Fine watches

Fine watches and fine watchmaking are concepts that aim at a long tradition among watchmakers to always be meticulous with the appearance of their work. Over the years various techniques have developed to obtain the high-end finish you find in exclusive watches.  

Anglage, means bevelling or chamfering of the edges on the bridges in the movement. The edges are chamfered at an specific angle by hand with a file. The edge is then burnished and polished to a black mirror finish. This is a technic that calls for a lot of experience and skills of the watchmaker. The alternative way is using machines however machines have limits and interior angles can only be done by hand.  

Black polish or mirror polish is used to give parts like screw heads and bridges a perfectly smooth surface finish that reflect light as it was a mirror. The mirror finish is obtained by rubbing down the surface to a less rough finish and make it as flat as possible. When the part is perfectly flat the finishing work continues by rubbing it on a zinc plate with a fine diamond paste until it is free from any impurities or scratches. 

Decorations, several techniques are used to give an improved aesthetic look to fine watches. Engraving is an craftsman's profession which requires long experience and practice.  The various patterns and motifs are made by removing material by hand with various types of gravers. Guilloche or Engine turning is a technique mostly used to decorate watch dials. Manually done and requires a special guilloche machine. The dials are decorated in this manually worked machine with geometric patterns of straight and curved lines. Côtes de Genève, are engraved straight lines used on movement bridges and rotors. Stippling is another way of decorate bridges and plates. Manually this is nowadays done by using a stippling machine with abrasive pads. Other decorations techniques are Sunray-brushing, Colimaçon or Snailing.

Within Vincent & Scales we apply techniques and methods like above both manually and by machines.