Rome wasn?t built in a day ? and neither was Rolex, Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre and other watch manufacturers praised for their vertical integration and lauded for their array of in-house calibers. While we all applaud the handful of brands that bring new and increasingly complicated calibers to market virtually every year, we also should take note of other brands, many of them smaller, independently owned, or known throughout their history more for outsourcing their movements, that are taking a more incremental approach. In this series of articles, we look at five brands ? three Swiss, two German ? that are taking it slow and steady. This week, we wrap up the series with the neophyte in our quintet, at least in terms of movement-making: Geneva?s Raymond Weil. Raymond Weil Freelancer Calibre RW1212
Founded in 1976 and still family-owned, Raymond Weil had until recently maintained its watches? relatively affordable price points with outsourced calibers from the Swatch Group?s movement-making colossus ETA ? which still, at this stage of the game, power the vast majority of the company?s output. In 2017, however, Raymond Weil rolled out its first proprietary movement, developed not entirely in-house from the ground up but in a creative collaboration with Sellita, based in the Swiss Jura, another prolific supplier of movements to various brands and ETA?s major competitor in that field. The resulting automatic movement, Caliber RW1212, is distinguished by the dial-side posi...