I chose to make the dial out of the same 316L stainless steel that the case is made from.
The billet is faced off, and the area for the dial is started to be turned.
The outer diameter is turned, and the interior thickness of the dial with turned.
The diameter of the dial.
I paint this with marker to more clearly see where one is cutting.
Parting the dial from the billet, has to be done slowly as the stainless heats up very quickly, and I do not use cutting coolant.
Centering the optical rotary table on the jig borer so that the index holes are concentric with the dial.
Placing the billet on the rotary table, centering.
Trilling the seconds area in order to facilitate material removal.
I chose to bore out this area with a boring head instead of on the lathe, in order to take carry out all machining operations with one setup.
Starting the boring of the recess for the sub-seconds chapter dial.
Then I off-set the piece and start drilling the minute marker holes.
Continue to drill.
However, the piece must have moved during machining and the eccentricity of the dial in relation to spin of the rotary table was slightly off, ruining all this work.
Starting a new dial, the old top surface is cut away.
The holes were only .5mm deep so not much material was needed to be removed.
Trying a different setup, with a 4-jaw chuck on the smaller optical dividing head. Centering the dividing head on the jig borer.
Centering the 4-jaw chuck that allows centering the piece very precisely.
continuing to center, it takes a lot of time to make fine adjustments to have near zero runout when turning the part.
Placing the dial billet and checking eccentricity with the microscope.
This is how the reading on the glass scales inside the optical rotary table looks like.
The dial again was started, and indexed directly via the viewer.
However, the piece is again off-center. The cumulitative errors created by the stack of rotary tables did not work out properly.
The third dial is started again.
I face everything off, and start a new dial.
Parting off a wafer of 316L stainless in order to try to clamp it directly, and remove eccentricity errors caused by the shape of the larger billet, which is never perfectly round, nor eccentric to the dial being machined.
Dial wafer parted off, very slowly in order to not warp the steel from the heat generated by the cut.
The dial is very carefully faced off in the jeweller's 6-jaw chuck.
Further finishing.
View of the dial wafer.
In order to hold the wafer in the chuck and not cause distortion from the clamping forces I had to make a jig to hold and machine the dial.
This is done from aluminum.
A two part jig, where the critical surfaces are eccentric will allow me to better position the dial in regards to the machining operations necessary to make the dial.
Further machining of the dial jig.
The dial jig and placed in the 4-jaw chuck, and the 60 holes for index markers being drilled.
A view of the holes under the microscope.
The index markers were finished, and then the dial jig was sacrificed by drilling holes to allow for material removal.
With a jewellers slitting saw I ma a rough cut out of the area.
Then, with hand files I slowly start the process of finishing the dial interior edges, this is halfway done.
A first look to see how it fits the case and watch style.
The dial is continued to be worked on. Normally, these dials are two pieces, making the finishing of the interior angles much easier, specially the join between the two dials.
Here I use a series of metal files, and finish with ruby files of finer grit, before being polished. I chose to have one solid dial, to avoid having to drill holes of fixture since the two dials will be very thin.
I cemented the dial into a holding jig.
A recess under the sub-seconds was necessary to accommodate the hour hand on the dial.
Recess milled.
The dial was too thick, purposely done to be able to fine adjust the thickness to the watch case. The dial is cemented onto a billet.
Then, in order to minimize cutting forces (and risk of damage to dial), I decided to grind off the thickness necessary. This is very slow going as it also risks breaking the cement bond and sending the dial flying off and very potentially ruining it.
After a bath in acetone the dial is able to be freed from the billet.
Checking the thickness of the dial against a gauge micrometer.
Further adjustment of the dial thickness was necessary.
The dial was cemented to a hardened steel parallel this time, as the other billet was still caked with cement.
Detail of the slow process of grinding off the thickness.
Then the dial is refinished with the brushed finish on the larger minute chapter ring.
The dial after satin applied with a very low speed and ca 600 grit sandpaper. The slower the speed, the more evident the brushed appearance, and the more continuous the lines created.
Then, cementing the dial on another jig to have the sub-seconds ring finished. Special attention had to be made to not accidentally scratch the minutes ring.
