MK2

 

A week or so ago, we released the first photo of the Nicholas Hacko MK2. You could call it a 'soft release'; no fanfares, no marketing fluff. A number of subscribers and NH faithfuls responded with their congratulations, and some eagerly have placed their orders without even asking for the price. Humbling indeed. Others asked: why do you talk about Seiko and Swiss brands all the time, yet rarely about your own watches? Why don't we get more frequent updates? One enthusiastic customer even requested 'daily production news' from the workshop. The answer is simple: I find it very difficult to "spruik" our own watch. Firstly, our time is yet to come. Secondly, we live in times when branding is far more important than the substance behind it- the product itself. If I can speak honestly, we would prefer to be discovered rather than to be force fed down to watch enthusiasts. Haute horology - especially one practiced by a small independent watchmaker, (in Australia nonetheless!) - is not mainstream. It is a tiny segment of the market so mass marketing would make very little sense.  Yet I do agree that more effort should be put into explaining the intricacies of the design and manufacturing process, if for no other reason then to help us all appreciate the effort that goes into the actual making of a watch - regardless of brand! Back to the MK2. Today, we are starting a short four part pictorial series with the intention to share with you a step-by-step process of how we manufacture our dials and hands, as well as some intricacies of guilloché process.

Prologue Contrary to the opinion held by many: there is no such thing as a ‘watchmaking machine’; a piece of machinery which inputs raw material, and outputs a watch. A watch mechanism is a complex sum of parts where each component is designed, manufactured and finished to perfection. Even the most basic watch contains 100 or more parts. Actually, there is not even a machine which makes one single component ready to be directly installed into a mechanism. Each component undertakes a series of operations on multiple machines, and passes through various stages of post machining and finishing. Turning, hardening, polishing and blueing even a single screw takes time, complex machinery and very specific knowledge. In saying that, the dial and hands are the most demanding and most exquisite parts of a watch were the watchmaker is pushing himself to perfection, which is rarely attainable. Sum of components Watch dials and hands are often referred to as a ‘set’ containing not just the base dial and hands but numerals, batons, name plates, dial feet and fasteners as well as any other components. The MK2 dial set is entirely made from grade 5 Titanium, meaning every component in the set is made from Titanium. Grade 5 Titanium is used prolifically in the most advanced engineering applications, everything from bone implants and screws, to the blades of a jet engine, to Formula 1 piston rods! Starting with a sketch The design process starts with a notebook and pen. It could take weeks – or months- to refine an original concept or idea. Every component in the set is expected to work in visual harmony with the other components, like a finely tuned orchestra. Artistic skills are essential, and dial design is really a job for a professional designer. We are not professional dial designers, but our advantage lies in the fact that we are fully aware of a simple fact that not all designs can be translated into a reality. A designer without tangible manufacturing knowledge is a dreamer, and CNC operator without watchmaking expertise is just a machinist. Design is hard!

CAD design In the next phase, hand drawn sketches are translated into computer-aided-design (CAD) software and given three dimensionality- we start calling the sketches and individual components "solids". Interestingly, our CAD software is the same one used by Patek Philippe. (We invested in this particular software after watching Patek's YouTube videos!) The digital model now undergoes countless iterations. At this point, we are able to get some idea of how the dial and hands will look like in real life. All the mechanical and physical parameters are defined: height, thickness, clearances, tolerances, angles and radii. Often changing one parameter causes a chain reaction of revisions. This is the time where creative input from all the team members is welcome and all options are considered. Heated discussions are unavoidable, and a part of the process. The design phase could take weeks, in fact, the MK2 dial took many months to refine. Over 20 iterations!

CAM - Computer Aided Manufacturing Once the dial set design is locked in, the next step is to transfer the files into CAM software. This piece of software creates another set of files which are the actual 'tool paths'.  Simply, it is the CAM software that tells our machines how to make a part. This phase is purely engineering and programming.

We tell a machine which tool to use, and also we tell the tool what to do, where to travel, how to remove material, at what speed. The blue lines below show the path of just one tool.

Multiple tools doing a variety of operations are required to manufacture each and every component, so you can imagine the complexity of the CAM tool path file...A single base dial contains requiring 13 different tools with 29 different operations would have over 800,000 lines of code. While our CNC machine is physically a huge piece of equipment, the actual cutting tools are tiny. A wrong 'move' - a mistake in a tool path - would immediately result in a broken tool, broken part or even serious damage to the machine itself. CAM programming keeps engineers awake all night long. With machine programming there is zero room for mistakes.  To put a things in perspective: a single tool costs anywhere form $30 to $300 and one tool can only be used to make a dozen or so parts. For titanium which is difficult to machine: multiply the tooling cost by a factor of 2.

Here above is a 0.2mm drill that is used to drill holes in the base dial. Those holes accept individual hour markers and batons.

Once the CAM files are completed, they are transferred into our milling machine - a state of art Kern 5 axis mill.  But we are still some way away from making an actual part! (to be continued)