David Walter
250
The metal is......
Mar 26, 2020,10:06 AM
Tantalum, which oxides to a blue color, hence the name Azur.
Tantalum is very difficult to work with, even worse than platinum, the metal is dense and almost as heavy at Pt, I needs to machined under a constant flow of cutting oil or even a carbide tip will dull in seconds. It can be cut with HSS but only if the cutter is kept sharp and under an oil flow.
The starting point was a client asked for a watch with two barrels.. I worked on from there deciding on the barrel bridge being in a truss shape and making the use of my DW style, stepped cocks with the screws exposed rather than the common method of fitting the screws in recessed holes, perhaps the biggest challenge was making the winding work as having two barrels took up a lot of real estate where the winding work would usually be fitted and having the hour/minute hands above center also crept into the winding work space.
Making the seconds hand was quite tedious.