Les Tugas Manifesto

MANIFESTO

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Les Tugas

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LES TUGAS IS ALL OF US

There is always a border in everything we do, in everything we are. We are what dwells inside that border. The border of Portugal is nothing more than an imaginary line, as imaginary as time itself. We too were imagined before we were born, just as Afonso Henriques imagined Portugal before it was born. It is urgent to imagine Portuguese watchmaking.

If this is the line that defines us, that defines our country, that defines everything that exists, then everything that exists is the result of everything we imagine. Before we existed, we did not exist. Now we are here, as real as our time.

One day we imagined the IPR: before that there was no IPR.

Now we have imagined a watch: before that there was no such watch.

It is against the gag that is repeatedly placed on the ability to create that we move.

We are necessarily brought up to limit our imagination; that is an unavoidable necessity. Imagination has to be limited, just as our country had to be limited. The limit of imagination is the only thing that defines it. Without that limit we all return to the earth.

Our skin fulfils the same function: it limits us, it keeps everything we are made of well contained inside us. The limit of imagination is fundamental; its interior, however, must be breathable, as wide as the interior of every country.

In the world of Portuguese watchmaking there has been more love for the limit itself than for what it limits. This love of the limit is almost religious. One might think that this border would give us a more solid identity. But we know very well that it has not been so. When love of the limit becomes absolute, what emerges is not identity but extremism — love of the extreme. Extremists present themselves in exactly that way: those who love the extreme, those who love Portugal and its borders, those who love themselves as if they were a country. It is easy to follow those who defend love of the limit, which is why extremism has grown without limits in recent times.

To everyone who reads us: extremism is not love — it is fear.

Fear that the limit will not hold, fear that what exists beyond that line — and which extremism seeks to hide — will break it, invade us and destroy us.

We are not afraid of the limit, we are not afraid of the borders of what we are; we know very well where they are and we trust them. It is evident to us that the imaginary line that defines Portugal has a strength that goes beyond the border itself.

We are brave and we do not give in to extremism.

We do not waste time on fears, because we have too much to accomplish.

Free of that obstacle, we make room to render fertile the ground on which Portuguese watchmaking will flourish.

Lack of trust in the limit, the condition of any extremism, whether right-handed or left-handed, sows fear and reaps hatred.

We have no time to waste on hatred either; we really do have a great deal to do, a great deal to create.

This is a manifesto about Portuguese watchmaking, and that limit has not been crossed — we are here to talk about Portuguese watchmaking. And, curiously, there seems to be more certainty today about what watchmaking is than about what Portuguese is. Portuguese is what is Tuga. And — Tugas is all of us — all those who trust the imaginary line that defines Portugal to the point of feeling no need to watch over it constantly. Not wasting time on that kind of task of escaping from fear frees us to create.

The ability to create has never been much encouraged in the world of watchmaking in Portugal. We have very few watchmaking creators. We believe this is due to an excess of shyness. It seems a light word for a subject as central as this one, but we believe that is exactly what it is: shyness.

Shyness is born of the fear of invasion. That fear leads to extremism, to the reinforcement and constant surveillance of the limit. If the limit is breached, our knowledge is exposed. And, once exposed, it becomes the target of many opinions — among them, inevitably, some that may conclude it is wrong or insufficient.

On the other hand, when one believes in the knowledge one has acquired, thanks to the proof given over many years in work that nobody else was able to carry out, the fear is no longer of failing. Here the fear is that this knowledge, which we feel to be our property, will be stolen. It is a more extreme, more paralysing fear.

Extremism destroys imagination and all ability to create; without imagination, we cease to exist. If in Portugal we do not become creators of watchmaking, we will always be at the mercy of fragile knowledge. And yet there are among us craftsmen of extraordinary skill, capable of producing remarkable pieces with resources from the last century. Most of them live dominated by an extreme fear: that of seeing their knowledge stolen and, with it, their livelihood. The presence of true watchmaking creators is the only way to overcome that fear. If a craftsman believes more in his ability than in his knowledge, he is certain that he will go on existing — far beyond his own border.

This is our observation of what happens inside the imaginary line that defines our country. We observe and we criticise, thereby adopting two of the most common attitudes in watchmaking. But we do not stop there. We do what is rarer and more demanding: we build.

We do not merely guard knowledge, frightened in our corner. We create it and share it with everyone.

In the Manual do Aprendiz de Relojoeiro (1927), the watchmaker Francisco Barbosa was already denouncing the difficulty of gaining access to technical knowledge, observing that the old masters “systematically concealed” their knowledge “from their apprentices”, forcing them to learn “only after many difficulties and a great loss of time”.

In the preface, the author declares:

PREFACE

The present manual is intended to enlighten those who wish to study the beginnings of technical watchmaking work. The author has no other ambition in presenting this book than to help the young, making easy for them what the old masters systematically concealed from their apprentices, who only after many difficulties and a great loss of time managed to learn anything useful in this art. With his 25 years of practice, he is convinced that this book will sufficiently enlighten those who, out of curiosity or necessity, wish to devote themselves to work of this nature.

Lisbon, 1927.

The author

— Francisco Barbosa, Manual do Aprendiz de Relojoeiro. Lisbon: Livraria Pacheco, 1928, p. 5.

The Manual do Aprendiz de Relojoeiro, published by Francisco Barbosa in 1928, was one of the works that inspired the creation of the Instituto Português de Relojoaria and its School of Watchmaking.

