5. Dial Exploration — Andre Jorts

After going through all the movements that Miyota has to offer, I finally decided to pick the 82D7 movement for this project. This has a beautifully finished top plate but you can still see the main spring and escape movement components. It also allows for the window into the movement to be a nice size and not as distracting as a window into a skeleton type movement like the 8N24.

I want the dial to be both functional so reading time is easy, but also not to compete with the window into the movement which is central to the design. So, I have started with making markings only on the “Chapter Ring” which is the outer section of the dial and leaving the inner section of the dial blank.

I also want to draw the eye into the watch towards the movement, so I have a dished shape to the Chapter Ring that leads the eye in, towards the center of the watch.

Dial v01 Design - dished to draw the eye in to the center of the watch

For the marking on the Chapter Ring, I am prototyping using offset surfaces to be the indices since I will not be able to paint / print something very fine and detailed. I am going to use high resolution SLA 3D printing to see if these features come out well defined.

Shapeways offers investment casting for jewelry which might be another avenue worth trying. I can get parts made out of bronze and then apply a patina to darken / color the bronze. I bought some patina solutions and a sheet of bronze that I am going to start playing with soon to see what can be created.

In the image above, you can also see I have a ring over the movement - this is for the seconds hand complication that this movement has. I am still on the fence about whether I want a small seconds hand or if the design will look cleaner without it.

Here a couple of variation of the Chapter Ring I am also considering: