With its Hand Made 1, Greubel Forsey raises traditional watchmaking to extraordinary heights. Each piece of this timepiece is in fact made entirely by hand, from the movement to the case, from the leather strap to the dial and hands, with the sole exception of the sapphire crystals, case gaskets, bars, precious stones and mainspring. A hand-crafted creation at 95% that required a workload of 6,000 hours for each individual watch: the equivalent of three years' labour, if one limits the calculation to the time spent on production alone and not on development. Just the completion of the tourbillon cage alone took almost 35 times as long as it would normally take; while making a single Hand Made 1 wheel took 600 times as long as it would normally take for a high-end industrial wheel. Much of the underlying mechanics can be seen through the opening in the dial, which is distinguished both by its hand-enamelled minute track, offset by elegant flame-blued steel hands, and by the original Hand Made inscription at 6 o'clock that replaces the traditional Swiss Made inscription. The watch, whose production is limited to two or three pieces per year, is among the nominees in the Men's Complicate category of the upcoming GPHG 2020.
