Illustrated Dictionary of Watch finishing & decorations
In my reviews, I always talk with some weird words about how this or that part is finished, those words sound like an intellectual diarrhoea most of the time. For the most part they are in French, so one could argue ... but they do relate to some very interesting technique and produce the nice results on our watch, that we have come to love and sought after.
The purpose of this post is to take an easier approach of them, without going into deep history, but only a show and tell about them.
The content of this dictionary will be following the English language since we are in an English speaker forum and that most of the online resources are using the original language for reference, reversing it is in the best interest of this community, in my opinion, but do note that a lot of those terms are mainly used in their original language around the world, so it's best to know both.
Some time there will be no translation of the finish because the same word is used. The dictionary will be composed as follows : The name of the finish or decoration in English - Name of the finish or decoration used by the watch industry [Language of origin] {pronunciation for English speakers in phonetic} - Link to hear it via Google translate in the native language (direct link to the audio file, should play inside the browser, if an error 404 is shown, just hit enter or the equivalent to reload the address of the link, refresh won't work)
It will be followed by a picture or two of the finish (as usual a click on them will open a higher resolution picture). Then you'll find a quick explanation of the technique used to realise it and hidden in a box you'll find a video of how it's done, you'll only have to click the box to reveal the content. Last words of this introduction, most of those finishes were invented at a time when power tools were rare if not non-existent in the watch industry, if a lot of them can me made with power tools and CNC machine, it's not always the case and I'll mention it in the description each time it's worth it. Some techniques can be found in other domains than the watch making, with a different way of doing it, this dictionary only focuses on watchmaking.
This topic is locked, with the help of our beloved staff, to keep it clean, but will be updated in the future, upon requests in the specific topic open for discussions.
Each post can be linked in a review or a topic to explain something, that's why each definition is in an independent post, so that every member has the possibility to link directly to a definition.
Big thanks to Col & the staff for allowing me to do that this way. Discussion thread :
The content of this dictionary will be following the English language since we are in an English speaker forum and that most of the online resources are using the original language for reference, reversing it is in the best interest of this community, in my opinion, but do note that a lot of those terms are mainly used in their original language around the world, so it's best to know both.
Some time there will be no translation of the finish because the same word is used. The dictionary will be composed as follows : The name of the finish or decoration in English - Name of the finish or decoration used by the watch industry [Language of origin] {pronunciation for English speakers in phonetic} - Link to hear it via Google translate in the native language (direct link to the audio file, should play inside the browser, if an error 404 is shown, just hit enter or the equivalent to reload the address of the link, refresh won't work)
It will be followed by a picture or two of the finish (as usual a click on them will open a higher resolution picture). Then you'll find a quick explanation of the technique used to realise it and hidden in a box you'll find a video of how it's done, you'll only have to click the box to reveal the content. Last words of this introduction, most of those finishes were invented at a time when power tools were rare if not non-existent in the watch industry, if a lot of them can me made with power tools and CNC machine, it's not always the case and I'll mention it in the description each time it's worth it. Some techniques can be found in other domains than the watch making, with a different way of doing it, this dictionary only focuses on watchmaking.
This topic is locked, with the help of our beloved staff, to keep it clean, but will be updated in the future, upon requests in the specific topic open for discussions.
Each post can be linked in a review or a topic to explain something, that's why each definition is in an independent post, so that every member has the possibility to link directly to a definition.
Big thanks to Col & the staff for allowing me to do that this way. Discussion thread :
Plating - Placage [French] {plakaʒ} - Listen French pronunciation
Plating is a process whereby one metal is covered by another, it's a good way to obtain certain property of the plating metal without having all the part in said metal.
Mainly for decorative purpose, plating is also useful to reduce corrosion.
Plating is the name of the process in general, but is often used to talk about electroplating and most often for gold electroplating.
Plating can be done by various methods, like liquid coating, powder coating, Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD, see the definition), Chemical Vapour Deposition (see the definition).
Alongside plating you'll often encounter the term "wrapping", mainly encountered in the rep world, this term refers to the gold filling process as known in the jewellery word.
The difference between wrapping or filling and plating resides in the method and result even though the appearance won't change between the two.
Wrapping or filling whether it be gold or any other material, is the deposition of multiple sheets of material on top of the base metal, it requires a lot more of the precious metal and offers a more durable product. This is a mechanical process.
Plating is only depositing a very thin layer of material on top of the base, just to give the colour and some protection. This is a chemical process.
Even if technically there's no limit to the thickness of an electro-plating, it will usually be used to put the thinnest layer possible, whereas wrapping/filling is usually thicker.
You'll eventually hear the word Vermeil when talking about plating, it's simply when the plated material is silver and the platting is at least 2.5 micron of gold.
There's no regulation regarding gold plating but there is for gold filling and vermeil.
Mainly for decorative purpose, plating is also useful to reduce corrosion.
Plating is the name of the process in general, but is often used to talk about electroplating and most often for gold electroplating.
Plating can be done by various methods, like liquid coating, powder coating, Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD, see the definition), Chemical Vapour Deposition (see the definition).
Alongside plating you'll often encounter the term "wrapping", mainly encountered in the rep world, this term refers to the gold filling process as known in the jewellery word.
The difference between wrapping or filling and plating resides in the method and result even though the appearance won't change between the two.
Wrapping or filling whether it be gold or any other material, is the deposition of multiple sheets of material on top of the base metal, it requires a lot more of the precious metal and offers a more durable product. This is a mechanical process.
Plating is only depositing a very thin layer of material on top of the base, just to give the colour and some protection. This is a chemical process.
Even if technically there's no limit to the thickness of an electro-plating, it will usually be used to put the thinnest layer possible, whereas wrapping/filling is usually thicker.
You'll eventually hear the word Vermeil when talking about plating, it's simply when the plated material is silver and the platting is at least 2.5 micron of gold.
There's no regulation regarding gold plating but there is for gold filling and vermeil.