DENSE MATTER

Hardly a traditional metal in watchmaking, platinum in the 21st century is used sparingly by the trade, typically to signify something truly special

Although this means jumping ahead a bit, we will immediately address the question of why the platinum watch is more valuable than the gold watch. In the simplest possible terms, the gold used for watches is 18k, which is 75% pure gold; platinum in watchmaking is at least 90% pure. The maths might still not work out to explain why platinum should be more dear than gold, and you can simply put the difference down to how difficult it is to machine platinum into shapes fit to face the world. We have addressed some of these issues in the section on general properties of this precious metal, and these are still relevant for the production of watches and jewellery. We will look into the specific challenges as they relate to watchmaking here.

Since we started on a point about value, it is also worth remembering that economies of scale work the same for platinum as anything else. Watchmaking firms regularly use steel and gold for cases, but not platinum. Some smaller brands, such as F.P. Journe, for example, always use platinum rather than white gold, and this is a big risk, or so we are reliably informed by industry sources (who insist on staying anonymous but you can easily find out more about the numbers from watch forums if you like – Ed). For our purposes, we shall let logic guide our speculations.

With that in mind, we know that machining platinum is challenging and while other industries might have special processes to make things more efficient, watchmaking simply does not use platinum in the sort of volumes that would make such tools or processes cost-effective. For example, having tools wear out is a major problem if they do so before their estimated lifetime use – meaning they fail before they pay for themselves. This seems to be part of the problem facing watchmakers at least.