IWC Schaffhausen

Say “ceramic” and most people will think crockery, vases or bathroom tiles. But in recent years ceramic materials have found use in an ever-increasing range of applications. This has much to do with the unique properties of these sintered, inorganic materials. They are extremely hard with high resistance to heat and corrosion. They do not conduct electricity and make good insulators, and, despite their low density, retain their shape under the most exacting conditions. When a space shuttle re-enters the atmosphere, it is a cladding of ceramic tiles that prevents it from burning up. And the fact that ceramics are so compatible with living tissue predestined them for use as synthetic bones and joints, as well as for dental implants.

For some time now, ceramics have also been making great strides forward in the luxury goods industry. They are extremely scratch-resistant, lighter than steel and have an incomparable, silky touch, which makes them attractive to both watch and jewellery makers. And there is another advantage. Unlike metals, ceramics are not cold to the touch in winter and always feel pleasant on the skin. In 1986, with the launch of the Da Vinci in a zirconium oxide casing ring, IWC became one of the first watch manufacturers to use the material in a watch. “The new Da Vinci Chronograph Ceramic, which is housed in a geometrically demanding ceramic casing ring with titanium components, is proof once more of our innovative flair,” says Jannis Faupel, Senior Product Manager with IWC, not without a degree of pride.

The word “ceramic” comes from the ancient Greek “keramos”, the term used to describe claylike minerals and the enormously stable products that can be made from them when they are baked in an oven. The technique of manufacturing objects made of fired clay has been known to mankind for millennia. The first known vessels date back to the Jomon culture in Japan and were made around 13,000 B.C. originating in Asia, the technology spread slowly all over the world.

Modern-day industrial ceramics have little in common with the items thrown by potters. Their properties have been optimized for very specific uses. They differ from chinaware in that they are much purer and the grains of the original material are all of precisely the same size. The firing process also follows a very rigid procedure. As a rule, the workpiece is formed from powder, a binder and liquid before it is sintered at temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Celcius. It is the sintering process that endows the material with its typical characteristics.

Unlike bread, which rises in the oven, ceramic workpieces shrink by about a third when they are fired. This is where their greatest difference to metals lies. After smelting – the process of extracting metal from ore – metals already possess the properties that will remain with them, whereas the behaviour, shape and size of ceramic items are inseparably linked with the individual steps in the production process. The engineering aspect comes into play with the selective influencing of the material’s structure during the firing process. The loss in size needs to be factored into the dimensions of the blank.

In recent years, enormous progress has been made in what is known as ceramic injection moulding. This process is more industrialized and offers advantages over conventional pressing technology. In addition, like plastic injection molding, it opens the doorway to virtually unlimited possibilities with shapes. Without it, the efficient series production of delicate ceramic structures and complex geometries would be impossible. Only very few specialists in the world master this complex technology.