Verfügbare Informationen zu "Racing Line: Time out with Kimi"
Qualität des Beitrags: Beteiligte Poster: Lars - K2rt Forum: ICEMAN-KIMI.com Forenbeschreibung: Unofficial Kimi Räikkönen Fan Site aus dem Unterforum: Articles and Stories Antworten: 2 Forum gestartet am: Freitag 06.08.2004 Sprache: englisch Link zum Originaltopic: Racing Line: Time out with Kimi Letzte Antwort: vor 19 Jahren, 5 Monaten, 24 Tagen, 27 Minuten
Alle Beiträge und Antworten zu "Racing Line: Time out with Kimi"
Re: Racing Line: Time out with Kimi
Lars - 28.10.2004, 13:13Racing Line: Time out with Kimi
TIME OUT WITH KIMI
Copyright: Racing Line by McLaren
TAG Heuer’s new Formula 1 watch is a perfect fit for Team McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Räikkönen. He visited the Swiss company to find out how it is made.
The main manufacturing facility of TAGHeuer – located in the town of La Chaux-de-Fonds, high in the Swiss Alps – is a perfect simile for the watches and timepieces that the firm produces.
Its exterior is swathed in modern clean lines and is tastefully understated, but there’s a definite and distinct sense of the high-teck nature of the pruduct within, the level of which is only truly exposed when you open the door and take a look inside.
Racing Line has come her today to join Team McLaren Mercedes driver Kimi Räikkönen on a tour of the faciltiy. The Finn already has strong links with TAG Heuer through its Partnership with Team McLaren Mercedes, but this relationship is about to become even more extensive thanks to his new role as ambassador for a redesigned version of the classic TAG Heuer Formula 1 model that will be targeted at young, like-minded ‘active’ sports enthusiasts.
TAG Heuer’s passion for demanding sports, through its involvement in Formula 1, international sailing and skiing, is well documented, and the company’s products reflect that with their versatility and robustness. But this new version of a watch model that first appeard in 1986 will take that commitment to new extremes – if you’ll pardon th pun.
The bold, chunky style is designed to look at home on the wrists of 20-somethings who want a watch that makes a statement, as opposed to the clean, unterstated lines of many of the other watches in TAG Heuer’s range. For this market, though, value is also important – and the Formula 1’s price will reflect this as an entry-level model.
The sense of excitement around the company for Kimi’s visit is already high, but is most evident in the shape of TAG Heuer President and CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, who will personally guide Kimi around the facility. Jean-Christophe’s enthusiasm for precision timepieces, and his anticipation of the visit is just as palpable as that of his employees.
He has visited grands prix around the world and met the Team McLaren Mcercedes drivers on numerous occations, but he still has the air of an enthusiast about to meet his hero for the first time as he strolls around the facility with a cup of coffee in hand.
“The employees are all very excited, because they have known abut this event for weeks,” he smiles. “It’s very important for them. I’m lucky in that respect, because I get to visit grands prix, but while they see the design and construction of watches, they never get to see them being used for real in the sports in which we are involved – they only see it on television.”
“For the heroes and ambassadors whom they are following every two weeks to visit us here in the factory is very encouraging and it’s great that people such as Kimi and Team McLaren Mercedes are interested in what we’re doing. It’s good that the employees can talk to them, get ideas and inspiration.”
“When you work with sportsmen such as this, they are successful because they are higly motivated, talented and demanding. In watchsmaking, when you want to be succesful, you have to be the same, and always on the limit. When there’s a chance to work with people such as David Coulthard and Kimi and get their input… If they tell us something about a watch, it’s probably a very sensible suggestion.”
As Kimi arrives from the nearby airport, fresh from his appearance with Lictite in Kerpen the previous day, the programme kicks into gear. After a brief introduction to the facility – the main of five Swiss sites, housing 300 of the company’s 700 employees – Kimi and partydon white coats in readiness for the journey into the main assembly area.
