Jean-Paul Suchel, the technical director of Bell & Ross, spends a lot of time studying people choosing a watch. And what strikes him every time is the way they often cup a selection in their palm. “They stand there in the shop and they weight the watch in their hand. They want to feel it there,” he says. “The fact is that watches are part of the jewellery world, and with jewellery there’s a direct correlation between weight and value, because of the historic use of precious metals. That’s only helped to solidify the association between heft and quality. A watch may be a small piece of material really, and yet prices are quite high, so unconsciously people feel if there’s no real weight to a watch, then there’s no value.”
That is a conundrum for the watch world, especially as lighter weight materials the likes of titanium, ceramic, and latterly the more experimental likes of silicon nitride and carbon composites are embraced by the watch industry, if often for qualities such as scratch-resistance and durability. Panerai has its Carbotech, IWC its use of boron carbide, also an extremely lightweight material, and a ceramic-titanium relationship on the side; Roger Dubuis and others have explored cases in silicon; you may recall that one sort of silicon is already in wide use as the balance spring, otherwise known as the hairspring. Silicon is half the weight of titanium.
Indeed, much as aluminium has entered the mainstream for chassis design in the car industry, thanks to the pioneering work of Jaguar and Audi, so titanium looks to be on the brink of entering the mainstream in watchmaking, not least because it is now only around 15% more expensive than steel. If you are coming to this story right after our titanium extravaganza, this will not surprise you.
Denne historien er fra Summer 2021-utgaven av World of Watches.
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Denne historien er fra Summer 2021-utgaven av World of Watches.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
EASY COMPANY
Hamilton launches the new Khaki Field Quartz collection that takes its inspiration from the G.S.watches of the 1960s.
SPIRITED AWAY
The year of the dragon is not yet over and Franck Muller's new watch will remind you once again why this year is a great Chinese zodiac year for watches.
LUNAR TIES
Blancpain resumes its deep-seated romance with the moon through the Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet Phases de Lune in black ceramic.
USEFUL BREAKTHROUGH
With the Elux LAB-ID PAM01800, Panerai has delivered the smartest and brightest dive watch ever made.
SHIELD KING
Seiko reveals a new take on a King Seiko classic, the KS1969, thus bringing back an intriguing shape to the collection.
FRENCH EXPRESS
Louis Vuitton extends their new philosophy of watchmaking unveiling the dressier Escale collection.
PUSHING BOUNDARIES
Patek Philippe brings their patented system to synchronise the date display on a world time watch to their regular collection.
APROPOS COMPLICATIONS
A watch with complications appeals to different sorts of collectors, and is quite different to a complex watch. The editors of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand discuss the virtues of all sorts of complications and considering when more is really better…
KEEPING IT REAL
Technology proves to be a solid tool for luxury watch brands in their fight against mounting cases of fake timepieces and watch thefts.
GLOWUP
A brightly lumed dial in pitch-black darkness is equal parts joy and fascination, have you ever wondered where your Super-LumiNova comes from?