Capturing innovation at the source

“Two or three years ago, brands were still sending their heads of department to the fair. Now we’re seeing more and more directors of R&D, marketing or products, even a few CEOs.” Olivier Saenger has reason to be cheerful. He is one of the organisers of EPHJ-EPMT, the watch, jewellery and micro-technology fairs which ended May 27th with a record number of visitors. More and more, brands are recognising suppliers as a virtually limitless source of ideas. The quality of their innovations, often the product of fundamental research, was one of the defining features of this 10^th fair. Among the dozens of novelties on show, two surface treatments for watches caught the eye.

White PVD

Developed by the Institute of Applied Microtechnologies, part of HE-Arc Ingénierie in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a white PVD coating could be one of this year’s most talked-about finds. Numerous attempts to develop white PVD have been made but none conclusive. Physical vapour deposition (PVD) technology has been around for a number of years. The material is deposited in vaporised form onto the surface by an ionised gas (plasma) in an environment with pressure similar to that on the moon. Particles of the material then condense on the substrate. Each layer is just two to three microns thick, hence even very fine engraved decorations remain visible.

Because this is essentially a physical rather than chemical process, obtaining a colour other than that of the vaporised material is a tall order, yet this is exactly what Patrick Jeanneret, a research assistant at the Institute of Applied Microtechnologies, has done with this dense, enamel-like white. “There’s nothing special about the recipe for this white, but we are keeping it a secret,” Oksana Banakh, a teacher and director of the Institute, explains. “All I can say is that the result plays on the physical properties of light and how it interacts with the coating.”

Given that HE-Arc’s vocation is to patent the results of its research, not commercially exploit them, the school has turned to LAC (Laboratory for Advanced Coatings) in Plan-les-Ouates. Originally a research lab, LAC now specialises in PVD. “This is the first time we’ve worked with a school,” comments manager Serge Bourquard, clearly delighted by the prospect. “We were immediately taken with this idea for white PVD and the end result. Our job now, in collaboration with HE-Arc Ingénierie, is to optimise the coating and go from the laboratory to industrial production.” Currently at the finalisation stage, in a few months’ time white PVD will be available for coating dials, bridges and hands. It will be a further year before the process is ready to be used on cases and bracelets.

Hybrid ceramic

Coming not from fundamental research but dentistry, hybrid ceramic offers more innovative possibilities. Developed by Invicon, an Austrian company that was showing for the second time at EPHJ, this new coating has the qualities of zirconium ceramic and those of lacquers used in watchmaking: scratchproof, supple, insensitive to UV rays and available in a vast range of colours including, since this year, luminescent shades thanks to the addition of Superluminova.

Hybrid ceramic combines microceramics, colour pigments and polymers. Its components and low-temperature production open up unprecedented physical and aesthetic possibilities for the watch industry. Ceramic, present in variable proportions, makes it sufficiently hard so as to be virtually scratchproof; the three-dimensional connexions between the polymers ensure elasticity that protects against breaking; hardening at just 120°C is easy on the pigments, resulting in intense and almost infinite colours.

This material, whose consistency ranges from runny honey to putty, lends itself to all kinds of surfaces. Crowns, cases, hands and pushbuttons are all components that can be coated in hybrid ceramic, which can then be machined, engraved, even gem-set.

Significant progress has been made in 3D printing these past few years. Now functional prototypes can be made in a few hours, combining very supple to very hard resins, including transparent ones, simultaneously ejected by hundreds of jets. Zedax, a company based in La Neuveville and an exhibitor at EPHJ, demonstrated its expertise with machines by the Israeli firm Objet Geometries.

However, the major innovation in rapid prototyping is nothing short of a revolution. Selective Laser Melting three-dimensionally prints objects directly in metal. As with resin, the machine superposes layers of metal powder which the laser melts. This technology is the first to allow small-series production of finished objects.

By moving directly from computer-generated images to a 3D object, Selective Laser Melting creates complex objects in one piece, without soldering or assembly, such as the links in a watch bracelet.

This technology is commercialised in Switzerland by Eichenberger Futuretech, a group of four companies including Eichenberger in Reinach and La Manufacture in Meyrin. Prototypes can be made in stainless steel, chrome-cobalt steel, aluminium and titanium. Eichenberger Futuretech is working with the German manufacturer Concept Laser to develop a process that will use gold. Jewellers, watch this space.

Article published in BIPH