InSync 55 August 2009InSync 54 August 2009

HHenry Ford once famously proclaimed that anycustomer could have any color model T theywanted as long as it was black. If there were aHenry Ford of the watch world today, he might besaying much the same about watch cases. Blackhas become the color of choice for brands acrossthe spectrum, whether they are looking to reinventthemselves as contemporary marvels or stay infront of the competition in an ever-evolving high-tech materials race.

Instead of customers having black shoveddown their throats—as they did for a dozen yearswith the model T—they are driving the demandfor it, and the industry has responded in a majorway. Even the grandest names of horology, whichhave traditionally stayed within narrow designlines, have begun offering a ride to the dark sidewith sometimes radical design departures.

Black’s popular rise in modern watchmakinghas a lot to do with the cutting-edge materialsnow being used in case construction, includingtungsten carbide, ceramic, carbon fiber and dia-mond-like carbon (DLC) coating. These materialsoften resemble hues of dark gray or black, so theiruse falls perfectly in line with the dark angle thewatch industry is embracing. Ceramic has beenshowing up in many a watch brand’s arsenalbecause it is durable, nearly 30 percent lighterthan stainless steel and virtually impossible toscratch. It is also water- and fade-resistant andhypoallergenic, so it won’t cause skin irritation forits wearer. Ceramic ball bearings and rotors arealso being used because they are much more resist-ant to wear and don’t require the lubrication that

traditional parts do. Tungsten carbide shares manyof the same properties as ceramic and commonlytakes the form of bezels, rotors, bridges and clasps.Carbon fiber is tough, lightweight and increasinglyfound in dials and cases. It is usually bonded witha polymer for improved strength and durability.

DLC is a type of PVD (physical vapor deposi-tion) coating that is becoming more commonplacebecause of its increased scratch-resistance and pureblack color, says Jack Alexyon, owner ofInternational Watch Works (IWW) in Cary, NC.IWW has been offering PVD coatings to cus-tomers for approximately six years, and Alexyonsays he has seen an increased demand for the treat-ment over the past year. “People like to customizeand change the appearance of their watches. Theylike the tool look that black brings,” he says,adding that Panerai, Rolex and Kobold are brandsthat commonly appear before him to be treated.

Despite the advantageous properties thesematerials offer, there is something more that hasgiven rise to black’s use in watchmaking. The colorblack is, much like time itself, eternal and evenaustere. Black is contemporary yet classic. It nevergoes out of style. Even the fickle fashion worldlikes to champion the latest trend as “the newblack” as a way of stating that something hasimportance and staying power. And black, whileremaining in the arena of mainstream culture, hasenough edge, enough of a hint of menace, that itremains the ultimate outlaw color. There is a rea-son why movie villains rarely do their evil deedswhile outfitted in pink.

A black watch is stealthy and even lends an

BLACK IN STYLE

The MB&F HM1-Black in white gold with black PVD coating and blackened tourbillon cage. Opposite from left—the Panerai Luminor RegattaRattrapante 44mm in steel with DLC; Glashütte Original Senator Navigator perpetual calendar in black ceramic; Breguet Tradition Ref. 7027in white gold with anthracite gray alloy movement and black electroplated 18 karat gold off-center dial.

InSync 56 August 2009

air of mystery to its owner. The demure gentleman at the cornerStarbucks, wearing a chunky black chronograph and sipping adouble decaffeinated mint chocolate chip Frappuccino, may onlybe the dentist from down the street, or he may be a member of aspecial ops team who likes his coffee a certain way. How can weknow for sure? Certainly, hundreds of thousands of consumerspurchase dive watches with no intention of ever diving with themor of ever diving, period. They simply like what the watch con-veys to others—he’s adventurous, he’s sporty. Black watches sug-gest these things and more. The suggestion comes with an edge ofsomething perhaps a bit sinister. Black fits a world conscious ofwar; a world where ’round-the-clock terror threat levels rise withevery release of grainy videos from shadowy groups; a worldwhere silent intelligence operations perpetually simmer and every-one is potentially a person of interest.

Octavio Garcia, creative director at 134-year-old AudemarsPiguet, says black watches are now a staple in the manufacturer’soffering. “Black is appreciated because of its sturdy appearanceand technical look,” he says. “The color black conveys both ele-gance and strength.”

