General designs and measurements.
Rough case section, two part case.
Bezel section. Snap on bezel.
Case from top, size of bezel, lugs, dial, glass.
Profile rough sketches.
Lug integration into case, gradual or sharp angle, TBD.
A solid billet of bronze, 15mmx70mm.
A center hole is slowly milled.
Initial circle.
Further milling.
Nearly complete.
Center milled out.
Cleaning the opening on the lathe.
Billet ready for side facing.
Cutting the sides to align lugs.
First past.
After slowly progressing through the cut it is finished.
First flat side.
The piece is turned around, leveled, and another cut made.
Second side finished.
Both sides are further reduced on the mill.
Further cutting.
The milling is complete at this stage.
Initial turning of case profile.
Slowly moving to give proper contour.
Further turning.
Turning continued.
Reaching the profile desired.
First stage of case profile nearly done.
Case is turned over to shape bottom of lug profile.
shaping the interior portion of the lugs.
First stage finished.
The case is checked against a coordinate page, to see general measurements.
The interior area of the lugs is sawn out.
Cut commencing.
Afterwards, the rest of the material is milled out.
General rough case shape with outer part of lugs needing to be sawed.
Cutting the outer portion of the lug.
Cut carried out.
The sides of the case being cleaned.
Checking measurements again.
Turning the interior of the case so the movement sits in properly.
Checking movement seating.
Turning the back of the case.
Now having given a rough profile drawing, the first lug shapes are turned.
Turning further the outer portion of the lugs.
Turning the bottom portion of the lugs.
Rough shape of the case to be further refined.
Rough shape of case.
Further milling of case shape.
Intermediate case shape.
Lugs need to be shortened and shaped.
Another billet of bronze is turned to make the dial (here on a 2nd lathe at my other studio in southern Lazio).
The bezel is coming to rough size (first turned to 45mm).
The interior was turned, now ready for parting.
Rough bezel turned.
Back at my regular atelier, turning the bezel closer to size.
Rough outer turning done, this is to 41.5mm, to be later reduced to 40mm.
Turning the interior to 32mm (will be opened to 34mm).
Hand finishing the lugs.
Cleaning the areas with a hand file.
Intermediate stage of case.
Intermediate stages of case and bezel.
Moving back to the bezel, starting to open up the area for the sapphire glass.
Cutting the seating grove.
Testing the seating of the glass.
Facing the bezel for flatness.
Moving back to the case, now turning the snap-on lip to hold the bezel.
Cutting the incision.
Facing the bevel of the lip so that the bezel slips and locks into place.
Profile of the snap-on male portion on the case.
Turning the inside of the bezel, to slip over the case lip.
Turning the angle on the lip.
Fitting the rough bezel on the case.
Turning the profile of the lugs further.
Turning in motion.
Back to the bezel.
Giving the bezel front a slight step.
Finishing the angle.
Testing.
Profile view, the bezel diameter still needs to be reduced and the lugs still need further work.
Further adjustments on the bezel interior.
Cleaning up the case profile.
Further cleaning of case.
Further fine milling.
The lug shape has to be altered, as they are now, they are thicker in the interior in comparison to the exterior.
Hand filing to make the lugs become a smooth ribbon that moves evenly downwards.
Further finishing is necessary, but near the the stage where it needs to be.
Imperfections where the lugs meet the case are hand filed off.
Filing off the imperfections.
Major facets taken off, further finishing necessary.
Here the lugs are taking shape.
The side profile has been kept higher than originally planned as it made the watch too thick on the wrist.
The watch is laid out against the original design.
The bottom of the lugs is being cleaned up.
The bottom of the lugs need further attention.
Filing by hand the straight end of the lugs.
Hand filing the top of the lugs which need to have a taper that is flat when looked at 'head on' .
The case in semi-finished state.
The back of the case bezel resembles that of the front of the case.
Here work on the stem is being carried out. I have changed my design for a sturdier variant of a one piece winding stem.
The shape of the stem is nearly complete.
The stem itself has been given the correct thread for the crown.
The crown is turned from the center portion that remained of the brass from the center of the case.
Turning a cylinder from the rough piece.
The smoothed out portion is reversed.
Design and measurements of the crown. It is the same thickness as the lugs so that there is harmony amongst the vertical lines of the watch. It will have a slightly convex center (not extruded as one of the drawings shows).
Turning the stem portion.
Center drilling the hole that receives the stem.
Further drilling.
Tapping, or creating the internal thread of the crown.
Checking the internal thread with the winding stem.
Creating a 'foot' in order to be able to fasten the crown while milling the 'grip' ridges.
Now the stem will be given 17 teeth that is the ratio which works for the center ratchet of the winding rocking lever.
Milling starts on the indexing head.
Milling out the teeth. Lots of cutting fluid is used.
Teeth are all cut.
The interior of the teeth are dressed.
The holes for the stem and time setting pin have been calculated and are drilled.
The fit of the stem has to be such that there is enough friction.
Now on to the pin-setting hole.
Drilling the pin setting hole.
Crown and winding stem previous to being refinished (Polished, etc.).
Here I'm turning time setting push-pin.
The pin is reversed and the interior portion (thicker) is work on the watchmakers lathe.
A semicircular slot to fit with the movement's lever is filed.
The grip on the crown is next. Here I am centering the cutter with the indexing head using a .01mm center drill.
