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As the internet continues to accelerate the speed of trends, high-end brands are experimenting more than ever. Exploring different materials, whether for dials or cases, seems like a great way to spark your imagination and create something new. Semi-precious stones, carbon fiber, titanium, and bronze have all come of age in the past five years, but sometimes watches come with something truly unusual. Introducing watches made from the rarest and most unusual materials used in watchmaking, discovered throughout history.
Richard Mille RM009 ALUSiC
Whether you’re a hater or not, there’s no denying that Richard Mille makes watches that few other brands would make, much less dare to make. These are elite timepieces made specifically to handle the toughest tasks a watch can withstand, and Richard Mille is a rare company where luxury and delicacy are not equal. The RM009 ALUSiC was born in 2005 thanks to a partnership with F1 fan favorite driver Felipe Massa. Felipe Massa is a driver who actually raced wearing Richard Mille. But in F1, every gram counts, so the watch had to be ultra-light. ALUSiC is not just a metal alloy; it is a matrix of silicon and aluminum alloy reinforced with silicon carbide. Forged in a centrifuge, it has a density about two-thirds that of titanium and less than half that of stainless steel. It’s also durable and heat resistant, making it perfect for surviving in the chaotic cockpits of F1 cars.
rado deer star
It’s quite strange to think about the state of watches in 1962, but as sports watches became more popular, scratch resistance became an important factor. Rado launched the Diastar touting its ruggedness, but the use of tungsten carbide (which Rado calls “hard metal”) as the case material was innovative. Currently, tungsten carbide is very difficult to process, so it is mainly used in tools such as cutting tools and abrasives. In terms of hardness, it can even surpass sapphire. The latest reissue of the Rado Diastar uses a ceramic and metal alloy cap over steel for scratch resistance, but it doesn’t have the novelty or ingenuity of the 1960s model. While there may be other watches made of tungsten, tungsten carbide is a much rarer material.
ArtyA Tiny Purity Tourbillon Nano Saphir Chameleon
ArtyA has been experimental in far stranger ways in the past, with watches with lightning strikes on the case and dials adorned with the brand’s founder’s own blood. There were also clocks with dials made from coprolites, also known as dinosaur dung fossils. Lately, the company’s timepieces have taken a more upscale look, and the ArtyA Tiny Purity Tourbillon Nanosaphir Chameleon actually does something incredible with watch materials that have become extremely plentiful. It’s not that hard to find watches with sapphire cases in sometimes odd colors, but the Nano Sapphire Chameleon actually changes color depending on the angle of your wrist and the temperature of the light in its location. This is an extremely rare phenomenon in natural stone, but it is still as effective as this. The grip of ArtyA’s lab-grown sapphire clearly exceeds some other brands that have been using this material for much longer, and I can’t wait to see if they develop their NanoSaphir Chameleon technology even further.
Linde Werdelin Octopus Moonlight White
Unfortunately for some, there are brands that are good at keeping secrets. Linde Werdelin specializes in lightweight sports watches with extreme visual style and in 2014 explored the material now known as ALW (Alloy Linde Werdelin). ALW, said to have been developed for the aerospace industry and Formula 1 applications, is a porous metal composite whose actual metallurgical composition is shrouded in mystery to the public. When the Octopus Moonlight White was released in 2015, the uncoated material was on display. ALW’s porous nature allows for a chemical hardening process that penetrates four times deeper than a similar process for stainless steel, and it is 50% lighter than titanium. In addition to its strong properties, it also has a soft, “milky” aesthetic quality that contrasts with the harshness of the case design.
Hublot Big Bang Unico Full Magic Gold
Generally, owning a gold watch is closely associated with having a gold watch scratched. It is a soft metal, even though it is specially alloyed with silver or copper to make it more durable as jewelry. But Hublot has found a workaround. Hublot’s Magic Gold is made from 75% gold, which is considered 18K, but is alloyed with ceramic, making it virtually scratch-resistant. This technology was patented in 2011, so we haven’t seen other brands take a similar approach to this technology. The gold color has a trade-off, being more brownish-green than the yellow or rose gold we’re used to, but its khaki color fits well with Hublot’s catalog of industrial design and militarism. Sense. Jamie also made a mistake during a visit to Hublot’s manufacturing facility when he scratched the bezel of his Magic Gold with a steel drill bit.
Richard Mille RM038 Prototype Johan Blake
Magnesium-cased watches, such as the Bvlgari Diagono, have been shown to the public in the past, but Richard Mille is back on the list thanks to a watch first discovered in 2012 and re-listed at Sotheby’s auction this year. It has appeared. At the London Olympics, Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake wore a bright white and yellow Richard Mille RM038, which was a one-off prototype before the RM59-01 tourbillon became Yohan Blake’s official collaborative release. I wore it. Unlike the production model, the case is made of a magnesium, yttrium, zirconium and neodymium alloy called WE54, so there is no PVD coating. Oxidation treatment is applied to bring out the metal’s original white color, which gives it toughness and corrosion resistance. At 44 grams in total, it’s not the lightest watch Richard Mille has ever made, but it’s definitely one of the coolest. After all, what other watch was worn when winning gold at the Olympics? It went up for auction on February 8th at 5pm GMT, with an estimated value of 1 million to 150 yen. It will be worth 10,000 dollars. Oops.
H. Moser & Co. Swiss Mud Watch
I wanted to avoid watches that were just hanging weird things in resin or epoxy, and the H. Moser Swiss Mud Watch was practically made to be on a list like this. . Some of you may not have noticed this before, but H. Moser & Co. has given its watches the Swiss Made designation in protest of the subjectively low standards required to earn the Swiss Made designation. Not labeled. In fact, many Swiss watches can be manufactured overseas before being assembled in Switzerland. So the Swiss Mud Watch was born as a wicked retort with a case made of real Swiss cheese and encased in resin. I’m curious to see how the case has aged after eight years and whether the cheese has turned yellow, but some collectors may be offended by that. This watch was still essentially a luxury watch, powered by the in-house HMC 327, and of course sold for over $1 million.
