stories on hard material matters - Ceratizit S.A.

32
RADO, CARBIDE WATCH CASES
Exclusive watches in classic
carbide from CERATIZIT
The Swiss watch manufacturer Rado relies on scratchproof
cases from CERATIZIT
What do the punctual departure of a train, a tenancy
agreement, a game of chess and New Year’s Eve have
in common? They are all subject to time. A contribution
on the `time on the wrist´, the innovative watch manu-
facturer Rado and CERATIZIT’s role in the production of
scratchproof watch cases.
The presentation of the first scratchproof watch in 1962
represented the start of Rado’s success story. Everything
began when Rado chief designer at the time, Marc
Lederrey, put forward a totally new idea. He was
constantly irritated when gold and steel watches,
which at the beginning looked beautiful, often showed
scratches after only a few days and subsequently had
to be polished frequently. Then, tungsten and titanium
carbides were only known as extremely resistant
materials in the field of high-tech production of special
tools. “Making a watch out of this material - that would
be the solution,“ said Lederrey. And Dr. Paul Lüthi, who
was at that time the boss of Rado, gave the go-ahead
for this development. The result: the first scratchproof
watch in the world!
High-tech materials in watch production
Today Rado is one of the most important watch manufacturers
in Switzerland. The Rado group has been
part of the Swatch group since 1983 and already has
more than 300 service centres and more than 8,000
sales points. While other watch manufacturers apply
conventional materials such as gold, copper or steel, Rado
counts on high-tech materials of the future. Lanthanum,
ceramic, sapphire crystal, high-tech diamond and last
but not least carbide. The level of scratch resistance
of a material depends on its hardness. Hard materials
make scratches in softer materials: diamond makes
Carbide case from CERATIZIT for the Swiss watch manufacturer Rado:
injection moulded parts before sintering.
imp:act 01/08
scratches in sapphire, sapphire in glass, and glass in metal.
The harder a material, the more brittle it is, and thus more
sensitive to impact. Resistance to scratches therefore is
not the same as indestructibility. Rado has never only
focused on beautiful watches. The main decision has
always been the selection of the material. In this way
design and material combinations are developed which
perfectly combine the two functions of a watch: a
modern piece of jewellery and a functional time
indicator.
Carbide from CERATIZIT for the top watch brand Rado
CERATIZIT has supplied Rado with carbide cases for
decades. The development and the production of the
cases started at the beginning of the 1960‘s at the Reutte
site. Now they are produced in Mamer, Luxembourg
and are then subjected to several machining processes
at Rado’s subcontractors until they become high-quality
watches. Marc Lanners, production manager of the
watch case line in Mamer: “The most tricky thing when
producing watch cases is aesthetic quality. The preparation
of the feedstock (a mixture of powder and binder)
is of maximum importance in order to be able to fulfil the
quality requirements. Both surface and form have to be
absolutely perfect. This is why quality control is obviously
extremely important for these products. We have very
precise control systems.”
“We produce tens of thousands of carbide watch cases
per year, today we have five models,” says Hans Müller,
business segment manager of special industrial wear
parts. “Even for these high-quality products the life cycle
is continuously decreasing. We must therefore react
ever faster. The latest case model was developed within
only four months by CERATIZIT.”
The external part during final polishing.