Rolex Sa

Eric Grippo

William Passaquin

According to this process for manufacturing a ceramic element intended to be fitted onto a watch case, the visible surface of which has features, a soluble layer () is selectively deposited on said visible surface, the thickness of said soluble layer being at least equal to the height of said features, a first tie layer () of the Ti, Ta, Cr or Th type is vacuum-deposited by magnetron sputtering with a thickness of at least 100 nm by physical vapor deposition (PVD) on said surface thus selectively coated, followed, without venting atmosphere, by PVD deposition of said second layer () made of Au, Pt, Ag, Ni, Pd, TiN, CrN, ZrN or alloys thereof with a thickness of at least 100 nm, and then said soluble layer () is dissolved.

Process for manufacturing a ceramic element for a watch case and element obtained by this process

According to this process for manufacturing a ceramic element intended to be fitted onto a watch case, the visible surface of which has features, a soluble layer is selectively deposited on said visible surface, the thickness of said soluble layer being at least equal to the height of said features, a first tie layer of the Ti, Ta, Cr or Th type is vacuum-deposited by magnetron sputtering with a thickness of at least 100 nm by physical vapor deposition (PVD) on said surface thus selectively coated, followed, without venting atmosphere, by PVD deposition of said second layer made of Au, Pt, Ag, Ni, Pd, TiN, CrN, ZrN or alloys thereof with a thickness of at least 100 nm, and then said soluble layer is dissolved.

This ceramic element, the visible surface of which includes features, is intended to be fitted onto a watch case. This visible surface has, at each feature, a hollow having the shape of said feature, with a depth at least equal to 0.05 mm, the side walls of said hollow being essentially perpendicular to said visible surface, the bottom of said hollows having a first tie layer of Ti, Ta, Cr or Th type, with a thickness of at least 100 nm and at least a second layer from the group Au, Ag, CrN, Ni, Pt, TiN, ZrN, Pd or alloys thereof with a thickness of at least 100 nm.

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Geneva, Switzerland

Eric Grippo