How to made mother of pearl dial for watch?

The Watch Dial is undoubtedly one of the protagonists of the appearance that attracts people's attention. Especially for watch lovers who pay great attention to the appearance. The types and styles of Watch Dials are very diverse. The more common dial materials in the market are metals, stones, enamels and shells. People are very fond of mother-of-pearl dial, especially women. Today, many watches feature MOP Watch Dial. These shimmering nacres exude a classic yet elegant appeal. However, mother-of-pearl is brittle and ultra-thin when used as a dial, and is easily broken. Here, we take a quick look at how these shell dials are made.

mop wrist watch

There are many steps involved in making a mother-of-pearl dial, possibly as many as 15 different artisan steps (sometimes more). Depending on the complexity of the dial design, it can take weeks or months to complete. The first is to select the material. The material of the mother-of-pearl dial comes from shells, such as abalone shells, pearl shells and other relatively large shells, because large shells can be used in a wide range, and their flatness is better, which is convenient to take shell embryos.

mother of pearl dial

After the shells are selected, the next step is to use a hole-turning machine to remove the part suitable for the surface of the shell. The hole-turning machine uses a hollow shell of diamonds. Under the high operation of the machine, the shell embryos are removed one by one. The removed shell embryos will undergo the next cleaning process.

The cleaned shell embryos will be sent to the grinding workshop for the next step of grinding. It is necessary to grind the shell embryos with uneven thickness to a uniform thickness and the same size. In this process, there is a lot of dust, so the polisher needs to wear a mask and goggles to protect himself. Then after fine grinding and polishing, the original thick shell embryo becomes 0.2mm, yes, the thickness of 0.2mm is very thin, so it is very easy to break.

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Due to the fragility of the shell after grinding, it cannot be directly mounted on the watch. Therefore, it is necessary to add a 0.2mm copper base to strengthen its hardness and facilitate subsequent processing. After bonding the shell surface and the copper sheet with glue, and then forming it with a stamping processing equipment, the preliminary blank Shell Watch Dial is completed.

mop watch dial

The decoration can then be carried out according to the different requirements of the customer, the dial can be enhanced by lacquering the mother-of-pearl back. The time markers on the dial can be printed, made UP hour markers , or applied index with diamond setting. The finished work is very beautiful, unique in color as well as brightness and texture.