How much do you know about several materials commonly used in watch dials

In addition to the belt, the watch fans are most concerned about the dial when wearing a watch. The main function of the watch dial is to display the time, which is also related to the overall appearance and material design of the watch. In order to meet the overall needs of the watch design, the dial can be designed with different shapes and materials under the designer's ingenuity, and the time scale can also be simple lacquered or overprinted.


Common dial materials can be roughly divided into metal, mother-of-pearl, enamel and carbon fiber dials.

1. Metal dial

Metal can be divided into 925 sterling silver dial and lacquered dial. The lacquered dial is mainly made of brass, which is the most common one. The dial of the watch also uses metal materials such as ruthenium plating and color gold. Copper alloy processing methods roughly include electroplating. Electroplating polishing treatment, ruthenium plating treatment. The electroplating treatment is mainly to electroplate the copper alloy shell to ensure its bright color and long-lasting.

     2. mother-of-pearl dial

The raw material of mother-of-pearl noodles comes from easily broken shellfish, such as abalone shellfish and pearl shellfish, which are relatively large because of the large size and the range that can be obtained. Even though the market is full of artificial farms for shellfish, only the shellfish for making mother-of-pearl must be cultivated naturally, through the natural growth environment and material erosion conditions, in order to show unique colors and textures. precious.


Mother-of-pearl is actually a mineral mixture produced by shellfish to protect it from parasites and foreign bodies. Because the thickness of the carbonate mineral covering the mother-of-pearl approaches the wavelength of visible light, the visible light of various wavelengths interferes with each other, so that when the mother-of-pearl is at different angles, different colors of reflected light can be seen, and the exquisite luster is unparalleled. This is the familiar iridescence.


These rainbow-colored linings are widely used to make mother-of-pearl dials. Through mechanical cutting and hand-made, these fragile and crackable materials are processed into 0.2 mm thick sheets, which are subsequently hand-engraved and made into dial materials.


The mother-of-pearl dial will reflect colorful light in the sun. It is very charming. It is most often matched with women's watches. Using this shell material to make the dial, you can experience many color changes due to different viewing angles.




However, due to its thinness and fragility and high processing difficulty, 15 process steps are designed, which can take up to 4-6 weeks. It is estimated that the general output is low and the cost is high. Even for a company like GT Cadran with 20 professional artisans, the annual output of Fritillaria is only about 5,000 pieces.


     3. enamel dial


Enamel dials are generally used for high-end watches, because of the accumulation of humanity, history and emotion behind them, it is the inheritance of ancient craftsmanship. Dials made of enamel rarely appear in low prices, limited to cost. The price difference between the enamel dial and the ordinary dial is too huge, and the price of the watch is naturally rising, which is one of the reasons why many fans are discouraged. Even among the folks, there are many enthusiasts who have excellent enamel skills, but they cannot solve the problem of "movement core", especially those involving polishing and complicated functions. It will take a long time to smelt enamel. The production process of enamel is extremely complicated, the fault tolerance rate is very low, and the process is cumbersome. Therefore, the price of enamel watch is often high.


     4.carbon fiber dial

Carbon fiber is a relatively new type of material because of its fiber-like flexibility, light weight, and various excellent properties of carbon. Carbon fiber dials are light and hard, and are most commonly used in sports watches. The carbon fiber dial is made of carbon cloth, and the carbon cloth is interwoven by several strands of longitudinal and transverse carbon fibers. The production process can be roughly divided into pre-cultivation, carbonization, graphitization and other steps, and the carbon content of the finished product is basically above 90%. The threshold for carbon fiber R&D and production is very high, and there are complex and strict technical requirements from the production of raw silk to the carbonization process.

Our company was established in 2000 and is located in Shenzhen,

Covering an area of 2,000 square meters, it is a private enterprise integrating design, development, and production and has more than 10 years of processing experience to reach a certain scale. It has modern workshops and advanced equipment and business models. With years of processing experience, superb processing Technology and high-quality service are well recognized by customers, and the company has a group of technical technicians to back up.

Long-term focus on: three-axis, four-axis, five-axis CNC computer gong processing and other fields, 

especially processing stainless steel watch cases

The main equipment includes: 30 CNC lathes, 16 three-axis, four-axis, and five-axis CNC machining centers, automatic lathes imported from Japan and Taiwan, and secondary machining equipment. The company also has advanced multifunctional image measuring instruments, micrometer micrometers, depth gauges, vernier calipers, professional thread gauges, tool microscopes, roughness meters and other precision measuring equipment.