Use of nanotechnology could create ‘perfect’ heirloom watch that never loses time

[hicksmat]

https://www2.mmu.ac.uk/news-and-even...s/story/10071/

interesting link up between my employer and Roger Smith. I have to try and get involved on this one somehow!

:)

[stefmcd]

Scary flawless future.

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[Dave+63]

My first job after graduating was with a company who had recently taken over another company called Armourcote Surface Treatments.

One of these companies had developed a coating called Niflor which was a combination of PTFE (Teflon) and hard Nickel. This created a very hard but almost friction free surface and could be applied to almost any solid material as it used and electroless playing technique to apply.

Applying such a coating to watch pivots/gears would almost certainly have the same result without the need for nano technology.

I graduated in 1986!

[stefmcd]

.
Applying such a coating to watch pivots/gears would almost certainly have the same result without the need for nano technology.

I graduated in 1986!

Makes you wonder how many other material inventions are lying dormant.

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[alfat33]

Interesting article, thanks. I guess cost and practical application will be the challenges, but it looks promising. I seem to recall some nanomaterials have already been used in a watch, there is a thread about it that I’ll try to find.

I read up about Niflor. Apparently it is in use for larger scale engineering applications like pumps and injection moulding. Maybe it doesn’t work as well in practice for micro-engineering like watches.

[Dave+63]

I read up about Niflor. Apparently it is in use for larger scale engineering applications like pumps and injection moulding. Maybe it doesn’t work as well in practice for micro-engineering like watches.

I think the issue is most likely to be the coating application thickness although IIRC (and it was a long time ago) as little as a couple of microns was possible.

I think cost also played quite a large part, preparation of the items to be plated was quite labour intensive.

I often thought about applying it to the inside of an engine and using water instead of oil.

Obviously working in that environment, the alloys on my car were treated to a lovely non stick gun metal grey finish!

[Itsguy]

Very interesting. I seem to recall reading on this forum that low friction dry bearings have been created before in watches, but jewels end up being used simply because they seem more appealing. Though not having to fork out for service charges ever again certainly has an appeal of its own, given a well designed unscratchable case and bracelet.

[Sc-texas]

The thickness of the coating would be relevant

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