In 1999, the firm launched a highly successful limited editionRoyal Oak Offshore called the End of Days, named after the filmstarring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The watch’s stainless steel case hasa black PVD coating accompanied by a large black Kevlar strap.“This piece has a strong image not only because of its associationwith Arnold, but also because of its original looks,” says Garcia,who adds that black ceramic, blackened steel and blackened titani-um have been very present in Audemars Piguet’s developments andcollection, and points to the Survivor watch introduced in 2008.The Survivor blends a black ceramic bezel, blackened titaniumcase, blackened pushpiece guards, pushers and crown. “It’s anastonishing piece with a futuristic connotation,” he says. AudemarsPiguet has also been using other exotic materials such as forged car-bon, found in the Royal Oak Carbon Concept and the AlinghiTeam Royal Oak Offshore. Forged carbon has been used in the avi-ation industry for large components, but Garcia says AudemarsPiguet is the first company to adapt it to the diminutive dimen-sions required of watchmaking. Forged carbon is ultra-light andultra-sturdy, and these technical qualities also offer the aestheticappeal of a multitude of black shades that change under different

The Hublot Big Bang All Black in black ceramic; the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak End of Days limited edition in PVD-coated stainless steel.

GLOSSARY: BLACK MATERIALS & FINISHES

Blackened1a term describing a finish created onmetals, such as steel or titanium, by either achemical process or by plating.

Carbon Fiber1a woven carbon filament materialwith a high strength-to-weight ratio, naturalgraphite color and decorative texture; sometimesused as a dial material in watches, carbon fiber canalso be found in case and bracelet construction.

High-tech Ceramic1an engineered non-metallicmaterial that is both extremely hard andlightweight; it can be produced in many colors andmolded to almost any shape, making it ideal as acase and bracelet material.

Diamond-like Carbon �DLC�1a material composedmainly of hybridized carbon atoms and exhibitingsome of the properties of natural diamond; DLC canbe applied as a protective coating to a wide range ofmaterials via vapor deposition.

Forged Carbon1carbon formed into various shapesunder high heat and pressure, an extremely lightand strong material.

Physical Vapor Deposition �PVD�1a form ofvacuum deposition that applies a thin coating of avaporized material to a surface by purely physicalprocesses.

Tungsten Carbide1a chemical compound oftungsten and carbon, typically dark gray in color,used as a coating that enhances the hardness andscratch-resistance of metals such as stainless steel.

light conditions. And no two forged carbon watches look exactly thesame, says Garcia, because of the way the material is crafted.

When the End of Days watch was released ten years ago, blackwatches were still largely considered to be within the domain of mili-tary culture, but they gradually spread into the sports niche in lessexpensive watches before exploding in numbers all the way to the topin some of the most sophisticated timepieces offered today.

One top company in particular has paralleled black’s rise withoutcoincidence. When Jean-Claude Biver came aboard Hublot in 2004,he said the company represented “fusion” more than anything else.After all, Hublot made its name by combining gold cases with rubberstraps, and had built a loyal following in the 1980s. In more recenttimes though, the company had begun to sleep a bit, according toBiver, and was ready for a re-launch. This came in the form of the BigBang, a watch whose primary concept was based on “sandwich” caseconstruction that combined unusual materials such as ceramic, carbonfiber and tungsten. This exotic concoction of materials immediatelyassociated Hublot with the all-black stealth aesthetic as well, especiallyafter the company began setting its hour markers and hands in blackso even the dial was cloaked in darkness. Hublot uses micro-blastedblack ceramic on one of its latest models, the King PowerFoudroyante All Black. The bezel reveals a new look owing to theoriginal rubber molding around the ceramic. It shows off six raised,H-shaped, black PVD-coated titanium screws. The hands are coatedin black nickel, and the HUB44 RTF caliber includes a tungsten car-bide oscillating weight coated in black PVD. A rubber strap coupledwith a black ceramic clasp completes the package. The All Black islimited to just 500 pieces.

Blancpain, another company Biver previously revived, recentlyshook off its traditional dress watch lineage with a new Fifty FathomsAll Black. The famous diver has been updated with a 45mm blackDLC-coated steel case and scratch-proof black sapphire bezel. Thedarkened numerals and hands have applied black luminous material,giving the piece a certain netherworld appeal. The manufacture in LeBrassus is not stopping there though. The company recentlyannounced the release of the Super Trofeo Flyback Chronograph,which pays homage to the world’s fastest and most demanding auto-mobile championship. The steel case is specifically inspired by thesleek profile of the Lamborghini Gallardo and is coated with DLC togive it an unmistakably powerful profile.

