Glashütte Original

GO Senator Chronograph in platinum: The production of the dial

 

Hand silver plating by friction - A dial is the face of a watch and I will share some insights for better understanding of a very special one with lots of charm.

 

For the first time I saw the new dial in Basel (2014) and it got my attention, as it showed some kind of character rarely seen today. Something looked different and familiar at the same time. Vintage dials from (for example) Strasser & Rohde clocks came to my mind. Of course, I and some fellow PuristS started to ask questions about and we got some first information. During the GO event dedicated to the Chronograph later in autumn I got some more info, but I haven´t seen the production (yet ;-) ) and I am far from being an expert of dial production as it is not my daily business. Still I tried to prepare some more details for you, but as you can imagine with additional materials/support from GO.

Quite often there is some kind of magic when special/interesting dials are produced. Do they have witches and wizards at GO? I trust not, but they tried to revive some knowledge from the past. There was one experienced and passionate employee at GO who still remembered that kind of dials and how they did it during his education (a long time ago). He worked on it at home in his spare time, until he found a way how it could be done again at GO.

GO has its own dial production in Pforzheim, some 600km from Glashütte, which is in charge of (unique) dials. Even there hand-crafted silver plated by friction dials are not common and only a small number of experienced specialists practice it today.

Anreibeversilberung is the German term for hand-crafted silver plating by friction. The short explanation by me is: a mixture of silver powder, cream of tartar and crushed salt is applied mechanically in multiple passes with a brush from pig hair on gold dial blanks.

 

In case you would like to know more about, please read further.

In a first step the gold dial blank is carefully engraved using a laser. The engravings are then filled in black and the dial is then fired in the oven. Several steps are required to remove the excess color, leaving a deep black inlay only in the engraved areas. The dial prepared in this manner is then silver plated by friction. The dial is thus finished with a fine, smoothly shimmering structure. The high proportion of hand labour ensures that each dial is unique.

 

Dialmaking – the blanks

 

GO’s dial maker is producing its own blanks, which is not common. In a first step the gold dial blanks are stamped.

Golden blanks

 

The date windows are then impressed and the dials are checked and if necessary flattened. Then the functions, date windows and diameter are stamped and the feet attached.

 

 

Dialmaking – precise indicators

 

The numerals, the Glashütte Original logo and the minute ring are carefully engraved using a laser.

 

In addition, the auxiliary displays are milled. An intermediate check is absolutely necessary, and again if necessary the dials are adjusted to make sure they are flat. The dial surface is then irradiated by hand and cleaned once again.

Manual sanding of dial surface

 

Dialmaking – the special lacquer

 

A black two-part lacquer is then mixed and the air bubbles that arise in the process are eliminated using a vacuum pump.

Pulling air bubbles out of the lacquer

 

 

Dialmaking – patience required

 

The special lacquer serves to fill in the laser-cut engravings.

This step requires a syringe and a very attentive touch. In a number of subsequent steps the excess coating is removed so that only a deep black inlay remains in the engraved areas.

Dialmaking – surface treatment

 

The three auxiliary dials are then turned using a PCD lathe tool and the surface prepared with a rotating brush and pumice powder.

Sanding and polishing of the individual dials is then performed by hand. It is critical that the surface quality then be checked carefully and the height of dial and functions measured.

Dialmaking – silver plating by friction

 

Following preparatory cleaning the dial prepared in this manner is then silver plated “by friction”. This is an elaborate manual process in which a perfectly calibrated mixture of silver powder, salt and water is rubbed onto the dial using a brush.

The finished silver-plated dial is rinsed once again, cleaned in an ultrasound bath and given a final check.

 

 

Dialmaking – each dial is unique

 

As a result, each dial has a fine, harmoniously shimmering structure with lots of charm – if everything turned out well. In my last post (see the links below, in case you missed it) I showed you a dial with flaws and I hope you got a better idea about the difficulties when using that technique. The high percentage of manual labor involved assures that every dial is unique, but I bet not all the dials can be used afterwards.

 

To me the final result is worth the effort and even when GO is not the only brand which is able to produce such a dial, I was still positively surprised. I would love to see more unique dials like this from Glashütte Original, but I also liked their famous “Meissen” dials

 

Thanks for reading!

E">Oliver

E">

E">Note: If you missed my previous posts about the watch and the movement, you can find them here:

glashutte.watchprosite.com

glashutte.watchprosite.com

glashutte.watchprosite.com

E">

This message has been edited by small-luxury-world on 2015-01-25 11:05:22