An investigation into movement finish - Up Close with the GO Panograph

[tempocalypse]

Over the past few weeks I have been examining the cal 61 movement in the Panograph with both a (somewhat weak) loupe that I have as well as under the Makro (its a Zeiss hence the K :P ) lens I have .

I have been attempting to gather a sense of how well the movement is finished driven partly by my own curiosity and subsequently some questions about GO’s finishing capabilities relative to its contemporaries I cam across on another forum.

Now I don’t claim to have enough frames of reference to be able to say anything declarative but I thought I would share some pictures along with my thoughts as well as some information I have gleaned from Glashutte themselves. (Note that all apparent dust is on the crystal)

To start with, the Panograph movement, despite the unusual dial layout, is at its heart a very traditional manual winding chronograph movement. The style of decoration is the distinctive and theatrical saxon style which is also used by A Lange & Söhne, Dornbluth, Nomos (Lambda etc) and Moritz Grossman.

Starting with the heart of the watch, immediately noticeable is the saxon signature hand engraved balance cock holding up the balance wheel. Engraved by free hand and then gold plated and subsequently rhodium plated (with the engraved recesses covered with resin) the engraving is a spectacular display of hand-craftsmanship

Furthermore, both the regulator itself and the swan-neck fine adjustment are both given the difficult treatment of Black Polish, also known as tin flat polishing. This again is both a time intensive and highly demanding form of finishing that results in a specular polish that in direct light appears to gleam with great brilliance or appear very dark or nearly black at off angles. It should be noted that most of these pictures are taken under diffuse light which lessens the effect, a few pictures further down will attempt to highlight the look of black polish.

You can also see the traditional style screwed balance wheel



From GO's website

""In order to achieve an especially flat and lustrous surface, parts such as the swan-neck spring, regulator, or screw heads, which are particularly easy to view through the sapphire glass case back, are enhanced using the traditional but at the same time very labour-intensive process of tin flat-polishing.

In this process, diamantine (a polishing paste) is applied to a flat tin file, which the operator uses to file the surface of the part until it is completely even and gleaming. The process can take several hours and is checked continuously with the aid of a loupe.

Polishing of a swan-neck spring (including the perimeters and angled edges) takes around 1 hour; to polish a sound spring such as that found in the “Pocket Watch No. 1” can take from 4 to 7 hours. Tin flat-polishing has a technical as well a visual purpose. The surface of the material is enhanced and offers greater protection against damage by moisture in the air and oxidation."





The heat blued screws are highly polished prior to the tempering process. They are also beveled and polished on the outer edge of the head and as the reflections in this picture make clear, also beveled and polished along the inner edge of the slot. This is often difficult to spot with the naked eye.

The screws are also sunken (except for those holding down chatons) and the edges of the holes are also polished




You will also note the extensive use of gold chatons to hold some jewels. Historically used to protect precious jewels from shattering during insertion, in the age of artificial jewels the primary purpose is tradition, aesthetics and as a sign of additional hand finishing. The holes are nicely polished although this type of chaton is not as spectacular as the raised chatons used by the likes of Moritz Grossman and Voutilainen




Looking at the anglage, the edges of all the bridges are beveled at a 45 degree angle and polished.

(at the limit of my camera and lens)



This seems very nicely done although when you compare with pictures of the very top level, it appears the very best watches use a curved edge rather than a straight 45 degree cut. Presumably this requires more work to polish well.

Comparing with my father's Breguet 7337, although the movement layout is more staid, the anglage on the Breguet seems to have a brighter more specular polish. Which is not to say the GO is poor, indeed the difference is seen only very up close but such are the fine margins that separate the good from the very best and I am under no illusions that GO is at the very top of the high end food chain. They've clearly made some compromises in getting to a more accessible price point.

Breguet 7337




Here we see two inward angles but the angle itself is curved rather than meeting at a sharp hand finished edge. Really sharp inward angles are difficult and rare even from the big names, from pictures I’ve seen most Lange and Breguet movements seem to avoid using these extensively as well (Even the Datograph gets only two, three on the perpetual version where they finished an identical corner more sharply in that version). Vacheron, who takes great pride in this technique, on the other hand put 3 even on their simple Traditionelle 3 hander caliber while top independents like Laurent Ferrier use them gratuitously.



The edge polishing on these steel parts are more brilliant than the bridges though as can be seen below.


I don’t have much to say about the “Glashutte Stripes” (Geneva stripes equivalent) except that they look very good to me. Only very few like Dufour seem to set themselves apart with their stripes finishing.



The chronograph lever edges are also beveled and highly polished



Here we also see that the beveled edges are polished while the sides have a grained finish. However the side of the tip, where it contacts the column wheel is if you look carefully is reflective and polished. This is a sign of good functional polishing (as opposed to the mostly decorative stuff we’ve seen so far) to harden and reduce friction on contact areas.