Ébauche
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ébauche is a French term meaning "outline" or "blank", also referred to in English as: movement-blank, referring to the basic parts of a watch movement. (The oil painter's ébauche, a kind of underpainting, is not treated in this entry.)
Contents |
[edit] Overview
In horology the term refers to an incomplete watch movement. The French term is regularly used by English-speaking horologists and hobbyists.
Until about 1850, the watch-maker's ébauche consisted only of the bottom plate, bars, fusee, and barrel.
In the early nineteenth Century, the ébauche was made up of two plates with pillars and bars, the barrel, fusee, index, click and ratchet-wheel, and a few assembling screws. These parts were all roughly filed and milled. The steel and brass were manufactured in special workshop. The ébauche was finished by watchmakers in the finishing-shops. Then came the application of the industrial revolution at the Waltham Watch Company, founded by Aaron Lufkin Dennison, and the development of the American System of Watch Manufacturing, establishing the base of modern watch manufacture.
[edit] Assortiment
The assortiment (literally "assortment" in English) are the parts of a watch other than the ébauche, in particular the regulating organs and include the balance, hairspring or spiral, escape wheel, anchor lever and pallet stones or jewels. The modern ébauche is a jeweled watch movement, without its regulating organs, mainspring, dial, or hands.
[edit] Historic producers of ébauches
Historic producers of ébauche movements have included companies such as, A. Schild, Peseux, Fabrique d'Horlogerie de Fontainemelon (FHF), Landeron, Valjoux, Venus, France Ébauches and Lemania. Many of these producers have gone out of businesses over the past few decades, succumbing to the Quartz Revolution. Most were unable to compete with the inexpensive electronic movements produced by Asian manufacturers, which flooded the market during the 1960s and 1970s.
Those ébauche producers that remain today are almost all owned by ETA, which is a subsidiary of the Swatch Group.
[edit] Related Concepts
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Chablon | French term for a watch movement (not including the dial and hands), of which all or part of the components are not assembled. |
| Ébauche | French term (but commonly used in English-speaking countries) for a movement blank, i.e. an incomplete watch movement which is sold as a set of loose parts, comprising the main plate, the bridges, the train, the winding and setting mechanism and the regulator. The timing system, the escapement and the mainspring, however, are not parts of the "ébauche" |
| Établissage | French term for the method of manufacturing watches and/or movements by assembling their various components. It generally includes the following operations: receipt, inspection and stocking of the "ébauche", the regulating elements and the other parts of the movement and of the make-up; assembling; springing and timing; fitting the dial and hands; casing; final inspection before packing and dispatching. |
| Établisseur | French term for a watch factory which is engaged only in assembling watches, without itself producing the components, which it buys from specialist suppliers. |
| Factory, works | In the Swiss watch industry, the term manufacture is used of a factory in which watches are manufactured almost completely, as distinct from an "atelier de terminage", which is concerned only with assembling, timing, fitting the hands and casing. |
| Manufacture d'horlogerie | French term for a watch factory which itself produces the components (particularly the "ébauche") needed for the manufacture of its products (watches, alarm and desk clocks, etc). |
| Terminage | French term denoting the process of assembling watch parts for the account of a producer. |
| Termineur | French term for an independent watchmaker (or workshop) engaged in assembling watches, either wholly or in part, for the account of an "établisseur" or a "manufacture", who supply the necessary loose parts. |
