Outlined: Dial Making at Rolex

One facet of a watch that is normally missed — nonetheless sarcastically the one which’s entrance and centre — is the dial. Whereas normally conservative on the subject of design, Rolex might be at its most expressive throughout the particulars of its dials, which combine conventional elements with stylish touches, all accomplished by stylish manufacturing methods and finishes.

Although a dial might seem straightforward on its face compared with the shifting components of the movement, dials are superior. Lots goes into making a high quality dial, the dial clear, utilized ornaments, ground ending, gold indices, and additional not too way back even large hearth enamel.

A diamond-set dial for the Oyster Perpetual Day-Date

Unsurprisingly Rolex takes dial making very critically. Reflecting its long-term imaginative and prescient, Rolex has invested tremendously in all sides of manufacturing wristwatches, along with producing its private dials.

Dial manufacturing of the most effective prime quality, and at scale, is an issue few have truly mastered. Rolex accomplished that with a loyal dial-making facility throughout the Chêne-Bourg district of Geneva, positioned about quarter-hour from Rolex headquarters, the place some 500 people work solely on dial conception, prototyping, and manufacturing. Notably, the Chêne-Bourg facility moreover does gem setting along with the manufacturing of Cerachrom elements similar to the GMT-Grasp II bezel insert.

In-house dial making has given Rolex administration of your full course of, allowing the mannequin to innovate, even in rethinking the very foundation of a dial, significantly its attachment to the movement. We’ll delve a bit bit into what goes proper right into a Rolex dial.

The dial making manufacturing facility at Chêne-Bourg moreover produces cloisonné enamel dials

Rethinking the basics

Rolex has innovated in strategies large and small, ranging from provides science to case improvement, and it has carried out the an identical with its dials by completely redesigning the technique of affixing the dial to the movement.

The overwhelming majority of watches perform dials that make use of soldered pins on their reverse typically referred to as “ft”. These tiny pins match into devoted slots throughout the movement plate, then screws are tightened in opposition to the pins, locking them in place and securing the dial to the movement.

Toes are fragile and will bend if mishandled all through service. A bent pin means the dial will not be going to sit down accurately on the movement, requiring the watchmaker to manage the ft manually. That, in flip, can result in the ft breaking off absolutely. After which there’s the reality that each pin is tightened by a screw, which offers work to the assembly course of.

Rolex solved all of those points by creating its dials another way, relying as an alternative on an entirely completely totally different fixture system. European patent amount EP2743783B1, filed by Rolex all the best way by which once more in 2012 (nonetheless solely granted in 2022), describes a lip-like ring (grey) that extends from the underside of the dial plate (yellow). The ring moreover incorporates elastic apertures 10 and symmetric cutouts 5.

Fig. 1 extracted from European Patent EP2743783B1. The patented dial improvement; discover the notch 25 on the underside plate that slots into cutout 5.

When the dial is assembled on the movement, the elastic elements of the ring transfer over the rim of the movement plate, snapping into place and latching the dial tightly onto the movement.

As a result of model new dial improvement, the movement must be modified: the underside plate incorporates notches on its circumference 25which match into the dial ring’s cutouts 5. This movement improvement will probably be current in Rolex’s latest-generation actions, along with the cal. 32xx family.

Assembled on this fashion, the dial is saved securely in place by the compression of the elastic blades throughout the dial ring. This ensures the dial may be throughout the applicable orientation relative to the movement and eliminates the potential of broken pins. Fashions similar to the Perpetual 1908 perform dials with this artistic improvement.

Clearly harder to manufacture than a standard dial with ft, this contemporary dial improvement moreover requires adapting the underside plate of the movement to accommodate the dial fixture. Collectively, they dictate substantial modifications to industrial manufacturing processes – an enormous funding nonetheless one which pays off over time. In the long run, the novel dial improvement assures the sturdiness of the dial, streamlining assembly and subsequent servicing.

One among many newest dials designed by Rolex, the guilloché dial throughout the Perpetual 1908

The ending methods

For the proprietor of a watch, a really highly effective facet of the dial is its aesthetics. And an ideal portion of a dial’s look relies upon upon the remedy for its ground, which usually falls into three lessons: electroplating, bodily vapour deposition (PVD), and lacquering.

Dial blanks start off as metallic discs of each brass or gold. Brass is further extensively used as a result of it has excellent mechanical proprieties – malleable, non-ferrous, and machinable – allowing it to endure many ground therapies. Gold is used for further specialised dials, since its added malleability is well-suited to enamelling or gem-setting.

Aside from brass and gold, Rolex moreover employs further distinctive provides for dials, along with meteorite

Generally, the 1st step in dial remedy is electroplating. Electroplating, additionally referred to as electrodeposition, is a typical course of employed in a lot of industries that bonds one metallic to the ground of 1 different by the use of electrolysis, as a approach to create each a decorative or defending layer. The tactic is utilized to makes use of as varied as jewellery manufacturing to the minting of money, and even built-in circuits.

