Dial Making at Patek Philippe

Dial Making at Patek Philippe

Dial Making at Patek Philippe

Patek Philippe employs artisans who've mastered every niche in the skill of watchmaking, including dial making, in the brand’s subsidiary, Cadrans Flückiger in Saint-Imier. Here’s a closer inspection.

Making dials for luxury watches is really a delicate and sophisticated art. 

The tiniest error is going to be plainly visible on the finished watch. That is why Patek Philippe has its own dials created by Cadrans Flückiger SA.

The Cadrans Flückiger dial factory, that was established in 1860, was absorbed by Patek Philippe in 2004. With this particular acquisition, the Geneva-based manufacture required the ultimate step toward independence from exterior suppliers. Cadrans Flückiger relocated to the present quarters available district of Saint-Imier, in Switzerland’s Jura region, in the year 2006. The current, recently built factory provides 2,000 additional square meters of position for new departments and staff, presently about 100 workers. Furthermore, the brand new premises enable Cadrans Flückiger to uphold the strictest ecological standards. The venue offers optimum conditions for that annual manufacture of 100,000 dials, that are created in batches varying from 100 to 500 pieces, plus small number of 1 to 5. 40 % from the dials are destined for Patek Philippe. As was the insurance policy before the takeover, the rest of the 60 % are sent to other luxury watch manufacturers.

Dial Making at Patek Philippe

Between 50 and 110 steps are necessary to fabricate a dial for any Patek Philippe watch. The face area for any luxury watch starts with the development of a prototype. Six colleagues collaborate within the prototype division, where they conduct practicality studies, draft technical sketches, determine the precise specifications for that design and convey patterns. They within this department can also be accountable for fabricating small series as well as for after-sales service. Serial production starts with the rubber stamping from the blanks. Co-workers first robotically stamp your eyes for that hands’ employees and also the apertures for home windows, or no, from square brass plates. If required, presses bevel the perimeters from the home windows. Only within the final step will the dial receive its (usually circular) contour. The following steps are mechanical drilling, milling, deburring, circular graining, and gemstone polishing.

Remarkable manual skill is important for mounting the indexes and yet another appliqués.

Next comes the top processing. Dials might be matte finished, brushed to some satin finish, sandblasted, or adorned having a sunburst pattern. Pressurized jets, abrasive disks, or handheld brushes may be used, with respect to the preferred finish. Later on, the various components which will ultimately end up being the watches’ dials are immersed within an electroplating bath, where they get a coating of nickel, rhodium, ruthenium, gold or silver. The layer that precipitates to the metal substrate throughout this electrolytic process is between .00001 mm and .015 mm thick. The second value is 1,500 occasions thicker compared to former, but is nevertheless four occasions thinner than a typical strand of real hair. Multiple immersions inside a chemical bath provide the dials their final color. The spectrum of hues is theoretically limitless, but Patek Philippe usually decides for understated tones for example silver, gold, brown, grey, blue, or black.

Additionally to those techniques, the artisans at Cadrans Flückiger also have mastered diverse specialties which make the dials from the haute horlogerie timepieces into miniature pieces of art. Guilloché embellishment, for instance, is used using antique machines that depend positioned on mechanical way to transform complex decorative designs on large-format templates into small engraved patterns around the watches’ dials. Enameling demands absolute mastery from the materials and many kiln firings, because both versions may potentially destroy the component. And gem setters must use the most choose to ensure, for instance, that every gemstone is firmly mounted and may best reveal its sparkle.

Cloisonné enamel dial on the world-time watch from Patek Philippe’s 175th anniversary collection

An artisan who practices these techniques must scrupulously avoid the smallest inaccuracy. Anything less would betray the trust that Patek Philippe’s clients devote our prime art of watchmaking.

Patek Philippe also fabricates appliqués in the same site. This assures the indexes for that hrs and minutes, along with the frames that surround home windows in dials, perfectly harmonize using the first layer. Producing appliqués also involves cutting the correct shapes for indexes, rubber stamping and pressing the anchoring ft, and faceting the indexes.

Patek Philippe, along with other luxury brands, insists the faceting should be by hand performed. Within the set up phase, skilled artisans insert the appliqués in to the appropriate borings and anchor the appliqués by riveting or soldering around the bottom from the dial.

A meticulous final qc may be the last part of a lengthy number of examinations that be certain that each watch’s dial is immaculately fabricated