Quality Watchmaking

Time Concepts (TC) has been developing watches for more than a decade, and its owners for more than 3 decades. We manufacture watches in Europe (Switzerland) and Asia (China), and have relationships with several factories in both locales, having worked in both regions for many years. After many years of working with various factories in both Switzerland and China, we now have superlative manufacturers of watches with whom we work today. We pay particular attention to the way our watches are manufactured and produced. Over the years, we've observed many brands that tout themselves as Swiss Made as if this was the most important aspect of how a watch is manufactured, but we've come to realize it's not where they are made, but rather how they are made that matters most. Since components for most Swiss Made watches are made in China, imported to Switzerland, assembled in Switzerland with a Swiss movement, and then defined as Swiss Made, the big differences from one watch to another is the quality of the components, the quality of the assembly facility itself, and attention to detail in the manufacturing process. Our Swiss Made watches are made in this same manner, but we do not believe this process necessarily makes them any better made than an Asia Made watch IF it is made the right way, and uses high quality components.

We feel very fortunate to work with a factory in China that is every bit as professional as any we've ever seen in Switzerland, and in fact is superior to many. We have a special relationship with our primary factory that makes most of our watches, and share with you here information about their exceedingly high quality standards. Working with this facility, we experience very few defectives and we almost never have a water issue. This facility makes all watches in a dust-free clean-room environment that is both temperature and humidity controlled, and they even stock all parts in the same environment. We have had our watches tested and evaluated by Master Watchmakers and received reports that no dust could be found inside our watches under magnification. Our dive style watches go through an additional step in the manufacturing process - they go into a proprietary "Hot Box" that ensures elimination of any trace of moisture from them before final assembly.

WATCH ASSEMBLING

Their watch assembly lines were set up in a "dust-free" environment in order to produce watches to a very high standard. ALL watches are assembled in this dust free environment.

With experienced workmen and various testing tools, all watches are tested and individually inspected before they are packed and shipped to ensure quality. They provide stringent testing and QC procedures to ensure top quality goods are shipped, and have more than 25 quality control testing procedures, among them the list below. All watches are tested for water resistance using both air and water pressure to ensure superb water resistance.

IN-HOUSE TESTING and INSPECTION INCLUDE:

• Corrosion test
• Electronic magnifying projector ensuring correct dial imprints
• Traction and torsion test on leather straps and metal bracelets
• Dry / wet friction test and pigments release test on leather material
• Ultra-violet light test of leather, PU & silicon straps, dials and hands
• Drop ball test for watch glass / crystals
• TABER™ abrasion and wear test
• Open-close test for clasps
• Vibration test
• Ageing cycles on bezel ring
• Water-resistant testing using both air pressure and water pressure
• Checking of watch case leakage points
• Adhesion-peel test
• Measurement of luminescence time