As we enter, there is an instant look of recognition on the faces of many of the workers. This is the first time that Kimi has visited the plant and, as a result, the first time that almost everyone here has seen him in the flesh. The intricate and complex watchmaking process has to keep to a strict shedule, though, so there is little time to stop and stare.
What is most surprising about he assembly area is how bright, clean and high-tech it looks. None of the first-time visitors in our group were expecting a grimy workshop churning the level of sophistication and sterile, white décor still takes the breath away.
It is clear that much attention has gone into creating as pleasant a working environment as possible, but there are practical, as well as aesthetic, reasons for this. Each timepiece is constructed from hundreds of parts, all of which are carefully assembled by hand. Where an everyday watch will have a one-piece face, with the dial printed on, here the face itself will probably contain more parts than that everyday watch has in total.
“Making a watch is very much like building a Formula 1 car,” explains Jean-Christophe as he guides Kimi around. “It’s all about the micromechanics, concentrating on fine details. The only thing that’s different is that we don’t have aerodynamics.”
This level of attention to detail is clear. Every part of the highly technical process still has a significant livel of hands-on craftsmanship, and the watch assemblers gently blast the piece they are working on with an hydraulic air gun after each part is applied, ensuring their way into the finished product.
A typical TAG Heuer watchmaker requires four years of training, and it’s a job for wihich butterfingers need not apply. Kimi discovers this for himself when he is invited to place a few components on a Monaco model that is going through the procuction process. Kimi is used to negotiating tight and fiddly spaces – particulary at high speed, thanks to Formula 1’s annual trip to the streets of Monaco – but this stretches even his high levels of hand and eye co-ordination.
With the aid of a microscopic eyepiece and tweezers which are manufactured from a special metal to avoid component abrasion, Kimi gently applies the minute hand and parts of the frame to the watch. The watchmaker responsible for this part of the production line examines Kimi’s handiwork with an approving smile, but as discerning as this visual inspection is, there ar numerous other quality checks that the watch will have to go through before it reaches the display cas in one of TAG Heuer’s official retailers.
As much attention is paid to this area of the production process as is paid to the assembly itself – TAG Heuer has built up an impressive record in terms of accuracy and build quality and wishes to maintain that. The watches are all individually testet and calibrated on a special machine to ensure that they keep perfect time. This level of precision is tested in different positions and orientations by a high-tech device which rotates the watches on various pre-determined pahts, simulating the movements of a typical wearer’s arm.
The watches are then checked for water pressure resistance in another machine to ensure that every one can be certified to the appropriate depth – in some cases, 200 metres. Such is the level of workmanship in the assembly, however, that only five percent of watches are returned for tiny. But necessary, adjustments after these tests.
“Like a Formula 1 car, a watch is assembled and then needs several laps to fine-tune it,” Jean-Christophe explains. “Watchmaking, just like Formula 1, isn’t about beating the competition – it’s about beating yourself, to take you on to new levels and extremes of performance. “The difference between a low-cost watch and a TAG Heuer watch is that tiny defects may not show up after one year on a low-cost model, but will definitely show up after five years.”
The tour then takes in the design studio where, just like in Formula 1, prototype designs are turned from concepts into virtual reality on Computer Aided Design workstations. All the watch’s components can be viewed individually, or ‘assembled’ on-screen to ensure a perfect fit.
“The designers have to focus on both the engineering of the watch and the aesthitics,” Jean-Christophe explains. “It means there is a strange mix of technical and artistic sides to the job, but they have to complement each other perfectly.”
These computers are linked to Computer Aided Manufacture milling tools next door which process the raw parts to incredibly high levels of accuracy. Even large components, such as the watch case, must go through this process several times to produce the complex shapes that create the finished frame of the prototype model.
After having seen how TAG Heuer’s watches are produced, Kimi is then invited to watch a short presentation demonstrating the key values of the brand. In this, the level to which TAG Heuer ensures that its watches will perform – even in the toughest working conditions – is clear. On-screen, watches are subject to an impact equivalent to the force of 45 golf swings and tested for water resistance at extreme depths.
