We’re all familiar with the most popular materials for watch cases ? steel, rose gold, titanium, et cetera. But what about Rolesium, Ceragold, and Powerlite" While many watch brand take great pride in making their own cases, movements and dials, only a handful have gone the extra mile and actually invented their own materials, mostly for use in cases, but sometimes even for parts inside the watch. Many of these have come about as watch brands invested in developing new alloys in an effort to make stronger, lighter, and/or more scratch-resistant substances. Below we take a look at 11 brands that have invented their own alloys by combining different metals.
1. Rolex
Rolex Yacht Master with Rolesium case
One of the metals developed by Rolex is a material known as Rolesium, a combination of 904L stainless steel superalloy and 950 platinum. Rolesium was used in the 40-mm diameter Oyster case of the Rolex Yacht-Master seen here. Rolex also developed Cerachrom, which it has used on the bezels of the Rolex Submariner and the 50th Anniversary Rolex Cosmograph Daytona, which was launched at Baselworld 2013. Cerachrom is an extra-hard, corrosion-resistant ceramic; Cerachrom bezels have engraved numerals and graduations coated with a thin layer of platinum via a PVD (physical vapor deposition) process. Rolex has also used Cerachrom for the bezel of its redesigned Daytona, which debuted last year.
50th Anniversary Rolex Cosmograph Dayton with Cerachrom bezel
The movement of ...