A. Lange & Söhne
Riding High on Tech: Forging Bespoke Metals
A. Lange & Söhne
Riding High on Tech: Forging Bespoke Metals
An alloy, by definition, is a mixture of at least two different chemical elements, one of which is a metal. Creating a new alloy composition is not a scientific breakthrough. In fact, there are hundreds that are developed every year. In order for an idea to materialize, it requires the right bit of mix and match, where different types are carefully discerned before putting them into the pot. There’s an emphasis on the words “carefully discerned” because the physical attributes of each element needs to be accounted for in order to understand how they will interact in an alloy. For example, an attempt to mix aluminum and lead would result in separated layers, like oil to water.
It was English metallurgist Harry Brearley who is credited with the invention of stainless steel in the early 1900s, comprising iron, chromium and nickel. Yet even when Hans Wilsdorf sent the stainless steel Rolex Oyster travelling through the English Channel in 1927, it wasn’t until the ’70s that stainless steel became the new gold, emerged in a slew of fashionable sport timepieces heralded through Gerald Genta’s and Jorg Hysek’s designs. Thereafter the audacity of two-tone metal exoskeletons followed, which were accepted quickly as a combined classic must-have.
Gilded Hybrids
The subtle lustre of rose gold is often tied to feminine attributes, which probably explains its rising popularity in the jewelry scene from the early 2010s. In less than a decade, the metallic hue has splashed fashion runways, coated homeware, and even technology gadgets. At the height of gilded fashion, Omega developed its own mix of rose gold termed Sedna gold in 2013.
The first use of the material was inducted in the Constellation Sedna, released in a limited edition of 1,952 pieces, a number that reflected the debut year of Omega’s Constellation collection. The resulting alloy is a robust blush that leans towards red gold rather than pink. One could argue that mixing three raw metals isn’t quite groundbreaking metallurgy, but its inclusion of palladium (a lighter transition metal) instead of silver (which is commonly used) creates the enduring sheen of Sedna gold’s reddish hue. The flexibility in the creation of gold alloys results in various compositions that affect not only the color, but also its physical qualities.
On the polar end, it’s in A. Lange & Söhne’s DNA to oppose the idea of brandishing the Midas touch, and instead create a shade of yellow so subtle that it bounces between yellow and white gold depending on how the light hits. The composition of Honey Gold is a proprietary mix created for the brand, containing a high proportion of copper, gold, and traces of zinc. Its unique mix provides better resistance against scratches that is attributed to its hardness level at 320 Vickers, which is twice as hard as yellow gold. Thus to hand engrave a balance cock in Honey Gold requires a different set of tools as opposed to the ones used on German silver, and are fitted with harder steel blades to manipulate the surface.
According to CEO Wilhelm Schmid in a conversation with Nick Foulkes, the difficulties in producing the bespoke alloy were limited to finding the right supplier, and the number of watches they can produce is dependent on volume orders of Honey Gold – apparently about up to 600 watches a year. The latest Honey Gold iteration from the German manufacture was the Langematik Perpetual unveiled at this year’s SIHH, in a limited quantity at 100 watches.
This is manipulated by compacting ceramic powder via cold isostatic pressing which allows the porous material to be uniformly packed into specific molds. The ceramic is hardened at high temperatures to finalize the shape and injected with molten liquid gold under extremely high pressure and temperature to fuse the precious metal into the ceramic pores. This particular mixture of carbon and gold produces a material that is not only unbreakable but unscratchable, with an increased strength of about 1,000 Vickers. While pure gold starts off as a glistening gleam, the addition of carbon powder leaves the colour with a dull olive shade, which doesn’t add much lustre, but at this point, it’s function over aesthetics. In each Magic Gold crafted timepiece, the case is branded with ‘Gold 750’ and a ‘Hublot’ logo to indicate its authenticity.
Metal by Nature
One of the most trendsetting materials in watchmaking that has had an increased presence in the 21st century was the introduction of ceramic. No doubt Rado was the first to utilise ceramic in the Diastar in 1962, but IWC has fused the compound with titanium to create Ceratanium, a hybrid that bears both desirable traits of unbreakability and high scratch-resistance. The composite was a five-year development with input from in-house material experts and thorough research to finalise a special manufacturing process.
It starts off with a blank that is machined to give the various case components their final shape. As it is heated in the furnace, oxygen is diffused into the upper layers of the material where the surface becomes ceramic. The integrity of the material’s purity is crucial to bond these together, forming the desired matte black surface with the properties of extreme hardness and scratch resistance. Following the debut of the Ceratanium case in the Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month Edition “50 Years Aquatimer” in 2017, the alloy was used in a new Top Gun collection that was unveiled at this year’s SIHH, which also marks the first time the material is used for an unlimited watch.
Whether you’re a traditional watchmaker or an avant-garde developer, metallurgy has delivered useful and and elegant results for these brands and more in the last decade. New technologies will surely deliver additional impact in the years to come.