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"  It&amp;#039;s not unusual to find a car enthusiast who&amp;#039;s also an ardent fan of mechanical timepieces. Both carmaking and watchmaking disciplines have much in common in terms of engineering, innovation and artistic impression.   Just as with automobiles, watches can be divided into distinct classes. There are the affordable quartz watches, sold at your neighborhood Target or Walmart, that cater to those who want nothing more from their watches than the time. Then there are the sportier timepieces, with more flair and style. These are still affordable yet a bit more expensive than the entry-level watches. Here, you&amp;#039;ll see American brands like Timex and Armitron. Go up another level, and you arrive at the Japanese-made examples, built by the likes of Casio, Citizen and Seiko. The Japanese watches are reliable, stylish and precise, making them among the most popular with young enthusiasts. Climb another step up, and you&amp;#039;re in the big leagues: the Swiss-made watches. You can liken these timepieces to European luxury cars such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Bentley. And like the cars, some models in the lineup can cost you a sizeable fortune.   Swiss watches, or watches that carry the label &amp;quot;Swiss Made,&amp;quot; represent the highest degree of excellence in the watchmaking world. The &amp;quot;Swiss Made&amp;quot; moniker only appears on watches that meet a number of strict criteria; these include the origin of parts (about 60 percent of the parts of a movement must be made in Switzerland) and production costs (the majority of the production must be in Switzerland). So although some watches may be made by a Swiss company, they aren&amp;#039;t allowed to wear the &amp;quot;Swiss Made&amp;quot; sign because they didn&amp;#039;t meet the standards enforced by la F\u00E9d\u00E9ration de l&amp;#039;industrie horlog\u00E8re suisse.   At the high end of the Swiss-Made-watch spectrum is Blancpain. It is the oldest watch company around, established in 1735, and is popular among hard-core enthusiasts all over the world. Its entry-level model, the Villeret, named after the city where the company was founded, costs about $7500, meaning it&amp;#039;s not in the same league as your kid&amp;#039;s Casio G-Shock. Blancpain recently formed an alliance with Lamborghini and the Super Trofeo race series (see Countersteer, December 2009). According to Blancpain boss Marc A. Hayek, the relationship was a natural one.   &amp;quot;Both Blancpain and Lamborghini represent the upper end of our respective markets. With Lamborghini&amp;#039;s excellent image as a maker of sporty and exotic automobiles, we&amp;#039;re hoping that this spills over to our brand. Blancpain is and will continue to be sportier and more daring than it has ever been, and with Lamborghini as a partner, it&amp;#039;s a great first step,&amp;quot; said Hayek, who&amp;#039;s also an amateur race driver. Of note, Hayek was an avid Road &amp;amp;amp; Track reader when he lived in the U.S.   Wanting to know more about what makes Blancpain watches so special, I traveled to the scenic Vall\u00E9e de Joux located just outside of Lausanne, Switzerland, where Blancpain&amp;#039;s factory, dubbed La Ferme (the Farm) is located. Here I saw firsthand what goes into making the world&amp;#039;s finest watches.   Every watch produced by Blancpain is mechanical, meaning there is no battery. Although there are a number of battery-powered (quartz) Swiss watches in the marketplace, the most prestigious examples are the self-winding types, or what are commonly called automatic watches. There are more than 700 different mechanical pieces that go into making an automatic watch. Because I don&amp;#039;t have enough space to describe how each piece works, here&amp;#039;s a general explanation. Note the number of terms that are also used in the automotive world. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/news/a15059/the-link-between-cars-and-watches/>