Ceramic is pretty amazing stuff.
According to Wikipedia, the definition of ceramic is as follows:
“An inorganic, non-metallic, solid material comprising metal, non-metal or metalloid atoms primarily held in ionic and covalent bonds”
It all sounds a bit Sci-Fi, but there is an important underlying fact to this, which is that there are many different types of ceramic. The watch industry has been using it for many years, but even in that context there is still a great deal of variety. not all ceramic it seems, is created equal.
Let’s use the Rado Hyperchrome as an example. While the material in this watch and the material in a dinner plate are both called ceramic, the specific materials from which they are made very different, in the same way that a Pekingese and a St Bernard are both defined as dogs, but are clearly not the same. The important thing to note here is that ceramic watches from different brands are not necessarily made from the same thing, which will often explain the sometimes quite significant difference in price.
Rado have been using ceramic for a very long time, and are something of a pioneer in the field of high-tech watch materials. Their first breakthrough was in 1962, when they introduced the Original range, featuring a case made from Hardmetal (an extremely durable material used in the toolmaking industry). In 1986 they used High-Tech Ceramic in the bracelets of their Integral range. Superior in hardness to Hardmetal, this had the extra benefit of lightness and resistance to corrosion. Since then they have continued to develop newer and better materials, investing significant time and resources into research and development. Their latest collections include watches in Plasma High-Tech Ceramic, which has all the benefits of High-Tech Ceramic but looks like metal, opening up a huge array of design options that wouldn’t work with a black or white coloured watch.
The brief given to the designers of the Hyperchrome was to make the watch as shiny as possible (I suspect there was more to it than that but shiny is what I was told…). They started by using a monobloc case construction, meaning the case is made from a solid piece of High-Tech Ceramic, rather than a steel case in a ceramic shell – which up until then was the norm, and is a technique still used by other manufacturers today who are less experienced with ceramic. The automatic movement then has to be put into the case while still partially disassembled, and then final assembly is carried out inside the watch. The removable pieces on the side of the case hide access holes to facilitate this. The benefit of all this is a far sturdier and more robust case, plus the fact that it is not pretending to be anything other than what it is: a ceramic watch.
A recent development from Rado is a watch made entirely from a mixture of 90% High-Tech Ceramic and 10% metal alloy, which Rado call Ceramos (Sounds a bit like a car doesn’t it…?). This has the additional benefit that by changing the mixture slightly, it can be made in different metallic colours, such as rose gold. At the moment these watches are much more expensive than an equivalent watch using PVD or gold plate, but I believe that this kind of material will – in the not too distant future – make plated watches a thing of the past.
If you are interested in any of the pieces discussed here, please stop by our store and see them for yourself. I guarantee you will not be disappointed!
Ian Palmer – June 2018
