Montfort Strata Collection: Kickstarter Launch

MTF introduces Montfort Watches, a Swiss startup challenging the Kickstarter norm with its 'Strata' collection. He highlights the brand's commitment to innovation, particularly its use of hardened stainless steel and 3D-printed dials. This article explores how Montfort aims to deliver unique, scratch-resistant timepieces at an accessible price point, distinguishing itself in a crowded market.

Based in Nyon, Switzerland

Nowadays, with the ease of Kickstarter, thousands of start-up brands and frankly fantasy (not fantastic) projects are literally a "dime a dozen". Hundreds of timepiece ideas are launched and most fail despite (and maybe inspite of) "enthusiastic" write-ups by the usual blogger suspects. I usually ignore the brouhaha and approaches by brands. I particularly avoid watches "recommended" by lonely bloggers and one-man websites.

Most watch collectors only take note of start-up watch brands if they make an impact with PuristS.

Philippe Kuratle (Partner & CEO) and Jérémie Senggen (Partner & Designer)

I was on vacation when the Montfort Strata watches were offered on Kickstarter website and missed the story of a chance meeting in a bar. Philippe Kuratle, hotelier and bar owner in Nyon meets Jérémie Senggen, a Swiss watch designer, and spend 12 months creating the Montfort brand and their first 'collection' of a trio of wristwatches called 'James', 'Frank' and 'Bruce'.

Montfort Strata Collection: James, Frank and Bruce

Actually, Jérémie wrote me an e-mail drawing my attention to the watches. Jérémie is a seasoned watch designer who trained under Gerald Genta at his eponymous brand before freelancing for 10 years with many brands and more recently at Studio7h38.

Check out a PuristSPro report about Studio7h38.

Super Stainless Steel

The founders wanted to make an affordable scratch-resistant watch. Philippe's brother Thomas is an engineer with his own R&D consultancy (AIM SA) that had experience of Stainless Steel hardening; it was adapted for use in watches, entailing development of manufacturing processes for a literally, harder product. Early trials resulted in a hardened steel that was very granular with crystalline grains. This was made a feature of the design to highlight the technological heritage that cannot be seen after polishing.

The resultant design motif required another innovation - 3D printing of a steel dial.

Thomas Kuratle, Engineer and brother of Philippe

AIM SA had been developing stainless steel parts with an additive manufacturing company. The process achieves a natural ‘granularity’ on the dials with layers of printed and sintered steel - Montfort ‘Strata’ (geological layers) Collection was born.

Design

DESIGN MOTIF

Jérémie’s designs adhere to the edict: ‘form follows function’ that means the watch is quite compact (only 11.2mm thick) for formal and casual wear.

The 4 piece ‘lugless’ case design is contemporary and timeless with a hint of Genta DNA.

They are particularly proud of a sapphire dial ring with sculptural hands and appliques for distinctive character and legibility.

The Montfort Strata design is for a low and snug wrist fit for both slim and larger wrists on men and women.

We are supposed to guess the eponymous modern day heroes from their descriptions. I quote from the marketing text: 

Strata 3330-1 - ‘James’
The James is Inspired by and built for, the British-sports-car driving, Savile-row-suit wearing, sophisticated gentleman. It boasts a reinterpretation of the classic ‘clous de Paris’ design and is the chic one of the bunch. It can easily be worn with a nice suit, at the races or while you’re driving through the country side top down with wind in your hair. A true modern classic.

 
Strata 3330-2 'Frank'
Frank is Built for the artists, bikers, dj’s and hipsters that turn up to work on Monday morning in a suit and tie. The Frank isn’t burdened by convention it breaks them. Frank has the Montfort original ‘les massifs’ dial that is a reinterpretation of the mineral beauty and chaotic disorder of the Swiss alps. Frank’s middle bezel is coated in black DLC coating.

Strata 3330-3 'Bruce'
The Bruce is the alter-ego, the super-hero you never knew you were. The Bruce is smart, sophisticated yet mysterious and obscure. As with the Frank the Bruce features the ‘les massifs’ dial and is completely coated in black and grey DLC coatings. 