“This is the hard life of a TAG Heuer watchs,” Jean-Christophe chuckles. “But we cannot disappoint people. Our watches have to be beautiful and precise, but they also have to last a lifetime. We know from David Coulthard in Formula 1, and Sarah Fisher in the Indianapolis 500, that our watches can survive the most extreme conditions, with all the forces that the driver has to undergo, and this is the ultimate test of our product and the sign of our quality.”
Kimi then takes part in a meet-and-greet for the 200 or so employees at work here today. The 20-strong groups come in one at a time for a joint photo with Kimi and Jean-Christophe, many getting the Finn to sign personal meentoes and chatting amiably with him about the outcome oth the 2003 Formula 1 World Championship a few days earlier in Japan.
After a brief lunch, during which Kimi, Jean-Christophe and some other senior staff discuss the new Formula 1 watch, there is and unexpected surprise for Tag Heuer’s latest guest. Kimi is today celebrating his 24th birthday, and Jean-Christophe presents him with a personalised Team McLaren Mercedes-look snowboard and a variety of winter clothing.
Kimi returns the favour, giving TAG Heuer a race helmet with which to commemorate the Swiss company’s Partnership with McLaren – particularly the depth of the relationship and the duration for which it has lasted. It has been a day of gifts for Kimi who, in addition to giving his seal of approval to the new Formula 1 design he will endorse, has received a personalised, Kimi-branded modell – the only one in the world, and the most uniquely customised watch that TAG Heuer has ever produced.
“The watch is really nice”, he admits as he shows it off to interested admirers. “This is the first project hat I’ve become actively involved in with TAG Huer since becoming an ambassador, and it has been really interesting to find out about how the watches are made.”
“It’s quite impressive, the sort of things that TAG Heuer does, an dthe sort of small scale to which they work. If you just look at a watch, you don’t think about how they make them. It’s fantastic, really.”
Kimi then has to disappear for a photoshoot which will eventually form part of the marketing and promotion for the new model. As Jean-Christophe looks on, he admits that he is delighted that Kimi has greeted the new Formula 1 watch with such genuine enthusiasm. “We’re glad that he was pleased to see a TAG Heuer aimed more at his sort of generation,” he admits. “This new watch has been inspired by the Formula 1 model from 1986, but we have redesigned it extensively to take account of the latest styles and technology.”
“Was it to be classical and low-key, or should it make a statement? We decided to go for something bold – a watch with strong character which is more aggressive and sporty. It’s all about having fun and the taking part in active sports with an aggressive spirit, and Kimi and the watch both reflect these values perfectly. It is still a watch you can wear for all occasions, though, because all our watches have to be versatile.”
As ever with TAG Heuer, the outward appearance of one of their watches would seem to be just the start of the mystique within.
Re: Racing Line: Time out with Kimi
K2rt - 28.10.2004, 15:47
Thanks!
Mit folgendem Code, können Sie den Beitrag ganz bequem auf ihrer Homepage verlinken
Weitere Beiträge aus dem Forum ICEMAN-KIMI.com
Kimi in Athen (Olympic Game) - gepostet von Lars am Donnerstag 21.10.2004
Ähnliche Beiträge wie "Racing Line: Time out with Kimi"
F... G... D... N... - halley (Samstag 08.03.2008)
E30 M3 racing pics - ///M Flipy (Samstag 04.02.2006)
verkaufe Trex 450 XL aus Sterbefall **ERLEDIGT** - DF36 on the rocks (Samstag 28.02.2009)
Time - Bewerbung - Offizier - Time (Donnerstag 19.04.2007)
The real Time - Black Mythos (Samstag 05.01.2008)
End of the Line vom 02.05.2007 aus New York² - Legend-Killer (Donnerstag 17.05.2007)
für die private line fans unter euch ;) - poison heart (Donnerstag 01.06.2006)
haut´s euch rein =) it´s disco time! - seth979 (Freitag 11.11.2005)
Line up ! - immortal (Dienstag 13.02.2007)
Warum bin ich eigentlich hier...??? - InDream (Mittwoch 07.05.2008)