Milling out the perpendicular grip grooves. The crown has 30 grooves.
The finished piece.
The crown is placed on the lathe, and both edges are given a convex bevel.
Turning of the bevel.
Testing the crown on the watch. The bezel is still 42mm thick and will be reduced.
Another view.
The crown is being worked on in the small watchmaker's lathe.
Here I am making the push piece to set the time from a piece of brass taken from the case.
The rough push-piece finished.
Giving the push-piece a rounded end.
Turning the end, this has to be done by constant checking with the original movement in place.
A new ratchet wheel will be made, as this one was badly disfigured after attempting to unsuccesfully modify it.
I was not happy with the quality of the ribbing on the first crown so I made another.
This one is better and more even throughout.
Cutting the radial profile to the crown.
Parting the crown from the holding stem.
Facing off the part of the crown that faces outwards.
Creating a convex indentation in the crown with a special tool bit.
However, the milling action on the crown generated too much torque and the stem portion of the crown broke. Another will have to be made.
Starting a new winding stem.
In the meantime a new crown is being made on the mill.
Finished grip on the crown, made via a linear fashion and in the shape of 'v' grooves.
Giving the lateral bevels to the crown.
Creating a jig to hold the crown in order to be able to finish it, and not break the stem as in the previous operation.
Milling out the center with a tool diameter nearly equal to that of the crown.
This is a jig or collet to hold the crown.
The crown in pace and ready to be faced off.
The crown is faced off and no pressure is put on the winding stem.
A special cutter is shaped to cut the convex center.
Shaped on the grinding stone.
Due to the diameter, I start first with this cutter.
Then I use a circular headed milling bit.
Then I clean the center point with a round hand graver.
The crown is almost done.
I touch up some of the lateral parts of the crown.
And reface the outer crown edge.
Here I'm reshaping the milling cutter for the gears.
Checking the calibration of the dividing head.
The stem portion is threaded.
setting up the lowest portion of the mill onto the part.
Cutting with very low speed and lots of cutting oil to not deform the pinion leaves.
Pinions cut.
Checking the initial action of pinion with movement in the watch case.
Winding stem placed in a screw head polishing tool, but used to reduce the length of the stem.
Partial reduction.
Reduced and end is polished.
Shaping the ratchet end of the winding stem.
Here I am adjusting the length of the crown's stem portion to coincide with that of the stem.
The winding stem is placed in the lathe to finish the ratchet end geometry.
Creating the correct bevel to engage with the winding ratchet.
Now onto modifying the bezel. In order not to ruin the bezel a jig is made to hold it in the chuck without marring the finish.
This is made from acetal, a very rigid plastic.
Cutting the inner groove.
The ring parted and set with the bezel.
The bezel is now grabbed by the interior, and I'm able to reduce the outer diameter to the final measurement.
The outer part is cut.
Checking with the watch case for look and feel.
Creates a very thick case, but lines are there.
Direct view.
Checking how it looks with the dial in place.
I was still not happy with the engagement of the winding stem, doing another one.
Threaded the stem.
Shortened the stem portion.
Cutting the winding gear area to a slightly smaller diameter, reduced by .10mm from the previous.
The stem before teeth being milled.
Creating a small brass sleeve to hold the stem while milling it.
Winding stem in the temporary sleeve.
Here the sleeve is placed in the lathe and given an initial approximation to the size needed.
Facing off.
Placed in the milling machine and the teeth indexed.
A new winding stem.
Here it is placed in the watch and checked.
A new jig holder for the bezel is turned, acetal again is used, this time black. And it is to hold the bezel from the outside.
Bezel placed in it's holder.
And the interior of the bezel is being worked, as it didn't sit completely flush with the main portion of the case.
The bottom portion of the case, where the bezel sits is cleaned up.
The result of the work gives a clean cut to the area between the bezel and lugs.
A new piece of Acetal is cut from the large rod.
Here I am modifying the bezel further.
Checking fit.
I am making an holder from Acetal to hold the watch case. As the front and back diameters are different.
Testing the case fit on the jig.
Turning the back side glass fitting.
Checking the size with the actual sapphire glass.
A view of the movement with its glass cover.
A piece of the special nylon for the gasket is placed on the lathe.
This is turned to within a 1/10th of a millimeter so that compression forces the sapphire to stay in place.
Cutting the part off.
The gasket for the crystal.
The sapphire crystal placed in the watch but not pressure fitted yet.
Polishing the interior rehaut of the back bezel portion.
Modifying the lug shape further.
And further modifications that are slight.
Touching up the bezel further, here I am making the bevel deeper to reduce the lateral wall of the bezel.
Using a hand file to clean up the case.
Polishing the sides of the case.
Further turning of the bevel on the back bezel.
Checking the case after polishing sides.
Checking play of light with the interior bezel.
How the front bezel seat for the sapphire crystal is created.
And the gasket is being turned.
Checking the outer diameter of the gasket.
Gasket after being parted off.
The lug shape being finalized.
The back sapphire is fitted onto the back of the case.
After the sapphire is fitted.
Checking if the sapphire is fit level on the case.
Making a small adjustment for bezel to fit the glass.
Adjusting a hard plastic so that it sits properly on the curvature of the glass.
The plastic portion to press the glass in place.
The sapphire front fitted onto the bezel.
Checking the fit of the sapphire onto the bezel.
Mounting the movement.