Sellita SW200 movement

Movement: Swiss made Sellita SW200 Automatic Movement in black galvanic coating, blued screws, “CÔTES DE GENÈVE” on oscillating mass, 26 Rubies and 38 hr power reserve

Case: 4 piece case in hardened “SUPER STAINLESS STEEL”.
Glass: sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating
Coating: Deep black DLC & Dark Grey DLC
Height: 11.20 mm
Diameter: 44 mm

Dial:

 “JAMES” 3D printed stainless steel dial “CLOUS DE PARIS” Hour & Minute: Skeleton Rhodium Polished with ‘Cool Grey’ Luminova Second: Blue PVD Coating

“FRANK” and “BRUCE” 3D printed stainless steel dial “Les Massifs” Hour & Minute: Skeleton Rhodium Polished with ‘Cool Grey’ Luminova Second: Red PVD Coating

Water resistance: Water-resistant up to a pressure of 100m (10 ATM)

Strap: Black, semi matte Italian leather strap with black/red stitching and red ‘LORICA’ lining - 22/20MM

INNOVATION 1

Super Stainless Steel was developed in conjunction with AIM SA of Switzerland and Expanite A/S of Denmark. Initially developed for offshore and aerospace applications this gaseous carbo-nitriding technology provides flexibility, hardening performance and anti-corrosive properties.

Step 1:
Selecting the right steel. Low grade 316L does not allow for safe hardening results and high sulphur content makes for corrosion issues. Before you ask...it's a secret.

Step 2:
Manufacturing the parts. The parts of the watch have to be stamped, turned, machined and practically finished. Then, they can be hardened.

Step 3:
Hardening in High Temperature Furnace. The steel parts are treated in a vacuum retort furnace for 2 – 4 hours. This carefully monitored high-temperature process allows Expanite to anneal the steel and diffuse the nitrogen (nitriding) that increases core hardness of the material as well as the corrosion resistance.

Step 4:
Low Temperature Case Hardening.  The parts spend between 6 – 8 hours in a low temperature furnace that will diffuse both nitrogen and carbon into the surface of the material. The hard layer is approximately 0.04mm and hardness around 1200 HV (Hardness Vickers scale). This can now be called ‘Super Stainless Steel’.

Step 5:
Micro Machining Polishing. Polishing normal steel that has a surface hardness of 150 – 200 HV is easy compared to polishing Super Stainless Steel. Montfort uses technology developed for the aerospace industry (polishing jet turbine blades) to polish the cases. The parts are fixed to a customized tool and processed for 6 to 12 hours.

Step 6:
Final Finishing. Human polishers can put on the finishing touches and give the Montfort watch the world class finishing it deserves.

Step 7:
DLC Hardness. DLC (Diamond Like Coating) is not new to the watch industry but is usually used in watches that cost well over $10,000. The much cheaper alternative (10x cheaper to coat) is TiC (Titanium Carbide). DLC is an amorphous coating of Carbon atoms (similar bonds as diamond) usually with a hardness between 1500 - 4000 HV. Black DLC (difficult to obtain) has a hardness of about 1500 - 1800 HV.

INNOVATION 2

Developed with a Swedish company called Digital Metal, the 3D printed dials on the Montfort Strata models are so complicated no other manufacturing technique would have been possible. 

Design the dial in 3D
The process starts with designing a 3D representation on a 3D CAD software program.

Printing
Much like an inkjet printer, the dials are printed with stainless steel powder. Instead of ink, the printer uses glue to bind the powder that will make up the dial.

Sintering
The fragile printed dials are about 40% bigger than their desired size. They are heated in a furnace to allow the stainless steel powder to fuse together. The fusion of these stainless steel particles shrinks the part to the precise desired size.

Sandblasting
The dials are sandblasted to remove rough edges and give the dial the rock-like matte grey finish.

STRAPS

Leather Straps

Italian leather straps feature a red ‘lorica’ lining. Lorica is a highly resistant synthetic material that is bio-compatible and resistant to sweat.

The Straps we have on offer come in different designs and colors. The stainless steel buckles with the Montfort logo are hardened but not polished. Thus, the enlarged grain size and crystalline structure of Super Stainless Steel is seen. 

The watches feature ‘easy click’ pins that allow for quick assembly/disassembly of the straps.

Packaging

Packaging was designed by co-founder Jérémie. Instead of a huge, useless box, the The Montfort comes in a compact travel case supplied with a genuine leather card holder and a microfiber cleaning cloth.

PRICE

The Montfort Strata will retail for CHF 1365 - 1760 depending on model but currently at 50% less on Kickstarter.

CONCLUSION

I wish Monfort the best of luck with this inaugural project and a successful production. It certainly lives up to their company motto: "Time to Innovate".

As with all start-ups, the proof of concept is in the delivery of product that is fit for purpose. Based on my personal experience with materials science, I hope Montfort and their engineering partners have solved the problem of rapid oxidation of sintered steel on their dials.

Unlike the lone bloggers and 'enthusiast websites', I have put my trust and money into two of the models!  Now, THAT is a PuristS endorsement that means something.

I'm not saying which models but you could probably guess from the heroes that they represent......

Regards,
MTF  (CEO PuristSPro)

Declaration:
Neither PuristSPro nor I have received any financial remuneration (or in kind) from Montfort and/or their representatives for this report and personal endorsement.