The finished dial.
The dial foot, which is used to locate the dial on the movement, and prevent it's displacement when screwing on the bezel (since it presses against the dial).
Small dial foot.
The dial foot has to be very thin so that the dial is not pushed up too much, thereby setting off the internal measurements of the dial area.
Now I turn to the making of the hands. I use 1075 spring steel, as it has become the standard in high-end watchmaking.
The slab of 1075 is cut into small strips.
Then each part is drilled with a hole that will support the hub for the minute and hour wheels.
This pair of hands were a test to see how traditional feuille (leaf) hands would look on this case.
Everything is done with varying grade of hand files.
A very rough shape to test what the hands would look like on the watch.
Further rough finishing of the hands.
First test. This hand shape does not suit the watch case, and a new set of hands is made.
The stock for the hands is milled to a thickness that will allow me to work the shape I have designed.
A view of the stock raw steel for the milling of the hands.
Two pieces of raw stock milled to thickness and guide holes drilled.
Reducing the width of each of the pieces on the milling machine.
Driling the hub hole and then the two 'neck' holes that will give the hands the distinctive cutouts near the hubs.
Milling the rough shape of the hands.
The hand then is cut off from the two sides which were kept to fasten to the milling plate, and cemented upside down onto a block for grinding down the thickness.
The shape of the hands becomes evident as the excess material is removed.
The hand then is cemented on a polishing block, and the thickness further reduced.
The distinctive bevels of the hands are done by cementing the hands against a 60-degree angle, and then hand filing the profile. The pip at the end is kept on purpose to be able to handle the hands when working on them.
The top matte finish is ground with diamond paste.
A view of the result after gently grinding the surface with coarse diamond paste.
Finishing the tip of the hand, gently filing each angle.
The hub, which will be pressed on, is turned on the lathe separately.
Finishing the hub on the watchmaker's lathe.
Pressing the hub onto the hand (whose finishing is protected by masking tape).
The finished hand.
However, when adjusting the depth of the hub, after fitting on the movement, a slight slip of the graver caused the hand to break.
The broken hand. This requires to complete the entire process anew, nearly a week's worth of work is wasted.
There are times too that a small mental miscalculation in coordinates, ruins the part.
This was a failed attempt, so more time is unfortunately wasted in the manufacture process. But this is what entails an object being made by hand.
The third time I speed up the process by grinding the raw stock to near final thickness.
Raw stock after grinding with cup diamond grinder.
The shape of the hand is then drilled, and milled on the milling machine on a fixture plate.
And, after grinding the back again, and previous to removing the end of the hand off.
Grinding the matte finish on the hand with the screw polishing block and zinc plate (with diamond paste as the grinding compound).
And now, here with the minutes hand, finishing the angles again by cementing and hand filing the bevels.
The blind cap of the minutes hand, here after many operations (turning, drilling, parting off, and further finishing by grinding.).
Testing the fit on the minute arbor.
And the two hands are fitted to see if it is satisfactory, and I am very happy with the resonance between the hands and the case bevels and finishing.
The hands are again adjusted for height on the minute-hour posts by grinding, this results in a perpendicular cut to the hand face.
This is the manufacture of the seconds hand. A pantograph was chosen to test out making hands from a predetermined pattern.
I chose to use the pantograph, because it was a new machine in the shop, and also to facilitate the correct proportions of the seconds hand at such a small scale.
Drilling of the profile on the prepared stock (all the previous steps seen above were also done on this part).
The hand after taking out from the fixture plate.
Removing the excess material from the hand, without deforming it, both via hand saw and files.
The hand is then ground to achieve the matte finish, always with the same grit used on the outside of the case.
The hand is attached to the same hardened block to achieve an identical bevel angle to the hour and minute hands. Each bevel is carefully filed by hand, to achieve uniformity of thickness throughout the hand.
Side bevels done, the tail of the second's hand is still long on purpose to facilitate handling.
Now I finish the tail of the second's hand.
Turning the hub on the larger lathe.
The hub is then press fit onto the second's hand.
Finished seconds hand, still in need of cleaning.
