Hi earning luxury club luxury training to polish the invisible mark of advanced mechanical watches

It has been said that the price difference between a high-end watch and a general watch is so large, not only because the brand value and the material chosen for the watch are different, but also an invisible mark - polished.

When the degree of industrialization is not high, everyone can only rely on the days of lathes and hand-made mechanical timepieces. Today, watches have become so popular that everyone can have one or even many good watches, with industrialization. The level of growth, the difference between watches and watches, has long been not only in the field of precision. In addition to the difference in the logo on the dial, whether the watch is advanced, or whether it is worth cherishing, often through careful polishing, can draw conclusions.

Modern clocks, paying attention to the details, we mainly talk about the grinding of some movements, because the grinding of the appearance parts is often mechanically polished, not much by hand, and the low-end wrists are also beautiful in appearance. Therefore, the true test of the high-grade watch polishing level can be grasped by the appreciation of the movement.

Generally speaking, everyone has divided the movement into two parts, one is functional polishing and the other is decorative polishing.

Functional polishing refers to the polishing of the watch function, mainly in the gear shaft, the tip of the tooth, etc., in order to improve the performance, stability and durability of the watch.

Decorative sanding refers to the polishing of the appearance of the movement. The help of the performance of the watch is minimal. Hyundai has developed into a watchmaking art, and has set up special training courses and even schools.

If the old-fashioned thoughts are used to explain, the decorative grinding is the kind of goods, the functional polishing is the king, because the most important function of the mechanical watch is still the time, and the good product can be named because of the watch. High quality. What is quality? Precision, durability, and longevity, the foundation of these is the initial well-designed design and the good handling of the functional parts of the parts, including sanding.

Functional polishing has three movements to do more people, one is Rolex, one is Wan Guo, one is FP movement factory, of course, not to say that the function of other brands is not as good as these, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe's function polishing It is also in place, but everyone knows more about these.

The movements made by these three movements have a common feature, that is, the surface grinding is not exquisite, and even feels a little rough, but the movement performance is excellent, the performance of the parts is very good, so it has been durable. classic.

Functional grinding is mainly used for moving parts of mechanical structures, such as levers, gear shaft tips, gear teeth, etc. Good functional grinding can keep the parts running for a long time, and rough grinding will not only cause debris in the friction of the parts. It also causes different degrees of wear, which increases the difficulty of repair and increases maintenance costs. However, when the movement is assembled in the watch, it is difficult to see these internal grinding, and it is impossible to judge whether it is good or bad, so the brand has become their endorsement, and the choice of the brand has chosen good and general polishing.

The popularity of decorative polishing is the result of the development of modern watches. It is true that during the period when pocket watches are very popular, the movements will be correspondingly polished, but far from the current popularity and richness. The ever-popular watch has become more and more popular, and it has been required to have a good decoration on the surface of the movement to increase the appreciation. There are many kinds of decorative grinding, the most common ones are Geneva grain polishing, pearl dot grinding, chamfering, sanding, polishing, polishing, etc., a large part of which is polished by machine, and we have to say It is the exquisite and artisan spirit that is polished by hand.

Hand polished

Black polished

Black Polish, formerly known as Black Polish, is the most exciting and challenging polishing process in polishing, because the polished parts are named after all black at a certain angle. Currently, only a few watchmaking companies use it. Because of low production and high labor costs, these components are only used in high-end models. Although top brands such as Lange, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe are used, the method of black polishing is roughly the same.

Lange mirror polishing

Black polishing has requirements for materials, and is generally made of stainless steel because the steel can withstand long-term friction without damaging the surface and achieve the desired mirror surface. In general, the sander will place the parts to be polished into a stake, then sprinkle the diamond paste (or diamond grinding powder) on the zinc plate, and then the driller reverses the stake to make the surface of the part Touch the diamond powder and rub the ring according to the direction of the "8". In this process, the sander needs to pay attention to the changes of the surface of the component from time to time until it reflects one-way reflection or reflects all the light. This process often takes a few days to finish. What is even more precious is that the process of repeating the same movement is very boring, and day after day, it is difficult to adhere to it without a good mentality, so the spirit of the polishing teacher is worthy of respect.

Chamfer

The difference between high-grade mechanical watch and ordinary mechanical watch can be distinguished by chamfering. However, due to the improvement of modern industrial level, the chamfer that must be done manually in the traditional sense can be completed by machine. There is a difference between the two in actual results.

