As title says, how much would, say, my 1970s-era Seamaster Cosmic 2000 be assembled by hand. Any information on their production process from 40 or more years ago would be very interesting to read more about.

 

Handmade in what respect? Cases were machined, but people probably controlled the machines back then. I doubt crystals were handmade, although once again manufacturing was not full of robots like today so it may have been a combo of people and machines. I don't know if movements were hand-assembled, but I am sure the vast majority of the parts in movements by the 1970s were not handmade. Etc. etc. etc.

 

Most manufacturers were not vertically integrated.....that is, they bought in cases, dials, hands, dials and various parts of movements from outside suppliers and then assembled them. In that regard they were a lot less 'in house' than watches like Rolex and Omega are today. More handwork back then? Don't know. But they weren't 'handmade' by any stretch of the imagination.