Perpetual improvement

The short wintering has now nearly ended and we have raised our sails to resume our journey. It has been a while since we have not communicated on the Antarctique. January and February have been focused on learnings, feed-backs and improvements in absolutely every aspect: 

First, we have been working on improving manufacturing by reorganising our production line. The pandemic approach of having every watchmaker work from his own atelier is nice, but quite hard to combine with a steady flow… So we combine both approaches now, and our new watchmaking operator, Ludivine, makes sure everyone can work at a good pace.

Secondly, we have decided to extend our quality tests and lapping (or running-in) time by two weeks. This longer process allows our watchmakers to fine tune the caliber even better and detect possible issues. So it can only impact positively accuracy and reliability.

Finally, we have decided to replace one component by another (the reverser). It is a marginal improvement, the first one works well, the second one is even better. We have shipped the new reverser in all the Service Centers so that it can be changed in every watch delivered in 2020 as soon as needed (which actually may never happen). We will continue to work following this « perpetual improvement » approach as it is mirroring our mindset. We simply want the SXH5 to become one of the best micro-rotor caliber ever.

All these upgrades have led to report some of the January and February deliveries to end of March. We have learned a lot in November and December and it would have been a pity not to take advantage of this to fine tune and adapt. Since the end of January, the production line is at full speed again and we have resumed deliveries this week.

Looking backward, starting the manufacturing of the SXH5 in the year 2020 was really the best decision to make and at the same time the most difficult professional challenge we faced. It was a moment of truth were we all had to re-invent our jobs and face adversity… A Human adventure of convincing people to continue to work always within a safe environment… Yet adversity is probably what gets the best out of us.

Some of you might need to receive urgently their watch for a specific occasion (birthday, celebration…). Some others told us they are not in a rush as the current situation makes traveling complicated. If you are amongst the ones willing to get their hands on their timepieces as soon as possible, just let us know by writing an email to [email protected] and we will organize our production plan accordingly. Let’s take advantage of being a customer-oriented boutique company to adapt personally to each of you!

Again, we thank you for your trust and your patience but not only: Your feedbacks, comments and support have been and still are incredibly helpful and rewarding. 

Cheers!

The Czapek team