Maybe greater than another materials that we’ve got lined thus far, the celebs is likely to be proper for titanium to really take off. We first tackled this materials in 2021, proper on the heels of our ceramic particular, and there have been some hyperlinks. Whereas the world has since moved on from sweeping post-pandemic issues, the watch-buying world has embraced titanium wholeheartedly, though statistics point out that this steel (and its alloys) accounts for below 10% of Swiss exports in 2024 (supply: Statista). This can little doubt pattern upwards as a result of a minimum of Rolex has lastly gotten into the sport.
The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Yacht-Grasp 42 debuted in 2023 in RLX titanium (extra on this later) and marked the primary full watch case in any type of titanium alloy for the model; Rolex had beforehand used titanium for the caseback of the Deepsea mannequin. It’s this watch, and Rolex’s subsequent Deepsea Problem mannequin, that made us resolve to provide titanium, versus all different supplies, a extra thorough re-examination of this problem. As normal, although, we’re getting forward of ourselves…
Learn Extra: Yacht Fashion — Rolex Yacht-Grasp 42
To maneuver issues forward and produce you up to the mark, here’s a temporary primer on titanium, pulled and distilled from our 2021 particular. When you have a watch cased in Grade 2 titanium, then that’s commercially pure titanium; sure, commercially pure titanium is appropriate to be used in completed merchandise. This is likely one of the wonderful issues about titanium, and is sort of unparalleled, besides maybe for platinum (so far as watchmaking goes). So, what’s titanium anyway?
A metallic ingredient, titanium seems gray, or maybe like unshining silver. In different phrases, it’s colourless and never significantly lustrous. Its chemical ingredient image is Ti and its atomic quantity is 22. A Group 4 transition steel, it lends its title to its grouping of metals, together with zirconium (Zr), hafnium (Hf), and rutherfordium (Rf). See the gold part for extra particulars on what the atomic quantity means.
In watchmaking, titanium has been generally use for 55 years now, with the Japanese getting a head begin on the Swiss. Citizen was the primary to experiment with this steel again within the day, and but even perhaps this storied agency is likely to be stunned to see how far it has come. Lately, titanium alloys are even utilized in probably the most mundane of issues, together with woks, so our collective means to work with it has improved dramatically. Thus, titanium is hardly novel or unique, in watchmaking, besides when utilized in actions (extra on this later, and sure, there are a couple of laters to handle already).
One of many essential advantages of titanium, as demonstrated in its extraordinary use within the aerospace business, is that it provides a excessive strength-to-weight ratio, also called particular power, creating an especially sturdy substance (see related sidebar). This merely implies that titanium is comparatively sturdy at a low weight. The best method to consider this, by way of watches, is to think about the distinction between a watch in titanium and a watch in metal, if they’re roughly the identical dimension.
When watchmakers create fashions in titanium of one thing that exists in metal, they’re successfully making one thing lighter, not stronger. It’s the lightness, with comparatively good power, that makes titanium so helpful. The titanium watch is far stronger at its weight than a metal watch could be, at that very same weight. Titanium is solely much less dense than metal, and definitely than iron.
Now, titanium provides a excessive degree of mechanical resistance, in any other case often called mechanical impedance, making it extraordinarily sturdy. It could not be appropriate for a long-wearing merchandise similar to a wristwatch in any other case. It could definitely be no good for one thing like a dive watch, the place it will likely be anticipated to take a beating and carry on ticking, because the saying goes.
Not like ceramic, for instance, titanium doesn’t simply attain essential failure. In different phrases, it bends however doesn’t break, like metal and aluminium. The purpose that it deforms shouldn’t be that necessary right here, however we’ll discover it just a little.
To check metals, it’s essential to introduce a titanium alloy into the image, which for our functions will likely be Grade 5. That is an alloy of titanium, aluminium and vanadium below the next formulation: Ti-6Al-4V. For stainless-steel, we’ll use the usual 316L that the majority watchmakers favour.
We’ll use final tensile power (see the sidebar portion of the identical title) right here, with 316L clocking in at 485 MPa and Grade 5 rated at 1,170 MPa; MPa stands for megapascals, a unit of strain. This doesn’t imply that titanium is solely stronger, as a result of some sorts of metal can attain 3,000 MPa.
As an outdoor reference right here, aluminium is rated at 50MPa, and that’s among the many the reason why circumstances are so not often executed on this materials (once more, some alloys and varieties provide totally different properties).
On the matter of hardness, we’ll use the Rockwell scale (see ‘Hardness’). Roughly, 316L registers 79 whereas Grade 5 registers 41. Now, there are some subtleties to this measure, however broadly talking, this consequence speaks to the purpose some collectors have famous on boards about titanium being softer than metal.
Once more, some remedies improve the hardness of each metal and titanium (famously Duratect, additionally from Citizen, and DLC nearly all over the place else), however this has an impression on one in every of titanium’s extra engaging properties.
Within the air, titanium creates a strong oxide layer that stops the fabric from reacting any additional (see ‘Passivation’). This has the impact, in watches, of titanium circumstances wanting much less clearly scratched than stainless-steel circumstances. The muted color of titanium helps right here too, however the impact is comparable in Grade 5 titanium that has been polished. After all, floor remedies upend all this, and ought to be thought-about when discussing together with your pleasant neighbourhood gross sales specialist.
The primary advantage of titanium versus metal, although, so far as watches go, comes right down to its corrosion resistance (‘Passivation’). This can be a defining attribute of titanium and carries over to most of its alloys. It marks the steel as fairly particular, as famous in our authentic phase on why the biomedical area makes use of it. In easy phrases, a watch in titanium is not going to react to contemporary water, sea water, typical swimming pool water, alkalis, acids and absolutely anything. It’s the subsequent neatest thing to platinum (which is a comparability we prefer to repeat, however it’s related), however less expensive and lighter.
As for price, titanium is costlier than metal, primarily as a result of it’s comparatively harder to machine (it needs to be labored in a contained setting with inert gases similar to argon) and considerably costlier to course of. The price has little to do with rarity, which brings us to the primary of our “laters.” Titanium lends itself fairly simply to all kinds of helpful alloys, which is demonstrated by all of the grades of the fabric in use in watchmaking. This is the reason Rolex can model its model, leading to RLX titanium; this has monumental implications for what manufacturers can do to each add worth and extract the suitable premium. Rolex itself confirms that it has chosen a particular grade 5 titanium alloy and that’s what RLX titanium is.
Lastly, titanium has been gaining discover for its usefulness in actions, as seen in TAG Heuer and Ulysse Nardin this 12 months. Whether or not this picks up momentum – and we’ve got each purpose to assume it can – may even be key to the rise of titanium.
This story was first seen as a part of the WOW #79 Summer time 2025 Situation
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