Fascinating insights into the creation of the outstanding enamel dials at RD...

Ornatus-Mundi

was posted almost four years ago by Purist Jonathan Hang (Z3) here on Purists. He revisited the high level and artistry that went into creating exemplary enamel dials. Some experts even suggest that those belong to the best ever created in the industry:

Jonathan writes:

"While much attention is focused on high complications,miniature enamel painting remains one of the exclusive yet relatively under-appreciated specialty in the Swiss watch industry. One maker that has a special place in my heart is Roger Dubuis - a brand whose enamel watches combine traditional artisanship with vibrant colors, modern concepts, and intriguing designs."

To read more please click here !

As many of you know there are several independent artist who create enamel dials for altmost the entire watch industry. Anita Porchet is certainly the most well known amongst them, she does amazing work e.g. for Jaquet Droz, Piaget or others (you may want to read Dr. Michel Ting's report here ).

However, what makes Roger Dubuis' enamel dials stand out are the non-round, square, rectangular or cushion shaped dials, which are often even curved:

I did not realise the additional complexity and the challenges that are inherent to the creation of non-round dials before I did some research over the last couple of days:

While enamel dials are a delicate speciality per se, creating shaped dials or even curved ones is on a whole different level of complexity and comes with a large range of technical difficulties: The main problem here are the repeated heating and cooling cycles. On a non-round dial, this creates tensions due to uneven thickness of the substrate and may result in deformations which cause enamel layers to break off the substrate.

Even if such be resolved, varying coefficients of expansion lead to distortion of the enamel which is particularly troublesome if painted numbers, indices or images are applied atop a ground layer of enamel.

But the Manufacture Roger Dubuis did persevere and spend much time and efforts to reaise their vision of spectacular hand-painted shaped dials. I did a quick search on the European patent database and - to my surprise - discovered that RD indeed filed a patent which covers the process of creating shaped enamel dials, particularly such with a curved dial.

European patent #EP 1 554 415 B1 is a fascinating read to those who are interested in such artisanal dials (here is an excerpt that shows the level of detail RD went into):

The purpose of the said invention is to solve the above problems in order to be able to remedy defects in the enamel dials of non-circular shape for watches, particularly for wristwatches.

The solution invented by RD involves a dial substrate mild (or ingot) steel with a very low carbon content, less than 0.08 % and preferably 0.004%. The substrate is to be cold-rolled with a thickness between 0.30 and 0.80 mm and is preferably about 0.45 mm. Furthermore, these steel plates must be processed before enamelling for (i) a perfectly defatted surface and (ii) a homogeneous surface structure.

The patent then described ins detail the composition of the enamel and the steps necessary to produce a shaped dial.

Really, really fascinating! Guess who is listed as inventor? You are probably wrong, that is Mr Carlos Dias himself!

This attributes to the fascination enamel dials have, and increases (at least) my admiration for a company that strives to avoid compromises in order to achieve what designers intended!

Thanks for reading,

Magnus

This message has been edited by Ornatus-Mundi on 2013-10-06 06:27:27

Comments:

Ares501 - Mr Green October 5th, 2013-08:56

Still remember post of Mr. Zhang and let me be the first to reply as well as last time and to stand on what I sad 4 years ago this is just BEAUTIFUL Best and thank you for reminder dear Magnus Damjn

Whirling October 6th, 2013-09:42

Beautiful Dials...that handset is gorgeous too! The dials are beautiful, certainly. I love that handset on the rectangular watches. The three-dimensionality of it is curvaceous and opulent. Do you know if these are made in-house? Regards, Jon

Ornatus-Mundi October 10th, 2013-09:42

Yes - THOSE hands... are to die for! I have to confess that those hands are what initially attracted my attention to the RD brand, until now. I will have to find out more on those. There are others as well which have the same sensual qualities like these - here is one from a ...

Ornatus-Mundi October 16th, 2013-19:33

Industry standards... in respect to hand and dials is that most of the times these parts are sourced from specialists - such as in the case of RD. While a few brands have in-house capabilities to produce case, dials and/or hands, they do not do this for their entire production...

Whirling October 17th, 2013-14:36

Fine by me! The most important point is not who makes a component, but that it be of the finest quality. Next, one prefers a component that doesn't appear identically on watches from other companies. Additionally, for the sake of artistic purity, one hopes the compon...

AnthonyTsai October 9th, 2013-15:08

Wow that is amazing detail in these Dubuis enamel dials!

ED209 October 14th, 2013-18:19

enamel dials at RD I didn't know that it's that much more difficult to work on curved enamel dials. Very informative post Magnus. Thanks for sharing these pics. Regards, ED-209

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Ornatus-Mundi

Genealogical studies (I/II): From the Roger Dubuis Sympathie to the La Monégasque

Ornatus-Mundi

Investigating the gallery of ancestral portraits is quite revealing if we are speaking about watches. It tells about management decisions, changing tastes & preferences as well as of watchmaking capabilities. I seized the opportunity of a recent trip to the Roger Dubuis Manufacture in Meyrin trying to understand the history of the different complications. Sales of all watches, however, was/is a healthy business and thus there are only few 'historic' pieces available for comparison.

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