Horological Meandering

Moderator Patrick_y sheds some light on a dark material and explains what aventurine is made of. Aventurine dials are starting to become a thing. In 2018 at SIHH, we saw an explosion of Aventurine when Lange, Parmigiani Fleurier, and Van Cleef & Arpel...  

Would love to see a Zeitwerk with that dial material.

The watch companies harvest information off these forums. Product managers looking for their next source of inspiration often come here for ideas and to get an idea of what collectors want.

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Perhaps a few details might extend the conversation in more directions. Of course we all know of the fabulous dial (and case) decorations created in the past few years by P-P, JLC and others. But it's a very very old art. Wikipedia suggests: Vitreous enam...  

I delight in seeing the first box. It looks stunning.

It's roughly 200 years old, from Russia - cast then fired at least 6 different times, one for each color. Cazalea ...  

Wow!!

Aventurine how you describe it could be a kind of ceramic stuff. Maybe aventurine could be used for basels either. I never seen such a aventurine dial in flesh, but here there must be friends with that watches which contain aventurine.

Take a look at a nice aventurine dial when you get a chance!

They described it as Copper/Gold flux sprinkles on the dial, some 1500th old Venice techniques? At least this is what is for the Saxonia copper Blue as pictured, not sure about the new LL1.

It's a thousand plus year old Italian glass technique that either comes from Murano or Venice. Copper is a common substrate used to color glass (for instance Auric aka. gold can turn glass purple) and metallic flakes are added to the glass to get the glit... 

There's natural aventurine. Watch dials are not made of natural aventurine (which is naturally green, although it is possible to get natural blue aventurine, natural blue aventurine is never this deep blue color). Watch dials are made of "glass aventurine... 

aventurine, but was beaten to it.

NT

I use my watches as „meditation devices“ by just looking at the dials for a few minutes. The effect would be even bigger with an aventurine dial but I am not brave enough to wear a watches with any kind of glitter on it.

And most aventurine dialed watches are mostly evening/dressier watches. So they're less likely to be every-day pieces. And diamonds on a case are much more easily seen than diamonds on a dial. So I think you'll be okay!

Thanks for the educational post. I haven't yet seen one in the flesh yet, but will may more attention now after reading this. Thanks, Imran

A lot of watch collectors have assumed it was a stone. And I first thought it was a type of terrazo (concrete with large rock chips/flakes). So I thought I'd set the record straight!

Thank you for commenting! I'm thinking about lapis lazuli dials and malachite dials too! Those are "genuine" and "au natural" materials!

Perhaps a brand like Anordain will offer a more affordable entry point to aventurine at some point down the road. I would be interested.

Really love a Aventurine dial . Many great brands have beautiful models with this amazing dial

Which one is your favorite? The Lange and the Parmigiani above are the two I really liked when I saw them at SIHH 2018.

The CvdK reall moon The Czapek Quai des Bergues ...  

How would you compare Aventurine and Enamel in the way it is used on the moonphase of the JLC Reverso Nonantième : the gold plate has stars of different sizes sticking out of the "bath" of enamel (see photo below). The result could be rather similar. I wo...  

Aventurine would add greater thickness, since it needs the metal substrate as a backing for a dial. And the aventurine itself needs to be of a certain thickness or else it won't withstand shock and vibration. So for the sake of reliability and simplicity,... 

I love these aventurine dials they remind me incredible moments… ...  

Looking at your photos reminded me of aventurine dials and Rolls-Royce car ceilings! The world's most expensive car company also has a car ceiling with a "starry night" display using fiber optic lights!

...probably not what watch manufacturers are using, but it does exist in a natural state.

But it doesn't have the "starry night" feature that this glass aventurine has.

But this could end up being dated like the lapis lazuli dials of the 1970s

I still stare at Piaget timepieces with those dials every now and then.

Glass can be easily cold-worked using lapidary techniques. Drilling holes or machining openings can be done with diamond coated tooling. However, I would probably use a laser to modify the blank. Germany has a strong glass heritage. Reichenbach, Kugler an...  

Whatever path is taken, the total project cost has to be amortized over few products. Additionally, the watch company has to buy stock to hold as spares for future replacements. There is a cost to carry inventory. So, how many spares should ALS have for o... 

There is some greater risk, although with ALS, the servicing is done so well that you don't have to worry too much. Especially if you live in the USA, Mr. Alkis is top notch! I don't know how many spare dials ALS has, but they will generally have a set nu... 

some day in the future!

I really like the Moser offering.

This Jaeger Lecoultre was issued in 2015. ...  

The blue hue is achieved by reducing the copper and adding small amounts of cobalt.

It makes it more interesting to me that you enjoyed reading it! I can't cook very well (the pasta can go from undercooked to overcooked in about 60 seconds, it's hard to get pasta perfectly al dente), but when people enjoy my very mediocre cooking, it mak... 

agreed it depends on the piece and not about if it is "worth it" since it is artificial. How it is applied and whether the outcome is attractive to a potential buyer.

Thank you for the kind words! And thank you for reading!

I appreciate the comment!

And I can share that it’s probably my favorite dial in the collection. Funny also how AP uses a mini Aventurine dial to reflect the moon phase too. Cheers! Peter ...  

Good to know that the moonphase disc is also made of aventurine! Very cool detail!

Per the below - nice contrast to the grey dial... ...  

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Who said watches were smaller back then? ...  

It's a pleasure to share facts with our readers! We are all too often too believing of the implications made by marketing departments. Those marketing department help us make incorrect assumptions all the time. It's nice to find out what something actuall... 

I am a fan of well done aventurine dials and definitely learned something new today. A good aventurine dial always makes the watch more romantic. My two favourites are from Lange. ...