In recent years, as watchmaking techniques and technology continue to innovate, people are no longer limited to traditional metal cases, and various styles of materials are emerging, with titanium and ceramic cases becoming the norm. But in addition to these materials, there are also watches that are made from rarer materials and processes. Let's take a look at them today.

Hublot and sapphire

Does sapphire belong to the synthetic corundum group of minerals, the tripartite crystal system. The gemstone world refers to all colors of gem-quality corundum outside of the ruby price as using sapphire. The mineral name for sapphire is red corundum, a corundum group mineral. Because of its development with more translucent rate, wear-resistant product performance and so on a little bit, become the excellent choice of watch mirror material.

Hublot is not only limited to the practical sapphire material for watch mirrors and casebacks, but also applies it to watch cases, which is another major breakthrough in the technology.2018 Big Bang Sapphire Five-Day Power Reserve Tourbillon Drill is the first to use transparent sapphire as both the base plate and the bridge of the movement, with only a few basic components retaining the metal to further improve the material's malleability, in addition to the fact that Hublot has also developed a special transparent glue specifically for bezel-set diamonds, which, in addition to allowing the square diamonds to be firmly fixed to the bezel,TUDOR Royal M28500-0006 makes the use of the glue invisible even to a magnifying glass.

Tag Heuer and Ya carbon fiber

Carbon fiber is a special fiber composed of carbon. It has the characteristics of high temperature resistance, friction resistance, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance The shape is fibrous, soft, and can be processed into a variety of fabrics, due to its graphite microcrystalline structure along the fiber axis of the preferential orientation, so along the direction of the fiber axis has a very high strength and modulus. The density of carbon fiber is small, so the specific strength and specific modulus are high. The main use of carbon fiber is as a reinforcing material composite with resins,TUDOR Black Bay Chrono M79360N-0002 metals, ceramics and charcoal to make advanced composite materials. Carbon fiber reinforced epoxy resin composites have the highest specific strength and specific modulus among existing engineering materials.

Currently, there are also many brands on the market that use carbon fiber to build their cases, and Tag Heuer is one of them. The new carbon fiber chronograph in the Carrera collection combines style and functionality in a practical and avant-garde design. This Aquaracer Racing Diver Carbon Fiber watch is a carbon fiber design staple that blends comfort, durability and urban sporty style.

Panerai and 3D printing

Indeed, 3D printing technology is the latest rapid prototyping device that utilizes light curing and paper lamination techniques. It works in much the same way as a regular printer. The printer is filled with a "print material", such as a liquid or a powder. The "print material" is connected to a computer and then layered under the control of the computer, so that the blueprint on the computer becomes a physical object. 3-D printing technology has become a hot industry in recent years, and even watch brands are eager to try it out.

The Panerai Luminor 1950 Tourbillon GMT Titanio is the world's first watch to use titanium 3D printing, which was developed to build itself out with Direct Impact Metal Material Laser for Sintering (DMLS) technology. Thanks to the use of 3D printed titanium material casing, the Luminor 1950 is large in size but relatively lightweight,TUDOR Royal M28503-0008 40% lighter than similar watches made of steel. And the enterprise in order that we can further reduce its own weight, the company also uses the situation directly through the laser as a metal as well as sintering production technology 3D printing titanium composite powder (layer thickness of only 0.02 mm) made of a kind of skeletonized case interior, outlining the extremely important and complex geometrical knowledge of the structure, at the same time the need to retain the water resistance of 100 meters of work performance.

The search for new materials and technologies is never-ending, and we are pleased to see that the major brands are actively exploring the path of innovation. I hope these new materials and technologies are not just marketing gimmicks, but actually make watches better.