Each lock we restore is fully disassembled and parts are packed by groups according to what work will be necessary on them. You can have a look at one our internal documents showing the parts of a raw combination lock. They don't look like much at this stage.

Parts are then cleaned in a soft acidic bath. Then each mechanical part that requires it is polished by hand, one by one, by a Swiss artisan. Some parts have lost their coatings and are plunged in galvanic bath to restore their chrome or nickel plating.

Swiss Federal Bank Fichet Lock
The mechanism fits in two layers in a strong box and requires a lot of work to reveal its beauty. We polish and thermolacquer the brass dials by hand. We polish and nickel-coat the bolt and the locks' other ferrous components by galvanoplasty to ensure a permanent, elegant shine. The mechanism's layout requires the laser cutting of two transparent acryl plates so that we can reassemble the lock as it was and yet show the entire mechanism from top to bottom. We disassemble each lock and a Swiss artisan polishes each component by hand, one after the other, to achieve a beautiful shine and yet preserve the integrity of the lock. After countless prototypes we were able to laser-cut two layers of transparent acryl glass so that the lock could be fully assembled and yet you can see the entire mechanism through the acryl. You can get an idea of the work involved by looking at this picture of the lock before restoration and compare it to the picture on the left.