Carbon fiber / forged carbon watches - what options are out there?

[Jeep99dad]

Formex makes an awesome CF watch

[sierra11b]

Carbon fiber IS a gimmick much like GS Zaratau polish.

It’s simply sheets or powder carbon fiber glued together with epoxy and exposed to pressure. I used to make micarta using a custom jig with clamps. You could likely buy a block of carbon fiber, G10, or carbon fiber from knife making supply and 3D print a watch case which would only require light belt sanding and tooling.

Not saying it’s not cool but it shouldn’t be as expensive as it is.

Interesting about carbon fiber, but how is GS Zaratsu polishing a gimmick? Isn’t it about hand finishing as opposed to machine?

Remove steel in various grits and you’ll achieve the same level of polish by machine or hand. Why pay extra for hand polish when there’s no added benefit? It’s a gimmick in that it’s still done with wheels and yet they make it seem like the workers are true togishi

[dnslater]

Remove steel in various grits and you’ll achieve the same level of polish by machine or hand. Why pay extra for hand polish when there’s no added benefit? It’s a gimmick in that it’s still done with wheels and yet they make it seem like the workers are true togishi

With luxury items, "hand finished" has some perceived value regardless of actual value on the finished product. Sort of like "In House Movements", which don't necessarily add to the accuracy of the watch, but make us feel better about what we purchased.

[aikiman44]

Is the process automated with other watches?

[sierra11b]

Is the process automated with other watches?

Good question. I’d imagine it being very expensive to program a machine to do the polishing for each model in a line-up. I stead it would be easier to design a jig like the one seen in the GS video. I’m sure Rolex does machine at factory and maybe does hand polishing at RSC? I could be wrong but might explain the occasional wack polishing job.

[aikiman44]

If Rolex makes 800,000-1,000,000 watches per year, I tend to think polishing would be automated.