Dial
Credor dials are created
using techniques and elements
from Japanese traditional crafts,
including metal engraving and lacquer.
The skills of artisans are there to be enjoyed.
Dial
Credor dials are created
using techniques and elements
from Japanese traditional crafts,
including metal engraving and lacquer.
The skills of artisans are there to be enjoyed.
Engraving
depicted on an ethereally thin tapestry
Engraving, a decorative craft technique, involves a process of carving on a metal surface. While this technique and its artistic expression have been refined over the years in Japan and abroad, the engraving applied to a Credor watch takes this art form to another level.
The exquisite engraving observed on the dials and movements of Credor watches has amazed and delighted customers, and with good reason. Credor’s Caliber 68, an ultra-thin, manual winding movement, has a thickness of just 1.98mm, and the thinnest portion of the bridge supporting the parts is a mere 0.25mm. Using carving tools with edges in various shapes, an artisan’s delicately controlled technique creates a three-dimensional world with a depth of just 0.15mm.
Engraving has also been applied to the decorative plate integrated with the spacer, which holds the movement. The result is a feather-like design with a three-dimensional effect on a plate whose depth is a mere 0.6mm. By using advanced techniques, such as carving from the inner part and outer part of the feather and using carving depths of 0.25mm and 0.1mm, the model was released with a decorative plate that looks like a real feather.
Lacquer
rendered in gold dust
Through the maki-e technique, which involves sprinkling gold or platinum powder on top of lacquer, Credor watches are imbued with elaborate patterns that stand out against the glossy depth of a lacquer dial.
One example is a model depicting a feather surrounding the dial. Normally, a pattern is created by sprinkling gold powder on lines drawn on the lacquer. In this model, however, the gold particles are placed one by one on thin lines to depict delicate feathers, a truly time-consuming process. While the maki-e technique requires the application of a transparent lacquer coat on top of the gold or platinum powder to fix the pattern in place, no matter how much the level of the clarity of the lacquer is raised, an amber color is the best that can be achieved. The problem is that when platinum is coated with amber lacquer, the amber color wins out, making it hard to distinguish between gold and platinum. Therefore, the lacquer coat is created through an admixture of iron to produce a blackish transparency, bringing out the true platinum color.
This model, moreover, adopts the togidashi (polished) maki-e technique, which involves coating the gold powder pattern with transparent lacquer and then polishing it down to the same layer as the pattern itself. Applying this technique to a narrow, ring-shaped decorative plate is highly difficult. It is made even more difficult by using powders which are different in hardness, such as gold and platinum. Thus, advanced and delicate techniques of artisans are used to enhance the artistry of the watch.
Porcelain
born of trial and error
The porcelain dial, with its soft, translucent presence, is yet another essential element of Credor. It is created by coating a base plate with a glass glaze and firing it at high temperature.
Credor’s commitment to the artisanal spirit is well shown in the deep ruri blue porcelain dial. The in-glaze method, which involves melting pigments into the glaze after firing, is used to create a dial with a deep blue color evoking lapis lazuli. The distinctive deep blue color is created by mixing several pigments and adjusting the duration of firing and firing conditions.
Moreover, the firing temperature is around 1,200°C, which is far higher than that of ordinary enamel dials. Other enamel dials would be deformed by such a high temperature, because they use a metal base. But Credor's porcelain dial uses a ceramic base, so that the dial does not become deformed even after firing. After the dial is fired, the indexes and logo are hand-painted with specially made brushes, followed again by firing at around 800°C. The surface is then polished, resulting in a refined appearance in which the hands can be seen reflected on the dial.
