Sincere Watch - Guy Ellia Press Event
8 October, 2009 Singapore - Sincere Watch organised a press event to launch the Guy Ellia Collection.
The founder and designer, Mr Guy Ellia, was supposedly to be present at this launch, however due to
some unforeseen incident during the flight, he did not manage to arrive on time.
Missed a chance to chat with this interesting person who design these bold, beautiful and innovative pieces,
and to view and hear the sound of the new solid sapphire crystal case Répétition Minutes Zéphyr
(as Guy Ellia hand-carried it in for the first time here).
( To see some pics of the Répétition Minutes Zéphyr, please refer to Don's post. )
However managed to take some pics of the Time Spaces, the production unit of the
Carbon Fibre Jumbo Chrono and the Time Space Quantième Perpétuel.
The Répétition Minutes Zéphyr
Lunch at one of the finest French restaurants in Singapore, the Au Petit Salut
The guests and the showcases
Some of the showcased pieces ...
Mr Tay Liam Wee greeted everyone, and also informed that he soon would be back to
run Sincere Watch again after he and a consortium had made an offer last month.
He also explained the reason for Guy Ellia absence.
Mr Patrick Tan, Head of Sincere Watch Academy provided an introduction about Guy Ellia.
Mr Ong Ban, CEO of Sincere Watch
Mr KC Tay, incoming COO as announced by Mr Tay Liam Wee during his welcome speech.
After the lunch, took some pics of the Guy Ellia pieces ...
Starting with a decorated piece of 4.9mm thin Time Space .
Diameter is 46.80 mm housing a F Piguet movement.
18k solid gold case with bezel paved set with 234 diamonds of 1,83 cts
and
main-plate paved set with 366 diamonds of 1,03 cts.
Perlage main-plate with a black PVD treatment with paved set diamonds.
Marked with logo ' GE'.
The "Dauphines" shape hands are of 18k solid gold, galvanised to blue colour.
The crown is set with a diamond, one of the subtle GE's signatures.
18k solid black gold pin buckle set with 31 diamonds of 0,41 cts
Next is Time Space 'Squared' !
Its a 43 mm square.
Similar F Piguet extra-thin movement as the round Time Space above.
Previously, I've taken the prototype of the Carbon Fibre Jumbo Chrono .
As the finishing of the production unit is better representation, here are some pictures ...
Hour, minute at 12 o'clock
Date by coloration at 2 o'clock (above picture, the date is '20')
12-hour subdial at 9 o'clock
30-minute subdial at 3 o'clock
Running Second hand at 6 o'clock
Chronograph second hand at the centre.
Case size is 50mm.
Diamond is used as the weight to counter-balance the chronograph second hand.
Movement is F Piguet 1185 modified.
Now, for the revealing Time Space Quantième Perpétuel ...
a pretty stunning piece which the designer has skilfully used various shades of contrasting grey
to enable the dials to be legible.
A 3-piece case construction. Diameter is 46.8mm by 7.75mm thick.
The bezel with the lugs are of 18K gold.
The case-band is a transparent sapphire.
The caseback is see-through.
The solid piece of sapphire caseband with the two quick-set buttons per half.
Quick-set button located at :
2 o’clock posiiton is for adjusting the months,
4 o’clock position for correcting the moon phases
8 o’clock for correcting the days
and
10 o’clock for correcting the date.
Light blue Sapphire discs to indicate date / months / day / moon phases / leap years
with good contrasting stippled main-plate with ruthenium treatment.
Three are rotatable while the 'month-disc' is fixed. Under it is the 'leap year indicator'.
At a correct angle to light source, the caseband seems to be illuminated.
A Guy Ellia signature with crown set with a diamond (of about Ø 1,30 mm)
This watch is water-resistant to 30m, so proper sealing has to be done at the interfaceof the 3-piece construction and
also at the four correctors/quicke-set buttons.
The movement is by F. Piguet, Caliber PGE 5615 D
Movement diameter is Ø 35,64 mm, thickness is 4,7 mm
Power reserve : 43 hours, beating at 3 Hz (21’600 VPH)
Another variation with diamonds set...
A B&W to highlight the discs and the illuminated caseband.
Nicely designed watches without the typical dials, instead with common perlage
and with various shades of grey on the, decent and unique aesthetic is achieved.
Simply brilliant!
Kong
Nix the bling...
I wasn't expecting to like them, based on what I had seen before of the GE collection, but I kinda like the QP (no diamonds). I wonder where I'd get a chance to see one in the flesh
A
Very interesting watch...
Very interesting and quirky fashion forward watch.
Thanks for the report Kong!
Thanks for an interesting post Kong.
Having never encountered this brand before,I'm quite impressed with the design and creativity of GE.My favorite is also the QP(plain). Also interesting to note his use of forged carbon for the casing in the other piece.
cheers
fernando
Kong, do you know if the forged carbon used by Guy Ellia
is the same forged carbon process that AP uses?
