How porcelain dials are made

[xpatUSA]

Came across this awesome description of how the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory makes the hand-painted dial for the Glashütte Original Senator Meissen. It's well worth a read and some pretty good macro-photography at the conclusion.

Click here to view it. It's a long page, so keep scrolling all the way.

One of many outstanding shots showing the hand-painted signature on the dial after firing a third time:


photo copyrighted by Gerd Pfeifle, 2008

Enjoy!

[Blueboy1]

That's pretty amazing, and helps to explain why anything less than a professionally refinished dial looks like a big pile of pahooney...

Thanks for sharing,

Mark

[jounetsu]

Amazing level of craftsmanship. I wonder if the painter ever gets bored?!

Thanks for sharing.

P

[Andy H]

Awesome! But I can't imagine that dial painters job being anything other than boring, painting watch dials all day, unless he's a WIS, of course. :mrgreen:

[RABbit]

Thanks for sharing that, fascinating stuff.

[kamo]

Awesome! But I can't imagine that dial painters job being anything other than boring, painting watch dials all day, unless he's a WIS, of course. :mrgreen:

I could never do this for a job. I'd end up shooting someone/myself. But when I see the end results - oh my!!! - I really appreciate the craftsmanship.
Pictures of the Senator made me start looking for one. I saw the prices and gave up ....

[CARRERA74]

It's nice to see good old fashioned craftsmanship - Top job !

Si

[Andy H]

I suppose he could have a smirk to himself when he saw somebody wearing a GO with his dial, but the chances of that would be pretty slim, given the price.

[jmarchitect]

Excellent article! Thanks for posting the link Ted. I really enjoy reading about the works of true craftsmen. Whilst the watches aren't my thing (and way out of my league price wise!), I can appreciate the skill behind making them.

[Ducatiist]

Incredible to see what can be achieved by the use of hand and eye, I wouldn't have believed it was done like this without the pics! Only problem now.....I'm hungry after scrolling through those plates of food pics :D

[Mikes1]

I try to learn about new stuff.......& this is an amazing article

Thanks for the info

[angeche]

Thanks, Ted. Never seen it.

[Omegamanic]

Great post - really shows the hand finished element in the macro shot - something I like and something a little rough and ready about it blown up like that.

[WatchScout]

Excellent.

For some reason, I have always liked the Meissen porcelain dials (I really do not know why).

Some years ago, I looked into having co-worker make me a porcelain dial for one of my mods. Said co-worker worked with porcelain as a hobby jewellry-maker. I gave her the spare dial, but unfortunately she could not get the porcelain to stay evenly on the dial.

To be fair, she had never worked with dials before and as mentined, it was only a hobby so not a pro job.

[bennybasic]

Incredible post, I had a chance to stumble upon the factory briefly but unfortunately didn't have time to set an appointment and go through the full tour. This makes me wish I had. Thank goodness that those "dead" arts still have some strong willed life in them.

[nivelacuso]

Thanks for posting. Very informative.