RM 011 Red TPT Quartz Automatic flyback chronograph
Courtesy picture of Quill pad
Different kinds of watch materials
1. Stainless steel
2. Yellow gold
3. Pink gold
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.
North Thin Ply Technologies developed the TPT Quartz in
collaboration with Saint-Gobain Quartz, who supplied the Quartzel™ 9- or
4-micron quartz fiber filament (which is thinner than human hair); Reichhold,
suppliers of ADVALITE™, a monomer-free vinyl hybrid resin; and, of course,
Richard Mille, who led design and validation for the new process. The result was
the world’s first thin-ply quartz fiber prepreg material, which immediately won
the JEC World 2016 Innovation Award. (quoted from Richard Mille Web Site).
How do I look at those new material such as Quartz TPT, or
Grey Cermet, well it still has some hesitation to go for that with a watch
worth more than US$180,000.
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.
Gold
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
Carbon Fibre
arbon Fiber is composed of carbon atoms bonded together to
form a long chain. It is one of the sturdiest and lightest watch materials out
there. It is, however, very expensive – so it will cost you a mini fortune to
get a carbon fiber watch on your wrist. Given that carbon fiber is mainly used
in leading sports instruments and even supercars, this adds a thrill and glory
to the watches made of this material. Not that, once the ultimate strength of
the carbon fiber is exceeded, it has a high chance of being shattered. Audemars
Piguet does not product carbon fibre or forged carbon watch case anymore as it
would chipped off one day, so if you are tired of the bezel which has been
damaged, AP will replace a ceramic bezel for you , of course you need to pay
US$2500 or more depends on model. So if your AP bezel in Carbon is still in
prestige condition, it would be an good value too.
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
A think hard thin coating made on case of watch, for it is
hard, but as the thickness is a few microns, it will be worn off also one day, Don’t
rub it or polish it with abrasive material.
HK Snob
