Watch brands have long been concerned about how much time lovers have to wear on their wrist every day. Titanium was added to the usual metals for making cases (the first watches were produced from it in 1970), which is 1.8 times lighter than steel and 4.3 times lighter than precious gold. Today, not only cases, but also parts of calibers are made from light, but difficult to process material. The Panerai Lo Scienziato collection includes the Luminor 1950 Tourbillon GMT Titanio - its skeletonized caliber with bridges and titanium plates weighs 35% less than a similar skeleton caliber with copper components. The gross weight of the Luminor 1950 Tourbillon GMT titanium skeleton is 96 grams.
© press service Richard Mille
Another way to reduce watch weight is to create ultra-lightweight synthetic materials. At the Salon Horlogerie SIHH-2017, several brands have shown their achievements in this area. The body of Richard Mille's RM50-03 / 01 McLaren "wrist car" is made of graphene. It is a two-dimensional modification of carbon, one atom thick, which covers the watch case 600 layers with a total thickness of 200 nanometers. As a result, the lightest chronograph in the world weighs only 40 g.
Slightly lighter than the Breitling Colt Skyracer (note that this is a simple three-hand watch, albeit a certified chronometer). The super-light weight of 34 grams is provided by the case made of the innovative patented Breitlight polymer: it is 3.3 times lighter than titanium and 5.8 times lighter than steel. The material has been used since 2016.
Colt Skyracer, Breitling © press service
The skeletonized body of the futuristic Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Carbon is made of multilayer carbon. The platinum, bridges and the top carriage of the tourbillon are also made of carbon - as a result, the weight of the caliber is only 7.5 g (about a third less than the weight of the standard Excalibur Spider movement), and the weight of the watch itself is slightly more than 40 g.
The mass of other watch novelties, not striving for weight loss, ranges from several tens of grams to half a kilogram.
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1 | Casio Edifice EQB-500, Casio - steel case with a diameter of 52 mm, quartz chronograph, watch weight 199 g.
2 | Montblanc TimeWalkerExoTourbillon Minute Chronograph Limited Edition 100 - titanium case with a diameter of 44 mm, automatic chronograph, watch weight 101.88 g.
3 | Patrimony Collection Excellence Platine, Vacheron Constantin - 42 mm platinum case, hand-wound movement, weight 82.21 g.
4 | Grande Seconde Ceramic Clous de Paris, Jaquet Droz - 44 mm black ceramic case, automatic movement, weight 103.89 g.
5 | Marine Torpilleur, Ulysse Nardin - steel case with a diameter of 42 mm, automatic movement, watch weight 85.28 g.
6 | Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph, Audemars Piguet (limited edition of 50 pieces) - platinum case with a diameter of 42 mm on a platinum bracelet, automatic chronograph, watch weight 59.81 g.
7 | TAG Heuer Connected Modular 45 - The 45mm modular case is available in different materials: 18K 5N rose gold-plated titanium or black ceramic. The modular system also involves replacing the smart component with a mechanical caliber. The average weight of an exchangeable watch module is 63 g.
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8 | The Longines Avigation BigEye, Longines - steel case with a diameter of 41 mm, automatic chronograph, weight 51 g.
9 | Octa Automatique Réserve, FPJourne - 40 mm platinum case, automatic movement, weight 114.78 g.
10 | Cosmograph Daytona Oyster Perpetual, Rolex - 40 mm white gold and ceramic case, automatic movement, weight 160 g.
11 | World Time Ref. No. 5131 / 1P-001, Patek Philippe - 39 mm platinum case, automatic movement, platinum bracelet, weight 241 g.>