stories on hard material matters - Ceratizit S.A.

24
RADO, CARBIDE WATCH CASES
Exclusive watches in classic
carbide from CERATIZIT
The Swiss watch manufacturer Rado relies on scratchproof cases
from CERATIZIT. Including interview with customer!
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
manufacturer 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 centers 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
scratches in sapphire, sapphire in glass, and glass in metal.
Carbide case from CERATIZIT for the Swiss watch manufacturer
Rado: injection molded parts before sintering.
imp:act 01/08
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 jewelry 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 fulfill 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 indu-
strial 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.