Tag Archives: watches

Fine watchmaking and nanotechnology team up again

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An article by Annie Darling focused on watchmaking and the influence an emerging technology (nanotechnology) can have on this well established field was making the rounds not too long ago (March 6, 2023 on SCMP and March 7, 2023 on Luxury Launches), Note: Links have been removed,

Ever since spring-powered clocks were developed in 15th century Europe, watchmakers have strived to advance the science behind haute horlogerie. First, the mainspring was brainstormed as a mechanism for powering a clock. This apparatus stopped the cracking and weakening of a timepiece’s movement so it could withstand numerous cycles.

Next came the balance wheel, which ensures that movements are able to keep regular time, invented in the mid-17th century by Dutch mathematician and all-round know-it-all Christiaan Huygens. And, of course, any collector worth their salt knows about Abraham-Louis Breguet’s tourbillon that rotates a timepiece’s movement to counter the negative effect of Earth’s gravity.

A lot has changed in the years since, with improved materials and methods allowing for increased miniaturisation, precision and reliability. Now, another wave of innovation is breaking over the field of watchmaking: nanotechnology, the study and manipulation of matter on a near-atomic scale to produce novel structures and materials.

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Now watchmakers are starting to take notice, with Hermès incorporating nanotechnology into its novelties for 2023. The Crepuscule – “dusk” in French – is the new iteration of the brand’s emblematic Cape Cod watch. Designed by artist Thanh Phong Lê, the dial features a pensive piece of graphic art depicting a setting sun reflected in water.

One of Switzerland’s leading silicon experts, the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology, was commissioned to complete the dial, shaped using a silicon wafer just 0.5mm thick. To reach the intensity of colour requested by the maison, a nanotechnology procedure called photolithography was used to transfer Phong Lê’s motif onto the silicon, which was then coated in yellow gold.

Tag Heuer is also experimenting with nanotechnology and has patented a carbon composite hairspring, which comprises of rolled-up sheets [carbon nanotubes; CNTs], each just a single layer of carbon atoms. The hairspring is attached to a watch’s balance wheel to help mechanical timepieces keep accurate time. “Our hairspring is at the very heart of our movements,” says Emmanuel Dupas, director of the Tag Heuer Institute. “We developed our own hairspring based on a carbon nanotube scaffold, which is filled with amorphous carbon. Carbon nanotubes have extremely narrow diameters but can be very long.”

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The Hermès Cape Cod Crépuscule depicts a setting sun reflected in water. [Designed by artist Thanh Phong Lê.] Photo: Hermès [downloaded from https://luxurylaunches.com/watches/nanotechnology-fine-watchmaking.php]

it’s a good article if watchmaking and/or luxury products and/or applied nanotechology interests you. Whichever site you choose (March 6, 2023 on SCMP or March 7, 2023 on Luxury Launches), you’ll find more embedded images of watches from different companies.

There’s also this December 29, 2016 posting, “Luxury watches exploit nanocomposite materials,” about an Australian watch company.

Making wearable technology more comfortable—with green tea for squishy supercapacitor

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Researchers in India have designed a new type of wearable technology based on green team. From a Feb. 15, 2017 news item on plys.org,

Wearable electronics are here—the most prominent versions are sold in the form of watches or sports bands. But soon, more comfortable products could become available in softer materials made in part with an unexpected ingredient: green tea. Researchers report in ACS’ The Journal of Physical Chemistry C a new flexible and compact rechargeable energy storage device for wearable electronics that is infused with green tea polyphenols.

A Feb. 15, 2017 American Chemical Society (ACS) news release, (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, provides a little more information about the squishy supercapacitors (Note: Links have been removed),

Powering soft wearable electronics with a long-lasting source of energy remains a big challenge. Supercapacitors could potentially fill this role — they meet the power requirements, and can rapidly charge and discharge many times. But most supercapacitors are rigid, and the compressible supercapacitors developed so far have run into roadblocks. They have been made with carbon-coated polymer sponges, but the coating material tends to bunch up and compromise performance. Guruswamy Kumaraswamy, Kothandam Krishnamoorthy and colleagues wanted to take a different approach.

The researchers prepared polymer gels in green tea extract, which infuses the gel with polyphenols. The polyphenols converted a silver nitrate solution into a uniform coating of silver nanoparticles. Thin layers of conducting gold and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) were then applied. And the resulting supercapacitor demonstrated power and energy densities of 2,715 watts per kilogram and 22 watt-hours per kilogram — enough to operate a heart rate monitor, LEDs or a Bluetooth module. The researchers tested the device’s durability and found that it performed well even after being compressed more than 100 times.

The authors acknowledge funding from the University Grants Commission of India, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India) and the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (India).

