A new limited-edition watch has a tourbillon swirling in what appears to be a deep, infinite black hole. But, in fact, the mesmerizing dial is covered with what the National Physical Laboratory, Britain’s measurements standards institute, has verified as the darkest material on Earth.
The concept seemed perfect to Edouard Meylan, chief executive of the watchmaker H. Moser & Cie. — where the words “very rare” are part of the company logo. “We produce every single component, even hairsprings,” Mr. Meylan said. “I knew if we wanted to make black watches we would have to do something unique.”
A friend, Pierre Jacques of the De Bethune watch company, told him about the material, generically called carbon nanotube film — and Mr. Meylan reached out to Surrey NanoSystems. In 2015, Surrey’s chief technical officer, Ben Jensen, finalized a spray-on version of the substance he had trademarked as Vantablack.
The company’s website describes the material as a collection of carbon nanotubes that are 3,500 times smaller than the diameter of the average human hair, with one square centimeter containing as many as 1,000 million nanotubes. Light becomes trapped between the nanotubes, the site says, because the tubes are so long in relation to their diameter and there is so little space between them. (The site uses the example of a forest with trees almost 2 miles high, noting that little light would reach the forest floor.)
The coating used on the Moser watch is Vantablack S-VIS, which Mr. Jensen described as the blackest spray-applied coating commercially available today and the same coating used on instruments for space travel to protect them from sunlight.
“Moser ships us the dials and we treat them,” Mr. Jensen said. “It’s very complicated.” And costly.
The new watch, introduced in December, was the Endeavour Tourbillon Concept Vantablack, a limited edition of 50 selling for $75,000 each. It was the latest in a line that began in fall 2018 with the Endeavour Perpetual Moon Concept, a limited edition of 50 that sold out at $35,000 each. “It looked like a black hole with the moon floating in it,” Mr. Meylan said. “We could have sold hundreds of them.” Then came the simpler (“it’s not a limited edition and there are no special complications”) Venturer Concept Vantablack for $27,600 and a version of the Venturer with each watch containing 313 diamonds totaling 3.77 carats and selling for $54,000.
H. Moser & Cie. has no plans to introduce more “black hole” watches anytime soon, but Surrey NanoSystems is continuing to explore applications for Vantablack. “A California company is testing its use in cinemas,” Mr. