Patek Philippe

NZZ reports on Platinum cases at Patek Philippe

 

G'day,


picture by NZZ.CH

the swiss NZZ newspaper entertains an interesting section called "NZZ FORMAT"; specific topics are covered in beautiful films and interesting statements, which often lead to an interesting and sometimes surprising perspective.

Among older issues there is one to cover Platinum, from "birth" in the mines up to industrial applications.
And within this issue, some interesting insights by Patek Philippe were given.
The issue of NZZ Format is available at NZZ website, but i?d guess in german language only. So here are a few points in loose translation, which i found interesting and a bit surprising. And it may show Pt casework is more than a costly material only, but the actual application and the challenging production does set it apart from gold cases (not to speak of non-precious metals).
So here we go; all coverage was accompanied by movies of the watch case as initially pictured, so you may get an idea what the final outcome looks like:

"More than 4 hours are required to mill out the case from pre-stamped raw shaped block. In this process the case will be reduced from 120gr in weight to about 85gr.
In a final step, the case is measured and, if necessary, corrected. Then a final milling takes place, in which the weight is reduced by another 15 to 20gr. Then the case is polished and in the end, the watch case will weigh about 70gr. (note by Peter: i found this interesting, because it means there are still about 50$ material lost during the production even if the raw shape is taken from the solid block; keeping in mind Platinum is a very costly material, i think this is some serious loss even if it can be recycled in some very costly steps later.)

Jean-Marie Robin, production branch director at Patek Philippe, explains:
?For Platinum we have to use tools with polycristalline surfaces, which are artificial diamonds. The wear of the tooling is immense and in general it is correct to say the production process on a platinum case takes three times more time than with a gold case.
Platinum does have it?s special properties. Because it is very soft, it tends to "stick" on the tooling frequently. It is a very demanding material and difficult to work on.
As soon as we receive a plate or block of Platinum, we take off a bit and have it tested by the Laboratory for Precious Metal Control in Geneva. Platinum must have a purity of at least 95 %. We work on machinery that allows for three-dimensional processing of the work bits and to shape it?s form this way (pictured is a CNC-milling machine).?

Swiss legislation requires each and every Platinum watch to be punched with a hallmark, which is basically a stamp. At Patek Philippe this takes place in presence of an Officer of the Swiss Customs Department. Only the stamped in hallmarks of the dog ("Bernhardiner") and the ?950-scale symbol? guarantee the case to be genuine Platinum with a purity of at least 95%.
At Patek Philippe the rest is 5% of Ruthenium, which turns out to be helpful in polishing the casework (note by Peter: i don?t suspect this information to be "technical" in that technically the alloy does contain Platinum and Ruthenium only. Nonetheless, it?s an interesting tidbit of information, i?d say).

So over all, to me it seems a Platinum case requires different and costly machinery and tooling, which is worn out much more than with processing other materials. At the same time it takes longer to do a Platinum case and the material lost within all processing is significant.
Obviously, another interesting information was to see Patek Philippe does produce it?s own casework. And in terms of the Officer?s case in question, even the force needed to be opened and the sound of releasing the flip-top back is subject of rigid quality control, which i find most special.
So one might say there?s something special about Pt casework, but that?s probably no surprise for enthusiasts of Patek Philippe at all.

Greetings from germany,

Peter