At Rolex, brass dial blanks are electroplated in gold and nickel baths, making a layer that assures corrosion resistance. This does not determine the final word colour of the dial, nonetheless creates an optimum ground for subsequent decoration.

The following step creates the dial that the customer sees, when blanks are accomplished with actually one in every of three essential methods: lacquering, PVD, or electroplating.

Lacquered dials have a selected lustre and depth, significantly since lacquer is coated with a remaining layer of clear varnish. The pliability of a lacquered finish means such dials will probably be found all through the Rolex catalogue, from Expert sports activities actions fashions similar to the Submariner and GMT-Grasp II to the normal Day-Date.

An occasion of blue lacquer utilized to dials

Evaluating quite a few types of inexperienced lacquer and matching them to dial drawings created by the Design Division

Historically, lacquer was utilized by hand, layer by layer in a time consuming course of the place the artisan has to attend for each layer of lacquer to air dry sooner than making use of the following.

On the Rolex dial-making facility, lacquer is utilized by airbrushing in a transparent room as a approach to eradicate mud particles. As quickly because the lacquering is achieved, the dial is roofed with a coat of clear varnish, then polished to a deep gloss.

The Oyster Perpetual Rolex Deepsea with a blue lacquered dial

PVD is a course of employed for coating surfaces with a thin defending film that is typically metal-based. The tactic is helpful for every defending and decorative coatings.

By the PVD course of, the film coating briefly evaporates, going from a powerful to a vapour state, allowing it to be sputtered on the remedy ground. The vapour then almost instantaneously turns into sturdy, creating the remedy ground with a thin film. At Rolex, PVD dials are coated with metallic alloy-oxide or nitride blends, which sort a film of about one nanometer on the dial plate.

A dial clear with sunray finish utilized after PVD remedy

PVD has advantages over electroplating, along with being further hard-wearing and allowing for a wider fluctuate of brighter colours. Varied the colour of the dial is a matter of fixing the composition of the thin film, resulting in an almost numerous fluctuate of finishes.

The additional vibrant dials throughout the Rolex line-up are most undoubtedly accomplished with PVD. Such dials nonetheless have a metallic finish however as well as a shiny finish evoking lacquer because of the PVD ground is coated with a layer clear defending varnish.

Lastly, electroplating is used to create dials in metallic shades — significantly silver, gold, or rosé — which is likely to be most continuously current in precious metallic fashions, similar to the Day-Date for example. The electrolysis technique of electroplating moreover lends itself successfully to the radially brushed sunray pattern that is usually employed as a ground ending in such dials.

A champagne-tone dial of a Day-Date 40

Multi-component dials

For aesthetics or technical issues, dials are usually composed of a lot of components. That’s typically the case with refined fashions. The Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona dial, for example, has separate discs for each of the chronograph registers.

A multi-part improvement not solely provides a dial layering and depth, however as well as creates the prospect to utilize completely totally different provides for the sub-dials.

Primarily essentially the most refined model throughout the Rolex catalogue, the Oyster Perpetual Sky-Dweller moreover has a selected dial. The Sky-Dweller dial is made up of two concentric plates that create an aperture for the 24-hour disc of the GMT function.

The Sky-Dweller dial in mint inexperienced

Such a two-part improvement poses a particular downside, as a result of the 2 plates have to be exactly the an identical colour as a approach to create the illusion of that the dial is a single total. This may get far more refined for the Sky-Dweller fashions with solarised dials which is likely to be radially brushed. With such a excellent finish, the brushing on every dial plates must match up fully as a approach to protect the optical influence of a one-piece dial.

The completion

Rolex is probably going one of many just a few watchmakers to persistently use 18k gold utilized hour markers on all dials, even these in entry-level fashions similar to the Oyster Perpetual.

Such gold appliqués, which recurrently accommodates the well-known crown emblem, are the completion on the dial. The textual content material and minute monitor are pad-printed sooner than the appliqués are individually utilized.

Making use of the coronet emblem to the dial

The tactic of setting the appliqués is a affected particular person, precise one which’s carried out by hand. Significantly delicate coping with is required to steer clear of marring the sturdy gold appliqués, which usually even requires paper-covered tweezers to decide on up each appliqué.

The Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 40 with a inexperienced lacquered dial

Whatever the fragile nature of the utilized gold elements, they’re mounted fully and securely to the dial. The appliqués have ft, which might be pressed and riveted on the once more of the dial plate.

Testing is completed to verify this: random samples of dials are drop- and impact-tested as a manner to verify the indices keep firmly in place even in cases of shocks. After checks and remaining inspections, the finished dials are ready for remaining assembly on the mannequin’s Acacias facility in Geneva.

This was dropped at you in partnership with Rolex authorised retailer The Hour Glass. For further, go to Thehourglass.com.

Once more to excessive.