One thought that came up in my mind when I saw that forged carbon piece was "Does forged carbon mix well with a super thin watch case?" Initially, my mind says no so it'll be interested to see one of these in person. The bigger and thicker the watch case, the more of the forged carbon pattern you can see. So this is why I think this forged carbon/thin case combo may not work that well.
Cheers,
Anthony
Different process ...
AP is using a mold to cast a case, whereas Guy Ellia is milled out from a solid block of forged carbon.
The mold with thermocouple wires (for close monitoring of temperature) is put into an oven and heatup to a certain temperature. After which it will be removed from the oven and transfer to the high tonnage press.
The high tonnage press will apply 50 times the load over what the aerospace industry applies today. Exact tonnage to compress the carbon fibre is a secret. After subjecting to the pressure, it will also have to wait for the mold temperature to drop to a certain number before opening the mold and remove the forged carbon.
This is how it looks like....the fibre form has become a solid piece.
Typically, the structure should be stronger if milled out from a single block of material as the resin are compressed better and could align the molecules. Whereas in molding, due to the shape, there are flow lines and parting line which are always a challenge as they are the contributing factors of possible structural issues.
Kong
Moulded or Cut/Milled forged carbon case
Kong,
Does it mean that the Cut/Milled forged carbon case needs higher cost to produce, is relatively higher quality and has longer life span compared to moulded one?
Regards
Ling
I can only explained from ...
It is not necessarily accurate to say machining approach is higher cost, as the one with the mold incurred tooling and machine cost too.
I don't have the any figures, so I could not advise accurately. Will explain with processing steps.
Starting with the molding approach, taking example from AP ....
(details are at this post : www.network54.com )
1) Accurately placing the carbon fibre into mold, as a deviation of just +1 gm, the thickness will increase by 0.6cm or 6mm.
2) Heat the carbon fibre in the mold to a certain temperature then transfer over to a high tonnage press.
3) Pressing the mold and hold till the temperature dropped to the determined level, then removed out of the press.
4) Open the mold and remove the molded unit....
5) The molded unit. Remove the binder material (white).
6) Machine to final dimensions using diamond and high-speed steel cutting tool.
From above schematic view, using the molding approach, still required many steps and also a final machining step.
As for structural strength (which you termed as 'quality & longer life'), it does not mean that molding is lower, as the design/shape
of the case , the thickness of the walls will determine the more suitable process.
For thicker walls, both molding or direct maching approach could be used. However for thinner walls design, most likely direct machining
of a solid block of carbon fibre would yield better strength.
Another consideration to adopt molding approach is for higher production quantity. Since the 'rough shape' is already molded, it will require
less machining to get the final dimension piece.
For direct-machine approach, the fabricator need not have the knowledge of the molding processes and also the heating and press equipment.
However, their production quantity should be a lot more lower, as it will require lots of high cost diamond or high speed steel cutters.
Hope you can follow my rant, otherwise got to talk to you over the phone
Kong
very stimulating post with quite complicated processing steps.
by the way, learnt other interesting news from your post is that KC will be COO of Sincere.
i hope after all, Sincere can still be the leading player in Singapore.
thanks, Kong.
stefan
You cannot forge Plastic.
Those photos and explanation of the process are excellent. I like when companies disclose their processes and methods.
That said, and I'm sorry if I've written this before, but you cannot forge plastic. And that's what these cases are, chopped strands of carbon fibre in a thermoset (polyester?) matrix. It is possible, as you've shown here, to perform a high-pressure molding, which should result in a higher density end-product, with some benign flow, but it the material itself is not forged.
Forging is using compression to align the grains of a metal so that they follow the shape of the part. Strength is gained by having uninterupted grain flow though the form of the part. (Think of the grain in a block of wood, if the grain lines follow the shape the part, it'll be superior to one cut across the grain)
Which brings me to my second point, which is by milling out the case, you are interupting the grain flow - which is the whole point of forging. Hmm.
And finally, as the moulding uses a random distribution of fibres, there is highly reduced ability to take advantage of CF's main advantageous property, it's tensile strength. The higher pressure moulding will improve it, but not to the extent of correctly aligned fibres.
None of which is to say that the process doesn't provide a lightweight, strong case, but nowhere near what the material could really achieve.
No, no, Thank you. I'm just the...
It is good to have ...
If it is inaccurate, I learn and will be sharper in questioning next round.
Thanks.
Kong
super report. thank you Kong
i'm quite new to this Brand. but very impressed with their Designs. so impressive and thin!! i like the Quantiem Repetuel a lot.
thanks for sharing..
Tony
This is one of those rare instances where IMHO "the ice maketh the watch".
This is hardly surprising, given Ellia's professional provenance as a jeweller.
I visited the Guy Ellia booth at Baselworld this year and I'm telling you now, this man knows how to design watches. His stuff is beautiful, eye-catching, and wholly original. It's hard to be original in the wacky world of 21st century watch design but Ellia manages it.
From the photos, this QP is his best work yet. A riot of colours, shapes and intriguing ideas, yet coherent and legible, and with a personality all its own. Chapeau!
Cheers
Tony P