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Elastic Compressible Energy Storage Devices from Ice Templated Polymer Gels treated with Polyphenols by Chayanika Das, Soumyajyoti Chatterjee, Guruswamy Kumaraswamy, and Kothandam Krishnamoorthy. J. Phys. Chem. C, Article ASAP DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b12822 Publication Date (Web): January 26, 2017

Copyright © 2017 American Chemical Society

This paper is behind a paywall.

Luxury watches exploit nanocomposite materials

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Who knew Dominic Purcell (actor: Prison Break, Legends of Tomorrow, etc.) is England-born and raised in Australia? You find the oddest nuggets of information when tracking down details about nanoscience and nanotechnology. In this case, it was a Nov. 29, 2016 news item about luxury watches and a nanocomposite which eventually led me to Purcell,

Founded by Swiss-born Sydneysider Christophe Hoppe, Bausele Australia bills itself as the first “Swiss-made, Australian-designed” watch company.

The name is an acronym for Beyond Australian Elements. Each watch has part of the Australian landscape embedded in its crown, or manual winding mechanism, such as red earth from the outback, beach sand or bits of opal.

But what makes the luxury watches unique is an innovative material called Bauselite developed in partnership with Flinders University’s Centre of NanoScale Science and Technology in Adelaide. An advanced ceramic nanotechnology, Bauselite is featured in Bausele’s Terra Australis watch, enabling design elements not found in its competitors.

A Nov. 10, 2016article by Myles Gough for Australia Unlimited provides more details,

NanoConnect program fosters industry partnership
Flinders University coordinates NanoConnect, a collaborative research program supported by the South Australian Government, which provides a low-risk pathway for companies to access university equipment and expertise.

It was through this program that Hoppe met nanotechnologist Professor David Lewis, and his colleagues Dr Jonathan Campbell and Dr Andrew Block.

“There were a lot of high IQs around that table, except for me,” jokes Hoppe about their first meeting.

After some preliminary discussions, the Flinders team set about researching the luxury watch industry and identified several areas for innovation. The one they focused on with Hoppe was around the manufacture of casings.

Apart from the face, the case is the most prominent feature on a watch head: it needs to be visually appealing but also lightweight and strong, says Hoppe, who is also Bausele’s chief designer.

The researchers suggested ceramics might be suitable. Conventional ceramics require casting, where a powder slurry is injected into a mould and heated in an oven. The process is suitable for high-volume manufacturing, but the end product is often hampered by small imperfections or deformities. This can cause components to break, resulting in wasted material, time and money. It can also make the material incompatible with complex designs, such as those featured in the Terra Australis.

New material offers ‘competitive edge’

Using a new technique, the Flinders team invented a unique, lightweight ceramic-like material that can be produced in small batches via a non-casting process, which helps eliminate defects found in conventional ceramics. They named the high-performance material Bauselite.

“Bauselite is strong, very light and, because of the way it is made, avoids many of the traps common with conventional ceramics,” explains Professor Lewis.

The new material allows holes to be drilled more precisely, which is an important feature in watchmaking. “It means we can make bolder, more adventurous designs, which can give us a competitive advantage,” Hoppe says.

Bauselite can also be tailored to meet specific colour, shape and texture requirements. “This is a major selling point,” Hoppe says. “Watch cases usually have a shiny, stainless steel-like finish, but the Bauselite looks like a dark textured rock.”

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Advanced manufacturing hub in Australia

Hoppe and the Flinders University team are currently working on the development of new materials and features.

Together they have established a joint venture company called Australian Advanced Manufacturing to manufacture bauselite.  A range of other precision watch components could be in the pipeline.

The team hopes to become a ‘centre of excellence’ for watchmaking in Australia, supplying components to international luxury watchmaking brands.

But the priority is for the advanced manufacturing hub to begin making Bausele watches onshore: “I’ve seen what Europe is good at when it comes to creating luxury goods, and what makes it really special is when people control the whole process from beginning to end,” says Hoppe. “This is what we want to do. We’ll start with one component now, but we’ll begin to manufacture others.”

Hoppe hopes the hub will be a place where students can develop similar, high-performance materials, which could find applications across a range of industries, from aerospace to medicine for bone and joint reconstructions.

Here’s Purcell (I’m pretty sure the watch he’s modeling does not feature the nanocomposite),

Courtesy: Bausele [downloaded http://www.thefashionisto.com/dominic-purcell-2016-bausele-campaign/]

Courtesy: Bausele [downloaded http://www.thefashionisto.com/dominic-purcell-2016-bausele-campaign/]

For the curious, here’s an image featuring the nanocomposite casing,

Christophe Hoppe with his new Bauselite watch casing. (Image: Flinders University/Bausele) Read more: Nanotechnology and luxury watches: an innovative partnership

Christophe Hoppe with his new Bauselite watch casing. (Image: Flinders University/Bausele)
Read more: Nanotechnology and luxury watches: an innovative partnership

As for the nanotechnology-enabled watch itself,

Terra Australis Courtesy: Bausele

Terra Australis Courtesy: Bausele

If you’re looking for a Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa gift  and don’t mind being a bit late, here’s the Bausele website.

