The most unusual case materials in watchmaking, from ‘chameleon’ sapphire to Swiss cheese

Buffy Acacia

As the internet continues to speed up the velocity of trends, and therefore watch releases, high-end brands have been experimenting more than ever before. Whether it’s for a dial or a case, investigating varied materials seems to be a great way to capture the imagination and create something new. Semi-precious stones, carbon fibre, titanium and bronze have all had their moments over the last 5 years, but every now and again a watch will come around with something truly unusual. Spotted throughout history, here are the watches with some of the rarest and most unusual materials used in watchmaking.

Richard Mille RM009 ALUSiC

Whether you’re one of the haters or not, nobody can deny that Richard Mille makes watches few other brands would even be capable of, let alone dare to make. They’re elite watches made specifically to handle some of the toughest tasks a watch can withstand, and Richard Mille is a rare company where luxury and delicacy do not equate. The RM009 ALUSiC came about in 2005 thanks to a partnership with Formula 1 fan-favourite Felipe Massa, a driver who actually competed in races while wearing his Richard Mille. But every gram counts in F1, so the watch needed to be ultra-light. ALUSiC is not just a metal alloy, but a matrix of silicon and aluminium alloy then reinforced with silicon carbide. It’s forged in a centrifuge, and the resulting product has a density that’s approximately two thirds the weight of titanium, and less than half that of stainless steel. It’s also tough and resistant to heat, perfect for surviving the chaotic cockpit of a Formula 1 car.

Rado DiaStar

It’s pretty strange to consider the watch landscape back in 1962, but as the popularity of sports watches triumphed, scratch resistance became an important factor. Rado released the Diastar touting its toughness, and using tungsten carbide as a case material (Rado calls it ‘hardmetal’) was revolutionary. Today, tungsten carbide is mostly reserved for tools like cutting bits or abrasives because it’s so difficult to work with. In terms of hardness, it can even surpass sapphire. Modern reissues of the Rado DiaStar use a ceramic-metal alloy cap on top of steel to achieve its scratch resistance, but that doesn’t have the same novelty or ingenuity as a 1960s example. You may find other watches around made of tungsten, but tungsten carbide is a much rarer material.

ArtyA Tiny Purity Tourbillon NanoSaphir Chameleon

ArtyA was once experimental in much stranger ways, including a watch whose case was struck by lightning and a dial featuring the brand founder’s own blood. There was even a watch with a dial made from coprolite, a.k.a. fossilised dinosaur dung. Lately, its watches have taken a turn for the high luxury, and the ArtyA Tiny Purity Tourbillon NanoSaphir Chameleon managed to do something incredible with a watch material that’s actually become quite plentiful. It’s not too difficult to find a watch with a sapphire case, and sometimes in crazy colours, but the NanoSaphir Chameleon actually changes colours depending on the light temperature of your location. It’s a phenomenon that’s exceptionally rare in natural stones, and even then, the effect is not as impressive as this. ArtyA’s grasp on lab-grown sapphire is clearly outclassing several other brands who have been using the material for much longer, and I can’t wait to see if it develops the NanoSaphir Chameleon technology further.

Linde Werdelin Oktopus Moonlite White

Unfortunately for some, there are brands that are great at keeping secrets. Linde Werdelin specialises in lightweight sports watches with an extreme visual style, and in 2014 it sought out a material now known as ALW, or Alloy Linde Werdelin. Supposedly developed for the aerospace industry and Formula 1 applications, ALW is a porous metallic composite whose actual metallurgical makeup is a mystery to the public. When the Oktopus Moonlite White was released in 2015, it put the uncoated material on display. The porous nature of ALW allows for a chemical hardening process which penetrates four times deeper than similar processes on stainless steel, and it’s also 50% lighter than titanium. Aside from its strong properties, it also has a soft, ‘milky’ aesthetic quality which is a nice contrast to the harshness of the case design.

Hublot Big Bang Unico Full Magic Gold

Generally speaking, owning a gold watch goes hand-in-hand with scratching a gold watch. It’s a soft metal, even when it’s alloyed with silver and copper specifically to make it more durable as a piece of jewellery. However, Hublot found a workaround. While still being made of 75% gold to be considered 18k, Hublot’s Magic Gold has been alloyed with ceramic to make it almost impervious to scratches. It’s been patented since 2011, which is likely why we haven’t seen any other brands take similar stabs at this technology. There is a trade-off with the gold colour, as it turns into more of a brownish-green than the yellow or rose golds we’re used to – however, that khaki tone is well-suited to Hublot’s catalogue of industrial design and militaristic flair. Jamie even had a crack at scratching a Magic Gold bezel with a steel drill bit while visiting the Hublot manufacture, and came up short.

Richard Mille RM038 Prototype Yohan Blake

While there have been watches with magnesium cases released to the public, notably the Bulgari Diagono, Richard Mille makes its way back on this list thanks to a watch first spotted back in 2012 that’s now reappeared in a Sotheby’s auction this year. At the London Olympic Games, Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake wore a bright white and yellow Richard Mille RM038 that was a one-off prototype before the RM59-01 Tourbillon became Yohan Blake’s official collaborative release. Unlike the production model, there’s no PVD coating here because the case is made from a magnesium, yttrium, zirconium and neodymium alloy called WE54. It was given an oxidisation treatment to bring out that white colour straight from the metal, which grants it its toughness and corrosion resistance. At a total of 44 grams, it’s not the lightest watch Richard Mille has ever made, but it’s definitely one of the coolest. After all, what other watches have been worn while winning an Olympic gold medal? It goes under the hammer on February 8th at 5 pm GMT, with an estimate of US$1,000,000 – 1,500,000. Oof.

H. Moser & Cie. Swiss Mad Watch

As much as I wanted to avoid watches that simply suspended something strange in resin or epoxy, the H. Moser & Cie. Swiss Mad Watch was practically created to be featured on lists like these. If you had never noticed before, H. Moser & Cie. doesn’t include the Swiss Made label on its watches in protest of the subjectively low standards it takes to earn that title. In reality, quite a lot of a Swiss watch can be manufactured overseas before it gets assembled in Switzerland. So, the Swiss Mad Watch came about as a snarky retort, with a case made from real Swiss cheese encased in resin. I do find myself curious to see how the case has aged after 8 years and whether the cheese is getting any yellower, but that may also make some collectors feel ill. It’s still a luxury watch at heart, powered by the in-house HMC 327, and of course, it sold for over a million dollars.