Rolex baut Replica Perlmutt Dials

[OrangeHand]

Der Begriff "Replica" in einem Rolex Patent.

Zumindest gibt Rolex an, dass sie die Oberflächenstruktur eines Permuttscheibchens replizieren.


Ich finde es höchst interessant, welchem Aufwand (Aufdampfen, Plasmadeposition usw.) Rolex betreibt, um eine Metallik-Oberflächenbeschaffenheit auf die Perlmuttzifferblätter zu bekommen.




In der betroffenen Patentanmeldung (Link) steht folgende Erläuterung:

The timepiece dial according to the present invention may be obtained essentially in two ways, either, preferably, by coating a pre-sandblasted mother-of-pearl sheet with metal, or by producing a replica of a pre-sandblasted mother-of-pearl sheet using a mould, obtained by moulding the mother-of-pearl, as will be explained later.

We will firstly describe the steps of the process that are needed in both cases, namely the means used to reveal the mother-of-pearl morphology, which is normally visible only because of its translucency properties. This is because, if a mother-of-pearl sheet as used to form the visible surface of a watch dial were to be coated, a smooth surface would simply be obtained and all the properties specific to the mother-of-pearl morphology would be lost, which would be of no interest.

This first step consists in subjecting the mother-of-pearl surface intended to form the visible surface of the dial to a sandblasting operation in aqueous medium. The grit used is silicon carbide (SiC) having a particle size varying between 15 and 50 [mu]m, with a mean value of 27 [mu]m. The aqueous suspension is prepared by mixing 1 litre of SiC with 10 litres of softened municipal town supply water (Ganz wichtig: Es geht nur mit Original schweizer Leitungswasser ) and 400 g of a gel intended to increase the viscosity of the suspension [...]

The suspension is sprayed onto the mother-of-pearl surface to be treated [...]

This sandblasting operation is followed by a cleaning operation, washing for three minutes with hard water and one minute with soft water, followed by a cleaning operation using an alkaline detergent of 11 pH.

The mother-of-pearl used may be white, pearly white or pink mother-of-pearl, namely Pteria margaritifera or Meleagrina margaritifera from Australia or Japan. The mother-of-pearl may be pink, namely Potamilus purpurata from the USA. Finally, it may be black, namely Pinctada margaratifera from Polynesia.

After the operations of sandblasting the mother-of-pearl substrates in aqueous medium and of cleaning them, it is preferable to coat these substrates with a layer of pure yellow gold (Au), a layer of grey platinum (Pt) or a layer of a pink gold/copper (Au/Cu) alloy. These layers are produced by PVD (physical vapour deposition) under the conditions that will be explained later [...]

The surfaces of the sheets to be coated that are intended to form the visible surfaces of watch dials undergo ion etching. During this etching operation, the target is separated from the work support carrying the mother-of-pearl sheets by a target mask [...]

The target is then etched under the same conditions, the operating power used for the plasma then being 50 W [...]

The parts are cooled by a room-temperature water circuit, the water circulating through the support for the parts to be coated throughout the duration of the deposition [...]

Next, the bias and the plasma are removed, and the chamber cooled by a stream of argon.

The thickness of the deposited layer may typically vary from 100 nm to 1000 nm (i.e. 0.1 [mu]m to 1 [mu]g/m). This thickness is chosen so as to maintain, as faithfully as possible, the mother-of-pearl morphology as revealed by the sandblasting operation. The result obtained may be seen in the appended FIGURE, which relates to a sandblasted mother-of-pearl substrate coated with a 500 nm layer of pure gold.


In a variant of the above process, instead of coating the mother-of-pearl substrate, the mother-of-pearl could be used to produce replicas and these replicas would be coated. [...] To produce these replicas, several methods are possible, especially the techniques of electroforming, ceramic injection and plastic metallization.

[hpl]

Endlich was gefaktes direkt aus Genf

[Edmundo]

Ohje, das ist ja wie Kunstleder.

[miboroco]

Original von elmar2001
Ohje, das ist ja wie Kunstleder.

genau, unverschämt von denen


Danke fürn Thread

[newharry]

Interessant, durchaus interessant!

[Edmundo]

Weiss jemand ob das Patent schon umgesetzt wird bei Rolex?

[Jubilée-Bär]

Heißt das, dass sie nicht nur noch MOP-Dials sondern auch Fake-MOP-Dials anbieten werden? oder dass sie das schon tun?

[OrangeHand]

Original von elmar2001
Weiss jemand ob das Patent schon umgesetzt wird bei Rolex?

Ich glaube nicht, dass Rolex zu der Replica-Variante greifen wird. Eher werden die weiterhin echtes Perlmutt als Basisschicht verwenden. Eine Begründung wird in der Patentanmeldung selber genannt:

[0034] In a variant of the above process, instead of coating the mother-of-pearl substrate, the mother-of-pearl could be used to produce replicas and these replicas would be coated. As already mentioned above, the drawback of this replica-variant is that the resulting product then becomes perfectly standard and the exclusivity, obtained if the coated substrate is mother-of-pearl itself which, given the unique surface morphology that it has, gives this dial the character of a deluxe product, is lost.

[0035] The main advantage of the mother-of-pearl substrate really lies in the fact that it makes it possible to obtain, by an industrial process, a dial of metallic appearance whose surface morphology will never be the same from one dial to another, something that is obviously not the case if the alternative process of mother-of-pearl replicas is used, given that it would not be possible to make a different mould for each dial, each mould being intended to produce an almost unlimited number of dials.



Wenn Rolex selber zugibt, dass die Replica-Variante nicht mehr den "character of a deluxe product" hat, dann werden sie wahrscheinlich nicht auf diese Produktionstechnik zurückgreifen.


Ich schätze, dass Rolex die Replica-Variante in den Schutzumfang der Patentanmeldung aufgenommen hat, damit diese Produktionstechnik nicht mehr ohne Weiteres von der Konkurenz verwendet werden kann (zumindest nicht ohne die Zahlung von Lizenzgebühren).

[JoachimD]

Original von OrangeHand
Ich schätze, dass Rolex die Replica-Variante in den Schutzumfang der Patentanmeldung aufgenommen hat, damit diese Produktionstechnik nicht mehr ohne Weiteres von der Konkurenz verwendet werden kann (zumindest nicht ohne die Zahlung von Lizenzgebühren).

So wird es sein, ist eher ein Abgrenzungspatent.
Und dieses Patent braucht Rolex noch nicht mal in Lizenz zu geben, da wohl kein Lieferant glaubhaft versichern werden kann, dass sein Kunde auf dieses Produkt angewiesen ist und Rolex es nicht herstellen kann...

und wieder einmal haben es die Schweizer erfunden...