The bridge of the balance wheel and the two cocks are almost completely finished, while the larger plate securing the mainspring has yet to receive its finishing touches and rhodium plating.
Things start looking a lot more pleasing to the eye once the basic steps are done and the components have taken their shape. This is when the decorating process starts and where I found that Aaron belongs to that most exclusive group of (mostly) independents, where getting all details as close to perfection as possible is not simply a “passion” (a painfully overused term, by the way), but something much more than that.
Visiting and chatting with watchmakers and craftsmen of other trades, I was often told by them that nothing truly hand-made will ever be absolutely perfect–and I could see what they meant. There will always be ever-so-slight mistakes, although the better they get at what they do, the more difficult to spot and the more scarce these mistakes become. It is here where one can separate himself from the rest: I understood that while Aaron is always keen on adhering to delivery deadlines, he also has a relatively greater freedom in deciding how much time he spends on one component.
Pictured here is the solid gold dial with the applied Bexei logo already installed. Next to the dial is the piece of gold from which the logo has been cut.
This special attention is not exclusively reserved to the movement’s components: the dial, the hands and the case all take their final shape in what is an extremely dedicated and painstaking process. The dial, as seen above, always bears a unique engraving, performed by a master engraver, but other than this, all tasks are completed by Aaron. A more interesting part of the dial is the applied logo, a relatively small and yet very important component, on which he was working at the time of one of my visits. The logo is cut from a small, rectangular piece of gold (as seen on the image above, situated right next to the dial), which is then hand-beveled and refined to ensure it matches the aesthetic qualities of other components.
On this note, I will add a brief story here: I was taking pictures of the dial and the Bexei logo on it and I remember being extremely close to the piece, trying to get the best shot with my 60mm macro lens. I heard Aaron mumbling somewhere in the room, saying how he was unhappy with one of the facets on the logo. And while I was unsure whether he was saying that to me or just reminding himself of this pressing issue, I recall him being rather high-strung, probably already solving the task in his mind. Sure, these issues are only apparent under strong magnification (which is used during their production), or are revealed by the unforgiving sharp sight of finer modern cameras, and still, the best among these craftsmen will still strive to unceasingly improve their skills so as to make less and less mistakes and also to correct all of them before handing the piece over to its owner.
Seen here are the three major parts of the case and the crown, all in 18k white gold. The cases arrive to the workshop as (very) rough ingots which are finished by Aaron
In essence, what I learned from visiting Aaron and trying to figure out what enables him to spend so much time and invest so much effort in getting the task at hand done perfectly, I came to the conclusion that we must consider three major factors when it comes to the making of ultra-fine timepieces. These are the skills of the person (or people) working on the piece; the limitations which they have to adapt to (in time or in financial and other resources); and last, but not least, their inner motivation as for how long they are personally able to pursue perfection. The reason why it takes several months for Aaron to craft a three-hands watch (or a full year to produce one triple-axis tourbillon) is because every aspect of every component is refined to a level of perfection which an extremely limited number of companies can aspire to achieve today–or in the history or future of watchmaking.
Components of the 40-hour power-reserve, manual wind Dignitas Pure movement
It is difficult to speak about what Aaron (and the very, very few others like him) do without comparing their processes and their business model to that of larger companies. When it comes to the latter, the more established manufactures often incorporate extensive “in-house” know-how coupled with an extensive heritage, the possibility of investment-heavy innovations, and also much greater brand recognition, generally achieved through marketing, lending the customer a sense of familiarity with the product that he or she is considering for purchase. On the other hand however, smaller independents with a very limited annual production can afford to aim for such levels of quality in execution which are simply impossible to achieve with ten or a hundred times the output, even if their resources are incomparable to that of any larger company.
While testing its chronometric performance, the movement is placed in a temporary case
What they offer instead is a bespoke experience where the customer is able to have the piece modified to his or her preference and hence, to some extent, express his personality–and so the piece received will always remain completely unique. Furthermore, among any and all luxury products, this is the most direct way of experiencing how one craftsman is working specifically on your request and how the final product of his work, something which you will own for years or even decades to come, is the result of not a collective effort but rather one man’s know-how, dexterity and passion for his craft. And for some, the experience of buying and owning something so personal is an extremely tempting proposition.
But all this meandering still does not tell exactly what is so fascinating about Aaron and what he does. It is relatively easy to comprehend how a plate of brass is CNC cut, and some of the steps in the transformation of how that yellow-ish, dull piece of metal turns into something so much more beautiful to look at. But when trying to get the full picture, one realizes that some pieces in the puzzle went missing, that something intangible happened somewhere in the process, because the end result is so much more than what one would expect from merely knowing the steps in its making.
All bridges, wheels and screws are manufactured and decorated in-house at Bexei
There is a vital resource which is even more limited in availability than time itself: it is the patience (and the adherent motivation behind it) to pursue perfection that sets craftsmen like Aaron apart from others. You see, the making of a watch (or any other item) which showcases similar complexity and refinement, requires so much time and effort that the person crafting it has to find satisfaction in the smaller steps of the manufacturing process, and not just upon its completion. In other words, I would say that when Aaron gets to work on the first or the hundredth day that is spent on the exact same watch, what drives him is not merely the goal to create a perfect watch, but to get the very part on which he is working at the moment as close to perfect as possible.
The goal is a flawless bevel, a non-compromised fit between components or the perfect action of any of the functions; and not merely a perfect watch all by itself. The fineness of the final product comes as a result of the quality of its components, and since it takes such an extended time frame from the first step until the last when the watch is handed over to its owner, seeing only the final goal and not considering the steps leading up to it is not a viable option. Instead, the craftsman has to find pleasure and reassurance in every partial task, because if he were satisfied with his work only upon its completion (once every 2-4 months), he would undoubtedly lose his motivation and would ultimately cut back on his efforts. It takes a passion and inner motivation of unusual power to get the task at hand done perfectly well, regardless of what it is, how important or unimportant, visible or hidden, or simply how satisfying it is. The time it took to craft any of the components you see on these images can be measured in the hours (if not days), as nothing comes on a conveyor belt or falls out at the end of a meters-long machine, “ready for assembly.”
Seen here is the in-house designed and made titanium balance wheel with platinum screws for variable moment of inertia
At this point you may say that I am obsessed over how things are done for this watch (and you could be right), and so it is more than timely to note something here: there can be no doubt in that those dedicated to crafting not all but a limited number of components of a watch (or any other item) can perform their work just as remarkably. There are amazing craftsman at some of the best manufactures out there whose work is for example dedicated to getting the CNC-ed parts machined perfectly or applying decorations as evenly and beautifully as it is possible; and it is them who, through their dedicated work make up the greater portion of the industry. But when one person is responsible for conceiving, crafting and assembling each and every one of the parts and the way they fit and function together: that’s a completely different story.
Understanding this difference generally takes a long time for all watch enthusiasts, and likely that is why no one buys a Bexei timepiece as his first watch (or perhaps not even the dozenth). It takes a “seasoned” watch lover and an experienced collector to appreciate what and why is so different about an item completely made by the same person who dedicated several months of his time exclusively to the piece at hand. At the moment, Aaron is busy completing orders and when I asked him what his plans for the foreseeable future were I was told that through some modifications and optimizations in the way how his manufacturing processes are linked together, he hopes to up his yearly production to about a dozen a year. He also hopes to sometime make a watch for himself, something he has never quite gotten around to. And while all pieces are made to order, prices generally start at 30,000 Euros, or around $42,000. bexei.hu
