In this video for the Daily Mail, Zeke Spector and Marc Gomes pay a visit to the workshops of American watchmakers, Roland G. Murphy and Cameron Weiss, exploring the hand-operated tooling, CNC equipment, and staff that each firm employs to bring their watches to market.
Through a pitfall-ridden process that is neither for the frugal nor faint of heart, fellow Canadian Nigel Braun, of NileRed, succeeds in alloying discs of Vitreloy (a.k.a. Liquidmetal), an amorphous, glass-like metal composed of zirconium, beryllium, titanium, copper, and nickel.
This is the same material that Omega uses to infill the ceramic bezels of its timepieces. Much of the danger and all of the less-than-desirable-results Braun encountered throughout the making of these discs could have been avoided by taking a page out of Omega's playbook, using a 5-tonne heated press and water jet cutter to land on the desired form factor—but the audience is there for the danger, audacity, and perseverance. An easier, safer path to a more precise outcome would likely have made for a less engaging story arc.
Fun fact: I had the inside scoop on this video from Steve Mould months before it was published. The two of us were discussing amorphous metals over email and I'd relayed Omega's process to him, among other things. Coincidentally, he mentioned he had passed my message along to NileRed. Given the long lead times and immense amount of work involved creating videos like these, though, it wouldn't surprise me if Braun had already succeeded in completing his first of the successful amorphous metal discs by that point.
Atomic trampolines are fascinating.
The family-owned firm Pureon, headquartered in Switzerland, is one of the leading suppliers of precise, diamond-based, polishing abrasives on the planet.
Graphite powder is subjected to massive, controlled explosions in Smithfield, Pensylvania, which produce the heat and pressure required to convert the crystalline allotrope form of carbon that graphite is composed of into the diamond cubic crystalline form of carbon that constitutes diamond. Once it has cooled, the fused core is sliced and soaked in acid to remove any residual graphite and other contaminants from the diamond. Back in Switzerland, the particles of pure diamond are put through a lengthy sequence of sedimentation and grading processes that, in turn, yield highly-refined diamond slurries with tightly-controlled specifications of either mono-crystalline or polycrystalline diamonds ranging in size from just under a millimeter to less than a nanometer.
Beyond supplying critical tools used in the manufacturing of watch components across the industry, Pureon also collaborates closely with fellow Swiss firms—like La Pierrette, who manufacture a sizeable portion of the Swiss watch industry's ruby bearings, pallet fork jewels, and roller jewels—to pioneer new manufacturing and finishing techniques through their Surface Lab.
The linked video provides an overview of their manufacturing stages, operations, and R&D facilities. Hat tip to Marc André Deschoux for shining a light on this keystone supplier of the Swiss watch industry.
Kelly Bastone, reporting for Outside Magazine, brings to light the story of Violet “Nena” Kelty and Asher “Dick” Kelty, progenitors of the modern hiking backpack.
Interesting to note that the almighty hip belt, to assist in distributing the load of a pack directly to the legs rather than through the spinal column, came about after a friend of theirs mentioned how much easier they found it to carry the backpack with its aluminum frame tucked into their back pockets.
An Omega Seamaster, once belonging to the renowned English watchmaker, George Daniels, spotted in the wild at the Goodwood Revival 2024.
This particular Seamaster reference 2802-1 SC, fitted with an Omega caliber 471 (serialized 14493001), is from Lot 36 of Sotheby's 2012 auction of Daniels' estate, which included two other Omega timepieces belonging to the master watchmaker.
A fun slice of horological history to own. One of a kind and indisputably more accessible than the timepieces crafted by George Daniels himself.
An early graduate of Patek Philippe's watchmaking program in NYC, Ricardo Baez Diaz reflects on leaving the auspices of working for a big brand behind and what it means to be a watchmaker in 2024:
I decided to take a bold step and go independent. This decision opened up a world of new opportunities but also presented significant challenges. On one hand, I now had the freedom to explore every facet of watchmaking that intrigued me, to set my own high standards of quality, and to cultivate a unique identity within the industry. This autonomy is incredibly fulfilling, especially for someone with a strong vision and a desire to innovate.
However, with this newfound freedom came the responsibility of managing all aspects of the business. I had to excel not only as a watchmaker but also in handling the administrative, marketing, and financial sides of running a workshop. The safety net of working for a big brand was gone; my success now depended entirely on my ability to attract clients, deliver exceptional work, and build a reputation from the ground up.
Stanley Leung, reporting for Deployant, takes the Hercules HP, in tantalum with an ice blue dial, for a spin in Australia.
Tantalum is a very dense metal, and is relatively rare, being the Earth’s fiftieth most common element. [...] The material is very hard with a Mohs hardness of 6.5 (gold is 2.8 to 4 while platinum is 4.5), has strong scratch resistance and best of all, it has hypoallergenic properties. The use of such material has risen in popularity in these two years but prior to that it is relatively uncommon in watchmaking.
The glow-in-the-dark motif set into the bridges of the movement are an interesting, if not overwrought, touch.
I applaud the brand for extending their use of tantalum beyond the case to include the buckle for the strap, as well.
Leveraging a network of specialists, former A. Lange & Söhne watchmakers, Johannes Kallinich and Thibault Claeys, have pulled off an impressive feat turning this watch from concept to reality in under three years.
That speed comes at a cost, though. The movement itself is excessively complicated with little to show in the way of complications. The unnecessary complexity, in turn, having resulted in the addition of even more components and complexity to solve problems that could have been eliminated earlier in the watch's inception, during the design of the movement architecture. By subtracting components and the associated manufacturing costs, the duo could have added significantly more value to this otherwise formidable debut piece.
JX Su and Jason Lee, for Watches by SJX, on the faithfulness of the limited edition reproduction of this historic Grand Seiko reference:
The dial is identical to that on the original, right down to the Daini Seikosha lightning bolt logo just above six o’clock. It was employed to distinguish watches made by Daini Seikosha from those made by Suwa Seikosha, both factories making Seiko watches but rivals within the wider Seiko-Hattori group of companies.
The free-sprung balance wheel in the caliber 9SA4 that powers these new Grand Seiko references (SLGW004 for the gold and SLGW005 for the stainless) are a welcome improvement over the pin-regulated balance wheels employed in the 4520A, 4522A, and 4580A calibers found in the original 45GS family of references.
Stephen Foskett, writing for Grail Watch, provides an in-depth look at how Switzerland's Société des Fabriques de Spiraux Rèunies came to corner the market for hairspring production in the late 1800s, paving the way for future cartels like ASUAG and its successor, the Swatch Group.
An obsolete Flash animation of George Daniels' co-axial escapement, created by Volker Vyskocil around the turn of the millennium, resurrected and made functional again in modern browsers thanks to the Archive Foundation's Ruffle translation layer.
The Leschot pantograph was developed by Georges Auguste Leschot, a master watchmaker employed by Vacheron Constantin, in the 1840s. The tensioned array of pulleys allowed for a drill or mill bit to be operated on the copying-end of the pantograph array.
Precise pantographs are one of the keystone tools that first enabled watch manufacturers to develop calibers with interchangeable parts—a practice pioneered largely by now-defunct American watch companies.
