SILICON
First Sighting
Silicon isn’t the sexiest material. There’s plenty of it, in fact, being the second most abundant element on the planet after oxygen. It’s also not especially pretty, used largely in steel refining, aluminium-casting, and semiconductor electronics. It was only in the early 2000s that watchmakers took notice, when Rolex, Patek Philippe, and the Swatch Group joined forces with the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) for a research programme exploring the material’s properties. But Ulysse Nardin beat everyone to the punch, delivering the first watch with a silicon escapement, the Freak, in 2001.
Why It’s Hot
Watchmakers argue that silicon’s properties are beneficial especially for escapement components, such as balance springs, levers and anchor wheels – parts that would suffer the most from the effects of…