The testing of the hands on the watch it finally takes shape. Lots of adjustment followed to arrive at the correct second's hand height on the subdial.
At this point the process for making the buckle is documented. The idea was drawn out on paper, with measurements and proportions to the case. A piece of 316L that was cut immediately preceding the case is used.
A part of the billet is cut off and turned into a square on the milling machine.
Further squaring the part in order to be elaborated more easily.
The small portion is cut in half, which will become the sides of the buckle.
Pieces have been sawed and ready to be deburred.
The pieces are deburred on the oilstone so that they can be held correctly in the next machining opertion.
They are held in a small precision grinding vice.
The holes for the cross bar of the frame are drilled.
Then the hole for the springbar is already drilled (opposite the large hole).
Parts ready to be deburred, and prepared for the next operation.
I decided to grind the angles to keep them sharp, and reduce stress on the parts.
Detail of the vise holding the parts at an angle, which itself are held in another larger vise.
Results from grinding the first angle.
They are deburred and cleaned before being set up for the second compound angle.
Another side of the buckle frame is ground.
Result from the operation.
Profile, this angle visible here will be the underside of the buckle frame.
Views of the individual pieces.
Side view.
Top view. Each piece has a complex geometry, that recalls the case itself.
Now the traverse part of the frame is started, from another portion of the same billet.
I slowly machine this piece into a square bar to be turned round on the lathe.
Further machining.
Milling the semicircular portion in to a rectangular bar.
The two sides are parallel and will be turned round.
Held in a collet in the lathe, it is turned into a round rod.
The rod, that requires now to be reduced in diameter.
In order to keep the end from being a different size than the portion held near the collet, it is turned between centers.
The rod ready to be wedded to the sides of the buckle frame.
In order to carry out the necessary operations, I need to build a jig to keep the sides at the correct distance of 20mm from each other.
I use an odd piece of flat-bar stock and shape it to the necessary shape on the milling machine.
I have to mill to exact tolerances and square, so that the buckle frame comes out correctly when held in the jig.
Quickly comparing the result to a square corner.
The jig after machining.
Placing the buckle in the jig to see how it will work.
The parts are finished the final finish, since once the frame of the buckle is assembled it will not be able to be disassembled for further finishing.
The part needs to be slowly ground down, to take out the machining marks from cutter vibration and part deflection under stress of machining.
Here I use the cup grinder to machine the angles, as I did with the case. The angle jig is not shown in this photo, but only the effect of the angle on the piece. The process was identical to that of the case, using the same angle for the bevel.
The parts ready for assembly.
Before assembly, to see how it will be.
Placed on the jig, and held on the precision grinding vice.
This is then located on the jig borer with the centering microscope.
The holes for the holding pins are drilled.
Further drilling of the other portion of the buckle frame.
Turning the stainless steel pins that will hold the round portion of the buckle frame in place.
Inserting the pins while still held in the vice, to secure hole alignment and pin vertical alignment.
The pins before being ground off.
Top of the buckle frame, with spring bar fitted.
Bottom of the buckle frame, showing the pressure fitted pin holes.
Placed the buckle frame in the holding jig again, and now milling the bottom of the frame round bar flat so that the buckle sits low against the leather strap.
Further miling.
After initial milling, more handwork is required.
I file the bottom of the buckle frame traverse bar flat, always testing how ti nestles with an actual strap.
further finishing.
Bottom satin finish.
View of the top. I polished the top surface to a mirror finish.
In order to get a better matte flat result when grinding on the zinc plate with diamond paste.
Top of buckle matte finished.
Contrast of the top with the brushed sides, just like in the case textures.
This small piece of stainless cut-off will become the prong of the buckle.
The hole for the springbar is drilled and then the rest will be hand filed to desired shape.
Starting to carve out the curvature of the prong.
Significant time later, the prong is tested for final length and also, with how it seats on top of the frame bar.
Further finishing the top of the prong.
Intermediary steps.
This is far too thick for the type of strap used, and it is reduced to size for the actual strap used.
The final shape of the prong.
Consideration was taken too, in the ease of use when closing and opening the buckle, so that strap can easily be removed when desired.
