< MATERIAL REVOLUTION
The engineers of the biggest watch brands have been charged with re-energising the cases that carry their prized movements. The results are electrifying
In a new era of aesthetic innovation, these brands want us to judge each timepiece by its cover
How do you upgrade the mechanical watch, when its underlying principles are more than two centuries old? Simple: you keep the anachronistic, albeit precisely engineered springs, cogs and levers, and turn your focus to dressing it up with innovative new materials. If that sounds like change for the sake of change, you’d be forgiven for the assumption. But in this instance, the marketing hype emanating from big watch brands’ PR departments is credible. The innovation of materials is genuinely beneficial, whether in reducing weight or making delicate pieces more durable and scratchproof. And in some cases, both: the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe has a ceramic case treated with a plasma discharge that gives its surface a scratch-free sheen, while the mechanics are a mass of lightweight silicon components. These are becoming increasingly commonplace at such venerable maisons as Patek Philippe, Omega and Rolex. But, as with all high-performance manufacturing, it is carbon fibre that has become the key player in watchmaking’s material revolution. Adopted by brands from Audemars Piguet to Zenith, its techy looks and tough, lightweight properties create a direct and coherent link with two of watchmaking’s favourite sporting partners: motor racing and yachting. In particular, Richard Mille, who has been experimenting with the concept of weight reduction since launching his brand back in 2000, continues to be instrumental in proving that luxury doesn’t necessarily depend on lashings of gold or platinum. He treats his cases like racing-car chassis, with the ‘engine’ suspended within and nothing as superfluous as a dial
to impede performance. This pioneering approach to build-quality is exemplified by Richard Mille and Mclaren F1's exciting new shared-technology collaboration. The RM 50-03 Tourbillon Split Seconds Chronograph Ultralight Mclaren F1 – to give its full and ironically cumbersome name – is a featherweight 40g including the strap, thanks to an entirely new material in watchmaking: Graph TPT. It’s made using graphene, a one-atom-thick hexagonal lattice form of carbon first isolated in 2004 at the University of Manchester, earning Professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov the 2010 Nobel Prize for physics. Crucially, graphene is six times lighter than steel, yet 200 times stronger.
Its potential is vast. Take one sheet of graphene, roll it into a cylinder and you have a carbon nanotube – another allotrope with proliferating applications at the cutting edge of technology. In the watchmaking sphere, nanotubes comprise the spiral balance springs ticking inside Zenith’s new Defy El Primero 21 chronograph. But it’s in a new model from Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps where they really come into their own. The boutique brand has collaborated with the British sculptor Anish Kapoor to create a watch with a Transformer-style time display, adorned with a high-tech nanotube material exclusive to the artist. Called Vantablack, it is seemingly blacker than black – after all, the composite absorbs 99.965% of all optical light. The resulting MCT Sequential One S110 Evo Vantablack may qualify as the darkest watch ever made. But technologically speaking, it is truly light years ahead.
GRAPHENE IS 200 TIMES STRONGER THAN STEEL, BUT SIX TIMES LIGHTER