David Walter
250
The metal is......
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.
Azur L ‘heure bleue
I recently finished this pocket watch commission, Azur. This is the first all “Made in USA” watch for DW and the first all made in USA watch for many years, Azur is also the worlds first pocket watch to have a Tantalum case. Azur’s movement was inspired b...
Beautiful! Now convert this in to a 40mm wristwatch and you’re on the right track!
Congratulations, thank you for posting! Great achievement.
I realized the difficulty of the challenge, however I feel that judging from the pictures that you’re more than capable of achieving it!
Again, congratulations, very unique design!
The watch is interesting and looks great, but...
Your photographs here and on your website are not doing full justice to your work. I think that raising the quality of your product photography (yourself or by outsourcing) would better show the standard of your horology. Don't let the photos be the weak ...
Well... yes...
I agree I took these pics as teases. Normally I would already have professional photos, however good hi-res pics will have to wait until things are calmer
Very nice and interesting piece Mr Walter
Thank you for sharing it here. If you don’t mind, I would be interested to hear about your ideas and challenges with this piece. The case metal seems dark grey. What metal is it? Thank you Christian
The metal is......
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 wi...
