Baselworld 2015 preview: Masahiro Kikuno's new project

Mar 15, 2015,04:50 AM
 

In less than a week, all the information of his new project will be disclosed to public.  Before that, he provided PuristSPro with the process, how he makes the parts, and such with the detailed photos.  So, before showing the final product, he shows PPro exclusively the "road to the Basel 2015".  This report generally depicts how Masahiro Kikuno approaches the watchmaking in general, and at the same time, sort of the "teaser" for the new model to be shown soon.



1. Making a pinion.

Index disk for manufacturing gear/ pinion.  One round of the handle rotates the main axis for 9 degrees.



Gear cutting cutter.



After gear cutting.



Quenching



Dip into the oil and hardening



Hardening alone makes it a bit fragile, so temper it to give toughness.



Polishing the surface of the tooth.



Putting the lathe dog - called "Between center" process.



Process the machining, with the "reference dummy" on the right.



"Tenon" polisher......



...until it gets to the right size.



Gear cutting.



Opening the center hole while chucking.



Drawing the line as it is set on the jig.



Process with the file.



Apply finishing, plating, and the put together with the pinion.



The gears made the same way to be used for the new watch.




2. Other parts

Machining the base plate.



Drawing for the base plate machining.



Making the case.



Processing the "slope" of the case.



Completed case.



Machining the "cam".  What cam?  Stay tuned....






Roughly finished "hands".....  What hands?  smile



Finished "hands".  The hands to tell the time.



Movement being assembled.



Back of the watch - the pattern, the holes were opened by the fret saw by hand.




Please stay tuned for the finished watch - after the opening of the BaselWorld.  But his philosophy remains the same - use only the "old school watch tools" such as general purpose milling machine and watchmaker's lathe.  He never uses CNC, Laser, wire cut electrical discharge machining device, etc.  Extremely time consuming, I am sure.  But for what?  For his very purpose of being a watchmaker, of course.

Simply amazing and I am always impressed at his "purist philosophy".

Will report his finished watch later as well as the live pics from Basel.  Please patiently stay tuned!

Best,
Ken

This message has been edited by KIH on 2015-03-15 05:47:06


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when somebody ask for the meaning of hand-made,

 
 By: dsgalaxy1 : March 15th, 2015-05:35
that's the answer. each picture gives the sense of passion and love for creating every single part of the watch, i can only stand in silence and admire them.

Exactly...

 
 By: KIH : March 15th, 2015-05:49
.. he wants to make watches which would surprise the legendary watchmakers in the 300 years watch history with his watch made in the similar manual way.....

I love Mr. Kikuno's work

 
 By: Ondrej Berkus : March 15th, 2015-09:17
And this is going to be epic.

This is truly exciting.....

 
 By: Darren : March 15th, 2015-09:45
It's always a joy to get a peek behind the curtain in Mr. Kikuno's workshop, and from the teasers posted, his new timepiece looks like it's going to be something to behold. The case, hands, movement and virtually everything else shown in these pictures lo... 

One of the few whose work excites

 
 By: Ophiuchus : March 15th, 2015-19:38
Everyone is making watches now. But everyone is using CNC everything, edm, etc, which does make incredible things possible, if you just want dreams in front of you... Many more people in the world than you probably realize are capable of making most of a ... 

I am sure he would love to meet up with you...

 
 By: KIH : March 16th, 2015-05:19
.. but he is in Tokyo, so you will have to take Shinkansen, faster than ever :-) From the last weekend, they increased the speed and now it takes just 2 hours 22 minutes.... Ken

Yes- shinkansen would work.

 
 By: Ophiuchus : March 16th, 2015-18:25
Yeah, I knew I'd have to make a day trip to Tokyo, probably take the shinkansen. It would be worth it, though, definitely. That is faster than I remember it being! People who either are making a watch, or have made a watch, and do it this way, probably th... 

You should hear directly from him.....

 
 By: KIH : March 17th, 2015-06:17
... he says, he is not selling watches, but its making process and the passion poured into it. Not recommended for those who are only interested in the finished watches. Mechanical watch resurrected its popularity in the era of quartz and radio wave or ev... 

Yes, sounds right to me

 
 By: Ophiuchus : March 17th, 2015-16:59
That seems like a succinct way to sum up my feelings exactly. I had trouble following your exact wording, but I think that is the same intention I have. It has to mean something- just a custom made watch, without the pain and hand effort of doing it witho... 

Got a question for both of you

 
 By: dsgalaxy1 : March 16th, 2015-05:47
once you have proved that you are able to work as the old watchmakers ( REZPECT ;-) ), why not using some modern tools, in order to make your work a little bit easy? i realize that it would have lost a part of the magic, but it could be a way to show to t... 

As I said in my reply to your post above...

 
 By: KIH : March 16th, 2015-06:01
... . he wants to make watches which would surprise the legendary watchmakers in the 300 years watch history with his watch made in the similar manual way.... That is the matter of philosophy. Ken PS: I have no comment on Ha jime Asao ka.