Girard-Perregaux has recently developed its own proprietaryDLC coating, which it describes as a scratch-proof, high-temperaturecoating, offering near flawless color consistency. The Laureato USA98 Flyback Chronograph is its first example, and it proudly displaysthe striking contrast between its red and blue dial accents and deepblack titanium case.

IWW’s Alexyon emphasizes that despite the recent boom in every-thing black, dark watches are not necessarily that new. “Black coloredwatches go back to the 1970s,” he says, citing Heuer chronographs andIWC’s Porsche Design watches that were made of black aluminum.The difference today, he says, is that the PVD coating process hasbecome a lot more reliable with the advent of technology and experi-ence. “Our PVD process is a DLC-like coating that is permanent. It

InSync 59 August 2009

from top left—The Blancpain All Black Fifty Fathoms in steel with DLC; the Blancpain SuperTrofeo Chronograph also in steel with DLC; the Hublot King Power All Black in microblastedblack ceramic with PVD-coated titanium screws; and (above) the Jaquet Droz QuantièmePerpétuel Céramique in black ceramic.

InSync 58 August 2009

will not chip or flake off like it might have whenthe industry first introduced it,” he says. This isimportant to note, because while experimentationwith new materials in the watchmaking industryis at an all-time high, there is little doubt that thebig players would not be signed up if they felt thetechnology was unreliable.

Rado was the first brand to use scratch-resistant materials in 1962 when it introducedthe DiaStar, then crafted in a titanium and tung-sten carbide alloy. The brand has continued topush the envelope in this area, often introducingall-black watches with minimalist dials and off-the-charts scratch-resistance numbers. In 2007, itlaunched an entire line devoted to black ceramicchronographs, called Ceramica.

IWC is another pioneer of alternative mate-rials and was one of the first brands that usedceramic in casemaking, debuting the ceramicPilot’s Chronograph in 1994. It has since contin-ued to produce black watches, offering its TopGun Chronograph series in a black ceramic casewith a black nylon strap.

Zenith is another old-school name that hasreinvented itself as perhaps the most avant-gardebrand around. There has been plenty of discus-sion surrounding Zenith’s trajectory, but there is

no denying that the materials this manufacturecurrently uses are nothing if not space age. TheDefy Extreme collection comprises many dark-ened timepieces with bridges, balance and palletcocks containing Zenithium, a proprietary, ultra-light and ultra–shock resistant alloy, which is acombination of titanium, hyper-density steel andniobium, exploited for its “form memory.” Thebrand describes Zenithium as indestructible, anduses it in watches like the Defy Extreme PowerReserve Elite, which has a micro-blasted blacktitanium case and a multi-layer dial made of car-bon fiber and black-varnished aluminum.

And if rebirth is the name of the game, fewcome close to Concord. The brand was staid foryears, approaching irrelevancy before beingreborn as a torchbearer for case construction. Thenew Night Race Edition Worldtimer is presentedin a 47mm black DLC-treated steel case that ismade of a staggering 53 different elements.

If there remains any lingering doubt aboutblack’s arrival in watchmaking, it is not neces-sary to look any further than a brand that hasbuilt itself on its classic pedigree of clockmakingand elegant dress watches. Jaquet Droz is still aname to turn to if one is searching for an enam-el dial or wanting a high complication, but nowit can equally fill the bill of stealth sports watch.The Grande Seconde Céramique is made with a44mm all-black ceramic case, enclosing a blackenameled dial. The case is attached to an inte-grated black rubber strap with a black PVD-coated folding clasp.

It is clear why black is now found every-where on watches: it is at once sophisticated,mysterious and enduring. If the watch world’sbig players were gathered around the roulettetable, smoking cigars with Henry Ford, it isobvious where their money would lie. In fact,they have already doubled down. Black is back.Black is the new black. Long live black. Thewatch world has reached its conclusion andhedged its bet that black will be a winner foryears to come. �

By Ryan O’Leary, a contributor based inWisconsin. Find brand contact information onpages 106–107.

Reprinted by permission from InSync, August 2009. Copyright InSync Media Group.

The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Carbon Concept tourbillon andchronograph in forged carbon with ceramic bezel, crown and pushers;the movement features a carbon mainplate and additional componentswith amorphous carbon coating or PVD coating.