Watches that can cost as much as a house

Swiss Public Television, RTS, was recently given the rare chance to go behind the scenes at Greubel ForseyExternal link in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a company that specialises in designing and manufacturing high-end watches. Company co-founder Stephen Forsey explains the intricate details of his timepieces.

The watches generally have multiple tourbillons and inclined balance wheels that make the timepieces extra expensive. The company employs more than one hundred people, with the majority in the hand-finishing department. All this attention to detail comes at a price, of course. The Tourbillon 24 Secondes Vision introduced in 2015 cost under CHF300,000 ($298,300). But the timepiece featured in this report costs more than CHF1 million. 

Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey launched their first watch, the Double Tourbillon 30° (DT30°), under their own brand “Greubel Forsey” at BaselWorldExternal link watch fair in 2004, after many years of development. In 2011, a Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon Technique watch won the coveted International Chronometry Competition held by the Le Locle Museum of Horology.External link (RTS/swissinfo.ch)