1. Stainless steel
4. White gold
5. Platinum
6. Silver
7. Bronze
8. Sapphire
9. Aluminum
10. Titanium
11. Glass
12. Stone
13. Elastomers
14.Carbon Fiber
15. Ceramic
16. Carbonium (Roman Gauthier)
17. Forged Carbon (Audemars Piguet, Panerai)
18. TPT quartz (Richard Mille)
19. Grey Cermet (Richard Mille new RM 11-05)
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is the most widely used watch material, which has a composition of being an iron-carbon alloy, combined with chromium and other material.. In general, stainless steel is difficult to scratch as it’s durable, lightweight and tough is most popular for its ability to resisting corrosion, maintaining a shine for a long life and keeping intact the strength of steel. These watches can have two finishings: polish or brush. Polishing creates a shiny mirror surface, but brushing makes the surface look rugged and is more suited for outdoor type of watches. This material has its downsides as it is easily damaged and prone to scratches, dents, smudges and fingerprints, so you have to be careful when wearing it.
Titanium
Titanium is mainly used to replace steel to capitalize on its lightweight property. A bulky dive watch will still look great and cool but at a more manageable weight. Such as the case with this Seiko Shogun. Titanium is more expensive than Steel. The World First Titanium watch is Porsche Design Titan by IWC in 1980. The entire watch and bracelet was made with Titanium.
Another advantage of titanium is it can be used by those with steel allergies.
Sapphire is something that I’m pretty sure you’ve heard about. It’s one of the gemstones and a rarity, but in watchmaking, sapphire is not exactly what you would think it is.
Sapphire
It is a hard material, having a score of 9 in mohr hardness scale (with diamond at 10) so it’s very scratch resistance.
Now, although sapphire is a gemstone, mankind have been able to synthesize it, although the process is slow and expensive (but at least we will have an abundant source of the material).
It is these synthetic sapphire that was used in watchmaking. Most of the sapphire is used to make watch crystal to capitalize on its scratch resistance properties. This ensures the watch crystal is scratch free even if it’s been used for years. In comparison, the other watch crystals (glass based mineral crystal and plastic based acrylic crystal) scratches fairly easily even in normal everyday use.
Sapphire was being used for replacing the Acrylic Crystal of watch, Rolex used on his Day Date in 1977. Audemars Piguet used it on his first Royal Oak 5402 in 1972. They are commonly used as the standard crystal material now for his hardness. Richard Milles using Sapphire to case the watch back in 2016 and Hublot is also doing this commonly now as case material with different colour.
TPT Quartz
The NTPT carbon composites that came before at Richard Mille were the original drivers of development, and North Thin Ply Technologies, the company behind NTPT carbon, became an ongoing development partner.
TPT, which stands for thin ply technology, is a method for making ultra-thin unidirectional strand sheets of carbon fibers. The sheets aren’t just fibers however, they are “tapes” that are pre-impregnated (“prepreg”) with resin for more accurate and controllable application in use.
The resin is the material that works like a glue to hold the carbon fibers together; when placed under heat and pressure the resin flows between all the fibers and finally hardens to create the solid carbon fiber material we are familiar with. The TPT carbon tapes used in Richard Mille cases have layers that are, on average, around 45 microns thin, or just under two-thousandths of an inch (.002”). Moving on to TPT Quartz, the construction is the same, only it is composed not of carbon fibers, but of fused quartz fibers. These fibers start out life as purified ground quartz crystals. These crystals are fused with heat and pressure to create fused quartz rods. These rods are then drawn (pulled and squished) under an oxy-hydrogen flame to create extremely long continuous fibers of fused quartz.
Traditional precious material
Yellow Gold is pure gold, which is 24 karat, that has been alloyed with other materials. This material is very gleaming and conventional, and corrosion free, but also is a very soft and may scratch and otherwise become damaged. Gold is suited for showy watches that will attract attention. They are expensive and also heavy, not suited for everyday uses, but definitely a status symbol for high-end events.
White Gold is a pure precious metal, typically combined with silver or even palladium. It’s a very popular choice, because it looks like stainless steel, but is more discreet than watches made from yellow gold - some people may mistake the two though. This material is used in high-end, luxury or even heirloom dress watches. Watches nowadays are made of 18KT (750) white gold or yellow gold. 14KT (585) is uncommon nowadays for it gold lustre is not as good as 18KT gold. But 14KT was commonly used on watch case in 1920-1960.
Amongst those material, I prefer precious traditional material, steel, Yellow Gold, Pink Gold, White gold or platinum as I do feel their existence there. Well, when you try on Richard Mille, you might feel the difference in weight. Well, to be honesty light weight is more comfortable. And there is a die-hard fan for heavy stuff like the Audemars Piguet Pounder or Brick close to one pound in weight. I am still like to have old gold Watch, that is yellow gold watch, as gold is supposed to be yellow in colour.
Still today, Patek has been the one guy to insist to use these material on their watch, Yellow Gold, White gold and platinum other than steel as the main stream of material, They have been trying to use Titanium recent years, but never do it with Carbon or ceramic case yet. As the oldest traditional watch company should be cautiously in testing the acceptance of using the new material for watch case. That may be one of the reasons people stick to Patek for their use of precious material.
On the other hand, Rolex has been following the same traditional in selecting the material Gold or steel, and never have any ceramic case not titanium case, only in exceptional case because of weight, Rolex use Titanium bottom cover on his Deep Sea model 116660, or may be doing that for skin allergy prevention.
Wood
Wood is a natural material available in different colors and grain types, which makes every watch unique. A wooden watch will age beautifully compared to other materials like metal, that can get damaged from sun and water. Plus, wood is an eco-friendly material, which is mostly sustainably sourced, so it doesn’t do any harm to nature. Wood is very durable and lightweight and develops a lustrous patina over the years. It also can be easily restored if it gets scratches or dents. If you like unique accessories that will stand out and haven’t been seen by most people, a wooden watch is a great option. List with the best wooden watches.
But wood is not good for dive watch and it is not easy made to go into deep water. Wood is not easy to be made thin and strong. So there is limitation.
Rolex is an expert in using wood as the dial material, birch, Mahogany, Oak is commonly used on its Flagship Day Date watch in 1980-1990. Now these are rare and expensive watches
Ceramic
Ceramics has a composition of zirconium oxide - a hardened form of clay. There are a number of positive aspects to watches made out of ceramics as they are heat resistant and scratch proof. This material is comfortable to use and a popular choice for luxury watches due to its long lasting shine. It is also non-porous, easy to clean, and more lightweight than most materials. Though, it is not as impact resistant as steel is. Rado used to be the first one to use Ceramic as the case material since 1980. Well, ceramic will just break leaving you with expensive repair bill, so it needs to be used very carefully. A watch made of ceramic is very expensive since it is unique and has to be custom made. Your Audemars Piguet offshore ceramic Bezel can be as expensive as US$2500 when you need to replace it if dent or broken.
Other
PVD Physical Vapor Deposition
This is a metal coating method with an added layer of either carbides, nitrides or oxides, which have an ionic attraction. It has a masculine black patina, but it’s not one of the most scratch proof materials as the original steel color may wear off due to friction or impacts. This material is best suited for sports activity watches. It will be worn off, beware.
DLC Diamond like coating
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