The Swiss mechanical watchmaking “revival”
has essentially entailed a process of
renewing existing mechanical skills. The
task was to show that mechanical ingenuity
had returned, not to play hide-and-seek,
but to proudly reveal its capabilities. The best,
but by no means the only, illustration of this is the remarkable
vogue for double, triple and even quadruple
tourbillons. Watchmaking performance thus became
the latest weapon in the battle for corporate image
among brands.
T
hen, after almost every corner had been explored, the
focus surreptitiously shifted towards materials. With
the conventional gold, platinum and steel no longer
sufficient to meet the needs of finishing, or indeed
achieving the necessary feats of technological prowess,
attentions turned towards other materials, preferably
high-tech.
Indeed, as Dominique Fléchon’s list of watchmaking
materials used throughout the course of its history
clearly shows , watchmaking has always
enjoyed close ties with the metallurgical industry
and its progress. However, for a long while, most
watches were produced in traditional metals, with
gold reigning supreme over the industry,
followed by platinum, and way
ahead of steel in terms of prestige, including
when it became stainless.
The first wake-up call, as such, came in
1972 with the launch of the Royal Oak,
the first high-end sports watch crafted in steel and singing
loud and proud of its metallurgical origins. It was
thus the Royal Oak that established the credibility of
steel, in its own way opening up the race for materials.
And since steel had gained in prestige, so other materials
could follow suit.
Meanwhile, another brand, Rado, was already patiently
exploring the seam of “new materials”. As early as
1962, Rado had begun selling "the world’s first scratchproof
watch“, the DiaStar 1 crafted in”hardmetal", in
Rado’s case a composite material based on tungsten
carbide and a binder metal. Moulded and compressed
at a pressure of 1000 bar, the watch case blank is then
sintered in a vacuum furnace at a temperature of 1450°C in a process that results in an astonishing hardness
rating of between 1400 and 2000 Vickers. Rado
also introduced the concept of sapphire crystal to the
industry, glass being the brittle point in the construction
process, thus killing two birds with one stone.
We choose to dwell on this example because it epitomises
the aesthetic and technological consequences of
materials research. Notoriously difficult to work with,
hardmetal set in motion a stylistic
change that left a profound mark on
watch design in the 60s and 70s in the
shape of the super-wide bezel symbolic
of that era. It was a perfect illustration
of the fact that the technical choice of
materials can thus impact upon the
lines, volumes and appearances of a
watch, sometimes by choice, sometimes
by necessity.
Rado, in effect, demonstrated this in its
subsequent research work by introducing
a metallised sapphire crystal glass
to cover the entire case (1976), then by
using ceramic, first for the bracelet, and
then in 1990 for the Rado Ceramica with
its sapphire crystal and “high-tech” ceramic.
With regard to the use of ceramics in watchmaking, the
rest, as they say, is history! And what the Royal Oak did
for steel, Chanel did for ceramic. When it launched its
ceramic J12 in 2000, Chanel lifted a material hitherto
considered cold and necessarily technical to a whole
new level.
But the true pioneer of the “new materials” we now see
paraded before us is Richard Mille. The brand even made
them its cause. The focus was suddenly on lightness,
strength, movement integration and finishing, openwork
and spatial architecture. It sparked an exploration
of materials too numerous to mention here.
In its wake, we saw an explosion in the number of new,
hitherto unseen materials. Alloys, composites, every
conceivable form of carbon and the entire periodic
table of elements put in an appearance, one after the
other, asteroids and even, somewhat lugubriously, rust
from the Titanic.
We saw an explosion
in the number of
new, hitherto unseen
materials. Alloys,
composites, every
conceivable form
of carbon and the
entire periodic table
of elements put in
an appearance, one
after the other.
The quest for lightness, strength, insensitivity to magnetic
fields, form, colour and appearance gathered
pace… Materials thus offer watchmakers a vast playground.
Some want it to be seen, while others prefer to
keep it under wraps (see articles about Roger Dubuis and Panerai).
Behind these neo-materials, strategic responses are
also taking shape. Competition is mounting among
the laboratories. Every group has its
research centre, every major brand
now has its own lab and is busy recruiting.
At the EPFL or CSEM, for example,
armies of talented young researchers
devote themselves to materials, by no
means exclusively for watchmaking.
The watchmaking industry, however,
thanks to the intellectual and industrial
fabric of the Lake Geneva area, benefits
greatly from these advances and
even generates a few of its own. By way
of example, the innovative scratch-resistant
gold that goes by the typically
“Biverian” name of Magic Gold is the
product of intensive research, as we
learn later from Professor Mortensen of the Institute
of Materials at EPFL.
As proof of the vital importance of such research, the
guys at CSEM (Swiss centre for electronics and microtechnology)
in which Patek Philippe, Rolex, the
Swatch Group and Richemont are shareholders, approach
our requests for information with circumspection.
Most of the ongoing research is carried out in total
confidentiality. Some large-scale projects, however,
are conducted collaboratively. The silicon balancespring,
for example, came about from a CSEM collaboration
between Rolex, Patek Philippe and the Swatch
Group (Richemont, having had no faith in the project,
declined to give its support), an adventure related to
us by Jean-Pierre Musy, head of Advanced Research at
Patek Philippe until just recently.
That said, when it comes to materials, we can safely say
we’ve seen every trick in the book, including some marketing
departments dreaming up pompous names for
alloys that have been well known for a long time. In the
great materials race, there’s still a lot of fodder for
experimentation. Read Serge Maillard’s Editorial.
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