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BluNotte
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It's time to go "Platinum" with the one and only "Platinum Boy" of PuristSPro!

Ciao Folks!

I trust each one of you had a perfect start to the 1st business week of the New Year, 2009 which is my year of the Black Bull!

Alright, Bulls aside, its even more time now than ever to go Platinum, as should be for ever year, since it's been for virtually 5000 years with mankind already!

Ever since i started collecting "real" serious pieces of haute horlogerie, i'v been mainly basing my collections on this most fascinating of metals. And since being on this forum, i'v naturally come to know many of you, all my dear friends, who have the same penchant as I do for this most noble and precious of metals known as Platinum!

Sure, it feels heavy, dense, solid and so pure when utilized in a watch case, BUT, isn't it time we go back to the roots of it all, and define the metal itself EXACTLY?

Many of you already own masterpieces crafted from this metal, and many of you know lotsa things about it, especially with regards to the "watch" side of things, but how many of you know the actual truth about this metal, and its numerous other uses besides in the watch industry?

I will be posting a series which focus on Platinum, and i'll try to include facts which range from the plain, to the absolutely ridiculously insane!

Now, some of you may already know all that i'm about to write, thats good, but please, show a sign of respect, and let those who know just a little, or those who knows absolutely zero about this metal to gain more knowledge hopefully from my posts!

As always, feel free to ask questions, to comment about anything that i'v said, any complains you might have, any points that you want to contradict! I'm open to anything and everything, and will respond within my abilities!

Now for the start of our magical journey, let's take a trip back in time, about 2,000,000,000 years ago to be exact...

Platinum, is a metal which is literally from "out of this world". For one thing, all the platinum that is found on Earth right now didnt exactly form from within the earth like some other elements. Instead, it is believed that Platinum found its way to Earth when meteorites struck our planet ages ago. And where did these meteorites come from? Not the asteriod belt located between Mars and Jupiter, but from the remnants of the explosion of stars, known as Supernovas! So, in wearing a piece of platinum watch, know this, that you are wearing something which comes from outer space! In recent times, a few marques such as Rolex and Jaquet Droz have started incorporating "meteorite" dials on their watches, but wearing a platinum case puts you on par with them! Because those platinum , although dug up from the soil of the Earth, didnt orignally came from there!

Just imagine, the material in that gorgeous platinum watch of yours came from here....

Amazed? Not yet maybe?

That's alright, now i just want to take this time to let you know a little bit more about the metal itself before we proceed further.

Now, some of you are aware that Platinum is known to be "Pure, rare and Eternal". And how is this so?

Here's why:

1). Platinum is Pure because when it is utilised in applications such as watch case making, it usually has a purity level of 95%, which is why you will definitely see the hallmark "Pt 950" on every genuine platinum watch case. This is in comparison with gold cases, which has the mark "750", this means that the gold watch case is made out of 75% pure gold. Now, why is it that Gold cant be 95% pure? This is because gold, at 95%, would be too soft to be utilised effectively in watch making. The main purpose in alloying other metals to these base precious metals, is that because in their absolute pure, raw form, they are often too soft to be applied into horology. Therefore, they have to be alloyed till a certain degree to strenghten them in order to enable their effective usage in crafting out the watch parts. This is also another reason why 100% pure Platinum nor Gold is used in the watch industry, or any other industry that uses platinum for that matter. But for those who wants to know what raw , 100% Platinum looks like, here it is!

So while the Platinum ( chemical symbol Pt which i will be using from henceforth) used in watches isnt 100% pure, it is much more "purer" than the gold used.

2). Platinum is Rare because on the Earth, Pt is 30 times rarer than gold. It has been estimated that if you were to take all the Platinum that exists in the Earth, those that have already been extracted, ( yes, that watch on me and you!) and those still in the ores in the soil, and melt them and pour all of it into an olympic size swimming pool, the liquid molten Pt would only cover up to your ankle! Although i fancy to think who would or could stand in such a pool because the liquid would be at 1768.3 ° C ! Now, compared this to gold, if we did the same thing, liquid gold would cover over 3 pools full! Besides this, it takes 12 tons of raw ore to produce JUST one troy ounce (31.1034768grams) of pure Pt! Thats just 0.000259195%! And this process isnt done in a jiffy either. It takes 6 months to process a batch of ore, and 8 weeks just to obtain that ONE OUNCE! Pt also occurs as only 0.003 parts per billion (ppb)concentration in the earth! For your information, 1 ppb is one part per 1,000,000,000 parts, one part in 10⁹, or a value of 1 × 10^–9. This is equivalent to 1 drop of water diluted into 50 m³, or one second of time in approximately 31.7 years! More pure platinum for you!

You are looking at 1 litres worth of Pt!

Finally, 3). Platinum is Eternal because it's density (21.45 g/cm cube) and weight makes it more durable than other metals, including its watch case rival, Gold. While Gold also has a fairly high density, (19.3 g/cm cube), this is very much different from Pt especially in the watch case world, as already mentioned above in the 1st point that more platinum is used in a watch case than gold is in a gold case, therefore, you don'T get the full characteristics of Pure gold. The alloying alters the chemical properties of either metal by a bit, but more for the gold naturally.

All precious metals scratch, be it Pt or gold, but the difference lies in one property of Pt, thats enables metals to be displaced, moved out of position, shift rather than "fall off". For example, when you scratch your platinum watch case, think of it as you moving your fingers across a surface of wet clay. The clay is molded out of shape, but none of it actually sticks to your fingers( and thus is taken off the chunk) or falls off does it? It is just displaced. Moved out of its original position, but still a part of the whole.It doesnt "wear off nor out". This is the same as with Pt, whether its a dent, scratch that you'V got there. But with gold, gold atoms actually falls off the chunk, the watch case in this case, and thus after years , you have actually lost much of the original volume of metal.

In addition to all this, Pt is extremely mallaeble, enabling it to be formed into virtually any shapes( which is why i don't see why Signore Bonati says that Pt can be used for Radiomir cases but not for Luminor cases because of its shape, Pt can be shaped into anything! Its just whether you have the know how or not!)

All my Pt watches are fitted with Pt stitching straps, but this is the only photo i have, on my F.P.Journe CS BLB.

Pt is also a highly unreactive metal, it resists corrosion not only against the most common of culprits such as water, oxygen , but also against what is normally already strong and caustic solutions such as hydrochloric acid and nitric acid. The few things that are able to corrode Pt is namely aqua regia (which is actually the 2 acids mentioned before combined, but they themselves as individuals wont harm Pt one bit) and halogens, sulfurs. Because of its un-reactivity, it is also a hypo-allergenic metal. For those of you who have skin that is sensitive in particular to metals, Pt is the metal of choice for you, for it will NEVER cause you to have an allergic reaction!

Well, today I just wanted to induce all of you into the foundations of this metal, so please, have a read and do try to memorise the basic facts, because i will be referring to them often in further posts  down the line!

Cheers and you'v gone platinum with BluNotte!

Stephen