Horological Meandering

Claude-Eric Jan (“CEJ”), manager of the world famous enamel dial maker Donzé Cadrans !

Donzé was set up back in 1972 by Francis Donzé.  Here is the link to the company’s website showing its history.   https://donze-cadrans.com/history/ Apparently Monsieur Donzé worked for Zenith as an enameller (producing white enamel dials for wall clock) before striking out on his own.  His son-in-law Michel Vermot joined him in the early 80s.  They then learned the cloisonne and other techniques.  In the 90s, they made enamel dials for Ulysse Nardin, Patek Phillipe (99 Pink Flowers), Cartier, Jaquet Droz, A.Silberstein and other brands.  Nowadays, the clients are Ulysse (given its ownership since 2011), Girard-Perregaux, and independent brands such as Moritz Grossman, Lang & Heyne, and Czapek.  

Annual production is around 1,200 to 1,500 pieces, with approximately 50% of traditional copper opaque dials, 30% other flinqué dial with translucent colors and 20% for cloisonne and champleve dials.  The wastage for copper traditional dials is 60% to 75% and each dial takes 5 to 8 hours to make.  

For cloisonne and champleve dials, producing each takes 50 to 60 hours.  Within this time range, 8 to 15 hours are needed just for the wiring for a cloisonne dial, and 12 to 15 hours are used for engraving a champleve dial.  The wires for cloisonne are so thin, and the dexterity & patience needed to bend the wires and create the motif are simply unbelievable.  The engraving for champleve is so intricate and makes the motif comes alive.  Thereafter, around 8 rounds of putting enamel with a paint brush on the dial and firing it at 800 degrees in a kiln are needed to get the appropriate colors and gradations.  Further engraving work would be done on champleve dials.  Thereafter polishing and drilling (to make a hole for the hands) are needed under both techniques.

Contrary to other known enamelers Donzé Cadrans never highlighted a person but the entire workshop.  Ulysse Nardin under the leadership of Rolf Schnyder pushed the development of the Champlevé technique to its limits.  Chinese zodiac is a beautiful proof of that these artists are at the top of this game !

It must be said that enamel has been present in watchmaking for over 300 years and it is regularly found in certain collections offered by different brands.  Ulysse Nardin had since the end of the 80’s actively participated in highlighting this extraordinary art of enamel.  The buyout of Donzé Cadrans happened naturally in 2011 because the company was in financial woes.   It was at risk of losing 40 years of skills, which would have been catastrophic especially since enamel occupied a very important place in the Ulysse Nardin collections.  In parallel the demands have always up and down and it is therefore difficult to maintain the enameling profession through a real training course.

The decision to maintain the durability of Donzé Cadrans was to continue to deliver historical customers, find other customers while ensuring deliveries for Ulysse Nardin.

To meet all the challenges as well as possible, the management of Donzé Cadrans has decided to relaunch training in order to maintain know-how as long as possible.  This far 3 people have benefited from this valuable training.

To my surprise, CEJ informed me that currently Donze Cadrans has only 6 staff and 2 of them started more than 25 years ago.

Amazing that such as a small team can produce so many wonderful dials!  The team’s creativity and artistry make me speechless.  IMO additional apprentices need to join this profession so that more of us will appreciate and share in the joy of owning watches with enamel dials.   

Hopefully you can understand why I am a self-proclaimed “Enamel Addict/Slave” !