MATERIALS
Materials are the basis of everything. There are different ones and some are even consumables. The materials used inside a watch, or others outside a watch in contact with the skin, must have different characteristics. Some materials are used because they are stainless, others for their mechanical resistance, others for their ease of machining or others for their comfort.
Some metals, or minerals, are used because they are valuable and thus make the time guard a background for investment. Materials initially the same can also be modified by heat treatments and thus hardened or softened. For some components such as watch glasses, the materials used have also evolved. Initially sometimes unscratchable but very breakable they became unbreakable but scratchable and now they are largely unscratchable and unbreakable.
Also, some materials can be colored by heat treatment or chemical oxidation. We can think for example of the blue gold which was very popular during a period of the watchmaking history. The world of materials has a rich and exciting history and also a very promising future.
METALLIC MATERIALS
Metallic materials are all materials made of metal or metal alloys.
MINERAL MATERIALS
Mineral materials are inorganic materials with ionic and covalent bonds. They are mainly rocks or crystals.
COMPOSITE MATERIALS
A composite material is an assembly of two or more immiscible components with a high penetration capacity.
ORGANIC MATERIALS
Organic materials are materials made by living beings, plants or animals.
GREASES, OILS & PASTES
Greases, oils and pastes are for the first two used for lubrication, but not only, and pastes for polishing.
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