Tsoroev Rashid, a 23-year-old watchmaker from Russia, shares the journey of creating his unique 1/1 Shield watch. This article delves into Rashid's self-taught path, from disassembling old movements to crafting his first school watch entirely by hand, culminating in the presentation of his distinctive Shield timepiece. His story offers a compelling look into the dedication and artistic vision required to enter independent watchmaking.
Hello to the all members of WatchProSite!
My name is Tsoroev Rashid, i'am 23 years old watchmaker from Russia. I started my watchmaking way when i was 15. When i firstly came in the fine watches shop i was very impressed and immediatly understand what i must to do. Since then I never stopped to interest in watches. At the beginning I was exploring watches through magazines and internet, then, after 10-12 months, interest for movements was came. I started to buy and collect old pocket watches and wrist watches and disassemble and assemble them and sometimes, when I was have tools, I tried to repair them.
After four years of intensive exploring watches I decided to make my first watch and it was a school watch. I never was making watches before and I decided to start from something simple. I created my school watch in 4.5 months, it took a long time because Iโ am a student and I was have possibility to work on it only at holidays. In process of making this watch I realized how to work with material. Because all elements for school watch I was made entirely by hand, like case, lugs, dial, hands and buckle, process of making this parts was quite hard because i was donโ t have a special tools for that, like machining equipment, even some fine files, polishing materials etc. But I said to myself if I started that I must to finish that and I must to finish it anyway. I showed my school watch to some famous watchmakers in Russia and to my pleasure it was have a good feedback. After that Iโ am realized that I must to produce my own watches.
Today I want to present you a Shield watch, this particular one is a 1/1 unique piece. I always was wanted to create something unique, something that immediately cuts into memory, something that is pleasant to the eyes and pleasant to wear.
Since the shield is associated with courage, I was glad to the idea of engraving a lion on the shield, because the lion has always been considered by many peoples as one of the symbols of courage and nobility, and this is the reason why its image can be so often seen on the blazons.
The case of this watch is made of 316L steel and has a size of 44mm and 11.2mm. The case diameter may seem large, but due to the good proportions, the watch looks good on the wrist (for example, my wrist is 16.5 cm, but nonetheless the watch does not seem large). I did not put my name and logo on the caseback since I hope that the future owner will want to engrave his name on it.
The dial of this watch is made of brass, the relief of the dial was applied using laser engraving. After that, the dial was sandblasted and rhodium plated, then the dial was coated with transparent blue enamel. It is very difficult to enamel the dial because it is important to carefully fill the relief of the numbers, but I tried as best I could and was pleased with the end result.
This is a one-hand watch, but despite the absence of a minute hand, it is quite easy to read the time. So the short end of the hand indicates the current hour, while the long end of the hand indicates ten-minute intervals.The two-pointed hand is made of steel completely by hand. The shield is also made entirely by hand out of silver. For engraving of a lion, I chose the method of laser engraving, since laser engraving allows you to achieve a high level of detail in the picture. After laser engraving, the shield was sandblasted to create a background that could emphasize the face of the lion. Initially, I wanted to perform a background using the hand hammer technique, but later I had to abandon this idea because it was too risky to process such a pattern in this engraving. After sandblasting, I polished the face of a lion. The shield itself is inserted into sapphire crystal.
In this watch I used an improved version of the ETA 6498 movement (also known as 6498 well kept version) with Geneva stripes and blued screws. I love this movement for its reliability, and the beautiful decoration like the Geneva stripes and the blued screws make it even more pleasant.
The strap of this watch is made of crocodile leather completely by hand. The buckle is made of hardened steel, also completely by hand.
Thank you all for your attention!
Take care of yourself!
