression that the computers used there are only little younger.

Vintage (but not outdated) is also the literature the team draws upon. Of course, there is a copy of George Daniel’s ‘Watchmaking’ book, except this here looks really well used. But there was also a book unknown to me, Egidio Garuffa’s ‘Orlogeria Moderna’, an Italian watchmaking compendium which already in detail describes the principle of the remontoir Pratt would ultimately attempt to realise.

Needless to say that I scored my own copy shortly after the visit after a hunt on eBay Italia… Lucky me!

All these machines are not decoration, they are used day to day. Atelier 7h38 does not shy away from modern CNC in principle, but resorts to them only for very limited task, such as to mill out the spokes of gear wheels.

It is immediately obvious that such a workshop cannot produce in serial quantities – at least not in large ones. What is crafted here are handmade timepieces of splendid quality and attention to the detail. I am sure this is not the first time you have heard such a claim, but in this case we find a lot of substance to it.

At a watchmaker’s etabli I noticed a watchmaker assembling what to me looked like another finishing variant of the Derek Pratt Remontoir – with silver instead of the rose gold coloured bridges that the prototype had. Not unusual at a level of this watch that a client would order a few bespoke details.

(movement of the Derek Pratt by Luca Soprana: top, prototype; bottom, a production one in the making)

But I was wrong, as Luca explained: each movement is technically completed and then assembled a first time to ascertain that it functions perfectly and keeps time well before it is finally finished. Only when getting very close and using my loupe I noticed that the parts were not yet in their ultimate state – so well is the machining and the pre-finish done (and the watchmaker was quite proud already of this!).

(balance cock finishing: top, pre-finished; bottom, finished cock)

Checking the performance of a movement not only has workflow advantages (one spends the time-intensive handwork only on parts that deserve it), but this also ensures that eventually necessary adjustment measures leave no traces on the bridges.

Speaking of finishing, it is of course at an exceptional level and done entirely by hand. Luca showed me custom wheel holding tools which enable a watchmaker to bevel wheel spokes with considerable depth. I was stunned enough by this example that I forgot to take a picture…

Each completed movement offers insights which are implemented in the following ones, and as consequence parts are often not interchangeable between individual movements. To illustrate this Luca pointed me to the supporting bridges of the remontoir mechanism on the dial side. If one compares the prototype with the movement currently being assembled the differences are clear, with the new layout offering ease of positioning and more stability on the adjustment.

(movement of the Derek Pratt by Luca Soprana, dial side: left, prototype; right, a production one in the making. Note the heat blued hardened barrel wheels, the blue will be brushed off still. Take also note on the different remontoir support bridge assemblies at 7 o’clock!)

Perfection! Oh wait, there is something really fascinating to show: please take a close look at the screw heads that fix the bridges:

Notice the slots are all arranged with a defined angle? This is not coincidence or a feature of the prototype, this is deliberate. Atelier 7h38 turns their screws themselves, and adjust the length of each screw individually such that when mounted the slots look well arranged (comparable effort on screw finishing are only known to us, at least, from Marco Lang) … what an effort spent on such a minuscule detail!

Also the hair springs are finished in the atelier, i.e., they come raw from a specialist supplier and then at Atelier 7h38 are individually bent to perfection and ultimately heat blued. Note how they are flat like a mirror:

And I am not the least surprised that the espresso served is close to perfect as well (although Luca apologised for not yet having finalised the ultimate grinding grade of the beans… one reason more to return!):

So let me recall the characteristics of Derek Pratt’s watchmaking: tradition, perfection, and complexity – all three items are here as well, and with exactly the same qualification that I noted further above. As such, I think, this is the exact reason why Jenny Pratt, Derek’s widow, entrusted the realisation of her late husband’s dream to the team around Luca Soprana. Luca told me that Jenny is very closely overseeing the progress and offering her suggestions and criticisms (and at times her veto as well).