Just as Barbosa sought to democratise access to technical knowledge at a time when knowledge was reserved for the masters, we too founded a school to pass on openly all the watchmaking knowledge we possess.

We have been writing about watchmaking every day for several years, facing the constant challenge of selecting, from a vast amount of information, what is truly essential and useful to everyone.

Today, just as in 1927, we believe that the progress of watchmaking depends on the sharing of knowledge. That is why we are building a network of services and skills that will allow everyone to bring their own watchmaking creations to life.

We create what is necessary when what is necessary does not exist. We know that this ability to create frightens extremism; we feel it on our own skin.

Creating takes away extremism's purpose.

The ability to create is self-regenerating: it turns knowledge into something infinite, impossible to contain at the extremes.

For this reason we are not in favour of observing and criticising. We do not criticise in the media the state of conservation of public clocks, we do not criticise policies on the measurement of time, nor the lack of support for anything whatsoever.

Criticism without creative action is an attitude of childish dependence.

It is clear to us that everyone plays a different role in society. The professional role of some is to observe and point out what is wrong in watchmaking, as in so many other fields. But the role of everyone should be not to allow criticism to exhaust itself in a sterile, almost sadistic pleasure, with no intention of contributing to the improvement of what is being criticised.

Criticising the state of public clocks, for example, is useful: it fulfils a function of vigilance and civic participation, which is a good beginning, but it should never be an end. It is always possible to share contacts, suggest watchmakers to the authorities, raise funds; there is a world of possibilities that go beyond mere criticism.

We must not remain stagnant in criticism. We are fully aware of its necessity and we recognise that, very often, it is criticism itself that precedes the beginning of creative action. But we are totally opposed to criticism for criticism's sake. We do not make that our life. To those who live on criticism alone, we offer a reminder: to remain in the entrance hall is never to discover the whole house.

This movement beyond criticism defines the Portuguese who work in the watch industry all over the world, above all in Switzerland. They are the highest expression of the idea that Portugal goes far beyond the borders that delimit it.

There are no official figures on the number of Portuguese in Swiss watch factories, but we know that we are the 3rd largest community in that country. We know that many of the watches made in Switzerland are made by Portuguese hands. We also know that in Portugal there are several watch factories, usually with little or no identification at the door.

Within Portuguese borders, in the Porto area, movement components are produced and cases are polished and given other finishes; watch cases are machined in Aveiro, rubies are manufactured in Fundão and straps in Castelo de Paiva.

It is not hard to conclude that the best watchmaking in the world is born of Portuguese hands — hands that receive wages paid from Switzerland.

After all, for a watch to bear the Swiss Made designation, it is enough for 60% of the manufacturing costs to be generated on Swiss territory. The movement has to be Swiss, which means the following: at least half of the value of its parts must be of Swiss origin, and 60% of the manufacturing costs of the movement itself must be incurred in Switzerland. Technical development, including design and prototyping, must take place on Swiss territory. Finally, the watch has to be assembled in Switzerland and its final inspection must also be carried out in the country.

The law that defines Swiss Made sets a limit based on value and not on the place where each part is manufactured. What must, compulsorily, take place on Swiss territory is only the technical development — design and prototyping — the assembly and the inspection.

In Portugal there is no similar law; if there were, it would be simple to designate a watch as “Portugal Made”. We do not need a watch industry installed on Portuguese territory in order to design, assemble and inspect watches — that is the Swiss perspective. It is the perspective of the country that produces the best mechanical watches in the world.

Let us be honest: if it is Portuguese hands that make the best mechanical watches in the world — many of them even on Portuguese territory — then all we lack is to break with the critical extremism that has paralysed us until today and, at last, to start creating.

We should not listen to the voices that say it will never be possible to produce fine watchmaking in Portugal, for not only is it produced in Portugal, it is Portuguese hands that produce it — probably, in truth, for the most part in Switzerland.

We should not listen to voices that say watchmaking is an extinct art; it is very much alive and it speaks Portuguese.

We should not listen to voices that say we have no technical knowledge; we have all the knowledge that is needed, and creativity to spare.

We do not believe that the quality of a watch can be associated with the country that proclaims it produces it.

We stand in the world confident in our Portugueseness and so, without fear, we are:

— Les Tugas —

We chose this expression and we use it with a humorous tone because that is the tone of someone who is not a frightened extremist. The best watches are usually associated with French-speaking countries, but many of them are born, to a large extent, of the hands of Tugas, which is why we are all Les Tugas.

The Portuguese have always known how to be Portuguese beyond their own borders. It is to all those who are — firm and confident in the border that defines them as Portuguese — that we dedicate this watch.

The Les Tugas is the most Tuga watch ever. Designed and drawn in Portugal, it houses an ETA 2824 movement, one of the most reliable Swiss movements, possibly the result of the work of many Portuguese both in Switzerland and in Portugal. This movement was modified by us, with some parts removed and others added.

Within our borders we produce: the strap, the crystal, the case, the case screws themselves, the case finishing and the dial. The dial is a gilt dial made using manual techniques, with one bath of rhodium and another of silver.

The result is the most Portuguese watch in history, but it is also the creation of a network of watchmaking services that can serve all the brands to come. We offer knowledge through our school and we make the network we have set up available to everyone interested in creating Portuguese watchmaking, because:

Les Tugas — is all of us!