Hands

The hands of a watch are the final extension of the movement, the culmination of every component and thousands of hours of work.

Most hands are made from processed metals, but rarely gems. To match the complexity and brilliance of the skull centrepiece we developed our own sapphire hands.

Hands cut
from gems

Producing sapphire hands requires a combination of high precision machinery and skilled workmanship. No traditional hand maker is able to produce our hands, so we were required to develop our own method of production. Each hand is individually crafted using diamond-tipped tools, within a tolerance of 0.02mm

Every face and edge is hand polished to perfection - with a thickness of 0.3mm, even the slightest mistake will shatter them.

Each hand is precisely bordered with Swiss Super-LumiNova BGW9. Each hand is then examined under a microscope to ensure that every part of the luminous material is printed within 0.01mm accuracy with an even and consistent distribution. If one section of the lume is inaccurate or perfectly printed, the whole hand is cleaned with alcohol, and the printing process is repeated.

Swiss
Black Lume Aventi

The Pure sapphire hands are crafted in 4 stages over 8 weeks.

Production Process

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4

4 weeks Creating Pure Sapphire

Compressing a natural process completed over millennia into just 4 weeks. Pure aluminium oxide is melted at twice the temperature of molten lava, and a perfect single Sapphire is inserted into this molten metal. Over 4 weeks, this molten metal is slowly cooled as the Sapphire pulls from its surface, latching onto the Sapphire, the molten aluminium begins to crystalise and harden until a large single sapphire is formed.

2 weeks Cutting gems to perfection.

Each hand is individually cut using a CNC machine to shave microns from its surface. Each hand is only 0.3mm thick but must be accurate with a tolerance of 0.02mm. Working with such a thin piece of Sapphire, a single mistake can cause the hand to shatter, destroying it.

1 week Hand polished to a brilliant finish.

During the machining process, the surface of each Sapphire hand can begin to cloud. Finally, each hand is hand polished over two stages to give each hand the perfect brilliant finish of the finest gems in the world.

1 week Lume printing.

Each watch hand is printed with Swiss Super-LumiNova BGW9 for optimal low light legibility, two floating crystals in the centre of the dial illuminated at night. the perimeter of each hand is printed with Swiss Super-LumiNova BGW9. 7 layers of lume are individually applied. each printing must be allowed to cure for a minimum of 1 hour before being baked in an industrial kiln and allowed to cool. if a single line of lume is out by as little as 0.01mm the entire skull must be wiped clean and the process began again.

Specs

Material Sapphire

thickness 0.3mm

length Hours: 8.5mm
Minutes: 12.5mm

Required Tolerance 0.02mm

Production method Kyropoulos method

colour Pure