 

Solid gold smoke?

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Aerogels seem to enchant even scientists who sometimes call it ‘solid smoke’ (my Aug. 20, 2012 posting). This latest aerogel is made of gold according to a Nov. 25, 2015 news item on Nanowerk,

 A nugget of real 20 carats gold, so light that it does not sink in a cappuccino, floating instead on the milk foam – what sounds unbelievable has actually been accomplished by researchers from ETH Zurich. Scientists led by Raffaele Mezzenga, Professor of Food and Soft Materials, have produced a new kind of foam out of gold, a three-dimensional mesh of gold that consists mostly of pores. It is the lightest gold nugget ever created. “The so-called aerogel is a thousand times lighter than conventional gold alloys. It is lighter than water and almost as light as air,” says Mezzenga.

A Nov. 25, 2015 ETH Zurich press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, provides more information about the ‘gold smoke’,

The new gold form can hardly be differentiated from conventional gold with the naked eye – the aerogel even has a metallic shine. But in contrast to its conventional form, it is soft and malleable by hand. It consists of 98 parts air and only two parts of solid material. Of this solid material, more than four-fifths are gold and less than one-fifth is milk protein fibrils. This corresponds to around 20 carat gold.

Here’s what it looks like,

Caption: Even when it seems unbelievable: these are genuine photographs, in which nothing has been faked. E.g. the 20 carats gold foam is lighter than milk foam. Credit: Gustav Nyström and Raffaele Mezzenga / (copyright) ETH Zurich

Caption: Even when it seems unbelievable: these are genuine photographs, in which nothing has been faked. E.g. the 20 carats gold foam is lighter than milk foam.
Credit: Gustav Nyström and Raffaele Mezzenga / (copyright) ETH Zurich

The press release provides more technical details,

The scientists created the porous material by first heating milk proteins to produce nanometre-fine protein fibres, so-called amyloid fibrils, which they then placed in a solution of gold salt. The protein fibres interlaced themselves into a basic structure along which the gold simultaneously crystallised into small particles. This resulted in a gel-like gold fibre network.

“One of the big challenges was how to dry this fine network without destroying it,” explains Gustav Nyström, postdoc in Mezzenga’s group and first author of the corresponding study in the journal Advanced Materials. As air drying could damage the fine gold structure, the scientists opted for a gentle and laborious drying process using carbon dioxide. They did so in an interdisciplinary effort assisted by researchers in the group of Marco Mazzotti, Professor of Process Engineering.

Dark-red gold

The method chosen, in which the gold particles are crystallised directly during manufacture of the aerogel protein structure (and not, for example, added to an existing scaffold) is new. The method’s biggest advantage is that it makes it easy to obtain a homogeneous gold aerogel, perfectly mimicking gold alloys.

The manufacturing technique also offers scientists numerous possibilities to deliberately influence the properties of gold in a simple manner. ” The optical properties of gold depend strongly on the size and shape of the gold particles,” says Nyström. “Therefore we can even change the colour of the material. When we change the reaction conditions in order that the gold doesn’t crystallise into microparticles but rather smaller nanoparticles, it results in a dark-red gold.” By this means, the scientists can influence not only the colour, but also other optical properties such as absorption and reflection.

The new material could be used in many of the applications where gold is currently being used, says Mezzenga. The substance’s properties, including its lighter weight, smaller material requirement and porous structure, have their advantages. Applications in watches and jewellery are only one possibility. Another application demonstrated by the scientists is chemical catalysis: since the highly porous material has a huge surface, chemical reactions that depend on the presence of gold can be run in a very efficient manner. The material could also be used in applications where light is absorbed or reflected. Finally, the scientists have also shown how it becomes possible to manufacture pressure sensors with it. “At normal atmospheric pressure the individual gold particles in the material do not touch, and the gold aerogel does not conduct electricity,” explains Mezzenga. “But when the pressure is increased, the material gets compressed and the particles begin to touch, making the material conductive.”

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Amyloid Templated Gold Aerogels by Gustav Nyström, Maria P. Fernandez-Ronco, Sreenath Bolisetty, Marco Mazzotti, Raffaele Mezzenaga. Advanced Materials DOI: 10.1002/adma.201503465 First published: 23 November 2015

This paper is behind a paywall.