Skeleton Watches
Clockwise from top left: Hublot Classic Fusion Extra Slim, Chopard XP Skeletec, Zenith El Primero Chronomaster 1969, Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Traditionelle Openworked, Jaeger-leCoultre Grande Reverso Ultra Thin SQ, Piaget Altiplano Skeleton.
The skeleton watch design follows the current trend to thinner watches. The skeleton is necessarily thin in order to let through enough light to illuminate the movement which is the centerpiece of this design. Piaget claims that the Altiplano Skeleton, above, is both the world's thinnest skeleton movement and the world's thinnest skeleton self-winding watch. Notice that you can see completely through the Altiplano movement to the background of the picture.
Because the movement is on display, there is "...no compromise in terms of finishing and polishing, microsanding, satin finishing, brushed finishing, etc. This finishing comes at a huge cost ... The objective is to find the right balance between the necessity of components being extremely rigid and the fact that you take off a lot of material." Financial Times, Inner Piece, June 8, 2012, p. 15. The difficulty of making a skeleton watch approaches that needed to make a tourbillon.
Although many of these watch parts are laser-cut, the components of the Hublot Classic Fusion may have been digitally "printed" using a three-dimensional printing process. Many of the parts of skeleton watches have narrow angles as small as 20 degrees, all of which must be hand finished. Audemars Piguet claims that their Royal Oak Skeleton movement has more of these narrow "entering angles" than any other watch.
Skeleton Watches
Clockwise from top left: Hublot Classic Fusion Extra Slim, Chopard XP Skeletec, Zenith El Primero Chronomaster 1969, Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Traditionelle Openworked, Jaeger-leCoultre Grande Reverso Ultra Thin SQ, Piaget Altiplano Skeleton.
The skeleton watch design follows the current trend to thinner watches. The skeleton is necessarily thin in order to let through enough light to illuminate the movement which is the centerpiece of this design. Piaget claims that the Altiplano Skeleton, above, is both the world's thinnest skeleton movement and the world's thinnest skeleton self-winding watch. Notice that you can see completely through the Altiplano movement to the background of the picture.
Because the movement is on display, there is "...no compromise in terms of finishing and polishing, microsanding, satin finishing, brushed finishing, etc. This finishing comes at a huge cost ... The objective is to find the right balance between the necessity of components being extremely rigid and the fact that you take off a lot of material." Financial Times, Inner Piece, June 8, 2012, p. 15. The difficulty of making a skeleton watch approaches that needed to make a tourbillon.
Although many of these watch parts are laser-cut, the components of the Hublot Classic Fusion may have been digitally "printed" using a three-dimensional printing process. Many of the parts of skeleton watches have narrow angles as small as 20 degrees, all of which must be hand finished. Audemars Piguet claims that their Royal Oak Skeleton movement has more of these narrow "entering angles" than any other watch.