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A brief history of fordite, the psychedelic material made famous by Arcanaut watches

A brief history of fordite, the psychedelic material made famous by Arcanaut watches

Jamie Weiss

Right now, stone dials are seeing a massive resurgence in popularity in watchmaking. First rising to prominence in the 1960s and traditionally the domain of higher-end watchmakers like Piaget, Rolex and Cartier, the 2020s have seen a democratisation of stone dials, as well as a broader range of precious and semi-precious stones used for watch dials – branching out from the traditional lapis lazuli and onyx to more unusual stones like pietersite and labradorite – and that’s only scratching the surface. Another unusual stone that’s starting to be used for watch dials – chiefly by Danish independent brand Arcanaut (which we’re excited to announce that we’re now stocking in our Time+Tide Discovery Studios in London and Melbourne) – is fordite, also called Detroit agate or Motor City agate… Although it’s not actually a stone at all. What it is, however, is an extremely unique material that is not only visually stunning, but also celebrates the history of the American automotive industry.

raw fordite
A chunk of raw fordite. Image courtesy of eBay

Essentially, fordite is a material made from polished pieces of finely layered paint masses originally harvested from car factories in Michigan. While its name references the Ford Motor Company, fordite has no explicit connection to Ford. As hundreds of thousands of car bodies would roll into painting bays to be hand-sprayed with acrylic paint, layers upon layers of overspray would build up on the tracks and skids that the cars would be trollied around on. As fordite.com explains, these layers were hardened repeatedly in the ovens that the car bodies went into to cure the paint, with some of these deeper layers getting baked over a hundred times.

Arcanaut ARC II Fordite crown
Arcanaut ARC II Fordite 142

These days, consumers are far more conservative with car colours – most cars sold worldwide are white, black or silver – but back in the 1950s and ’60s when Detroit was at the peak of its power and America was experiencing its post-WWII boom? Americans were buying cars in all sorts of bright colours. With colours being frequently switched to fill different orders while the tracks and skids remained the same, over time, this paint slag build-up would feature dozens if not hundreds of different colours.

fordite jewellery
Examples of fordite jewellery. These pendants are actually made from fordite harvested from Ford’s Dagenham plant in the UK. Image courtesy of Jurassic Jewellery

Eventually, this build-up would obstruct the production process and had to be removed. Initially, it was just thrown away, but Michigan auto workers worked out that if you cut the paint vertically, you’d reveal a hard material with amazing psychedelic colours that could be cut and polished easily and fashioned into jewellery or other objects. Canny lapidarists and motoring enthusiasts would even volunteer to help workers remove the paint in order to secure some for themselves.

Arcanaut ARC II Fordite pocket
Arcanaut ARC II Fordite 138

These days, fordite isn’t being ‘actively produced’ like it was before the 70s, as the development of electrostatic spray painting – which produces almost no overspray and is mostly performed by robots – has replaced acrylic lacquer hand-painting. It might not be a precious stone but it has become a finite resource: some jewellers have attempted to make synthetic fordite, but according to Arcanaut, it’s far less compact or durable than the real thing. Indeed, Arcanaut’s materials maestro, James “Black Badger” Thompson, was the first to refine the process for using fordite in high-end watch design.

Arcanaut ARC II Fordite range
L-R: Arcanaut ARC II Fordite 137, 138 and 142.

These days, Arcanaut’s ARC II Fordite watches are perhaps the most famous examples of fordite art in the world. The beauty of fordite is that, like a real stone dial, each cut of the material has a unique pattern, meaning that every ARC II Fordite watch is a piece unique. The patterns found in fordite are also unlike any found in other stones: fordite can have wavy splodges of alternating colours or aggressive radial striations, with dozens of different colours, metallic or otherwise.

Arcanaut ARC II Fordite on wrist
Arcanaut ARC II Fordite 142

The Arcanaut ARC II Fordite range lets this Motor City agate shine, with their dials totally featureless save for skeletonised hands, all housed in a modern, minimalist micro-blasted stainless steel case with colourful integrated FKM rubber straps. Just as Detroit’s car designs of the 50s and 60s were inspired by the Atomic Age and the Space Race, the Arcanaut ARC II’s design is distinctly sci-fi, evoking Marc Newson’s works or Googie architecture. Under the hood, things are kept simple with a Soprod A10 automatic movement, which has a 42-hour power reserve and assists the ARC II’s 100-metre water-resistance rating.

A limited range of Arcanaut ARC II Fordite watches will be available for a limited time exclusively in-store at our Time+Tide Discovery Studios in London and Melbourne. As no two fordite dials are exactly the same, these are all unique pieces. Price: A$7,040. Find out more here.