At the beginning of 2013, Le Locle-based Metalem was looking to purchase new machines to manufacture indices for watch dials. The Swiss manufacturer was leaning towards another brand when industrial director Jean-François Thalheim saw the Almac BA 1008 ultra-compact bar miller at an exhibition in Basel.

After an hour-long meeting at Almac’s site in La Chaux-de-Fonds (www.almac.ch), the company purchased the machine; in the UK, Almac machines are available from Tornos Technologies UK Ltd (www.tornos.com).

Metalem has been making luxury dials and indices since 1928, and employs around 230 people; and it has been using Almac machines since the product was launched. The company runs these machines 24/7, and it is still achieving great results on its older Almac bar-milling machines that are more than eight years old. That said, when it came to purchasing new machines, the company was not blinded by its loyalty to the brand.

With two production sites in Le Locle, Metalem is tight on space. Mr Thalheim says: “When I first saw the BA 1008, I thought of a frame with a coffee machine inside, but we were immediately taken with both the design and the compact dimensions. We can accommodate two BA 1008 machines in the same footprint as an FB 1005 bar-milling machine.”

Already experienced in bar milling, the staff at Metalem had no trouble adjusting to the new machine. “Its frontal system and protection, with its view of the entire machining area, provide our operators with the perfect working conditions.

"Among the advantages of this machine are its ease of adjustment and its ergonomics. When the machine was delivered, it was operational immediately, and we were producing parts from the very first day.”

Since then, the machine has been working almost constantly, producing over 1000 indices every 24hr with consistent precision. “The parts we are producing require tolerances of a few hundredths of a millimetre; the machine is even more accurate than that — and highly consistent.”