The chamfer has the inner corner and the outer corner. The outer corner can be mechanically completed, and the inner corner still needs to be done manually. Therefore, the ordinary mechanical wristwatch has no inner corner. All chamfers of advanced mechanical watches are done by hand. The actual effect of chamfering can reduce wear and reduce the risk of scratching the surface of other parts during assembly. It seems to have no other effect, but it can greatly enhance the movement. The degree of beauty, without chamfering and chamfering movement, varies greatly in appreciating. Chamfering is the process of modifying the sharp right angle of the joint between the surface of the splint and the side to a smooth bevel, especially in hollow watches.

For the moment, the chamfer has a 45° bevel chamfer and a rounded corner, and in most cases it is chamfered. First, use a spear-shaped trowel to pry the sharp corner out of a 45° angle, and then polish the surface with a polishing tool coated with a polishing paste. This process has different methods for different brands, and some are polished with a small electric wheel with a small motor. Some are purely hand polished.

Polishing by independent watchmaker Hajime Asaoka (like to use ball bearings instead of rubies)

Phillipe Dufour's rounded corners

Good rounded corners are rare, there are some in advanced mechanical watches, but if you want to enjoy the most beautiful rounded corners, you have to look at the works of independent watchmakers, such as Phillipe Dufour and Kari Voutilainen. These two are recognized as masters of the grinding process, and can be polished by hand to a perfect degree under a high magnification magnifier. In fact, good chamfering is difficult because there are often decorative lines on the movement splint, and the connection between the chamfered surface and these textures is the most difficult to handle, because the process is different, the tools are different, if processed Improper, then there will be uneven effects such as potholes and burrs at the joint, affecting its aesthetics. This degree of fine chamfering can only be done manually.

Grooving

Blancpain movement

In order to fix the splint and place the gemstone bearing, there are many holes in the splint of the mechanical watch. Some of these holes are used to screw the screws, some are used to put rubies, no matter which one, in the advanced mechanical watch, These holes have strict processing standards and the processing steps are called grooving. These holes first need to be perforated through the machine, first have a general shape, and then manually removed, usually with a small file, after the burr, and then manually chamfered by the craftsman. The advantage of this chamfer is that when the screw is screwed or when the ruby ​​is placed/removed, the tool avoids scratching the surface of the notch as much as possible, affecting the delicateness. The general mechanical watches, without this process, they may also have chamfers of this bevel, but the degree of fineness and polishing are far less high, and can be seen at a glance through the loupe.

Screw grinding

Screw after burning blue

It has been said that a high-end watch screw, one can value $100, many people do not believe, but the truth is, this is true. And unfortunately, not only the screws on the watch, the screws on the top sports car, but also worth $100. So a screw of $100 is not a myth, it is a reality. Why a screw can be so expensive because of its high craftsmanship. A screw removes the material processing, and the subsequent modification will cost a lot of labor. The surface of the screw needs to be polished. Since the surface is flat and the surface is curved, it cannot be polished together, and different polishing processes are required. When the polishing is completed, the middle groove and the screw edge need to be chamfered, which is a manual grinding process. In order to achieve the ultimate in exquisiteness, the inside of the groove of the screw is also polished. Due to the small space, such polishing is not easy, so the value of a screw can even be as high as $100.

Pure hand chamfer

Manual sanding is not very strict now. Hand-grinding is generally defined by manual sanding with repeated grinding tools, but in fact the current manual grinding, mostly by borrowing manual, through electric grinding tools or even machines To polish, such as pearl, Geneva, wavy on the gears, straight satin on the splint and lever, spiral on the barrel, etc., hand-polished only for very fine and small places, machines or Other tools cannot be polished directly, so they have to be polished by hand using the original method. This way of sanding is reasonable. After all, there must be production, and it is impossible to use the original method to slowly polish.

The work of many independent watchmakers is so beautiful because they do not require such high output, they can be polished to a very delicate level, and only a few watches may be made in a year.

Bulgari three-question movement

In the past, because there was no good grinding machine, there was a polishing course in the general watchmaking school, but now there are no polishing courses in many watchmaking schools, because it only needs to control the machine, it is easier to get started, but there are still many brands and The school also maintains polished teaching. In Finland, there is a polishing school that teaches students how to polish. Several well-known independent watchmakers in Finland have close ties with it. They have also cooperated with top watch companies such as Lange to train senior talents.

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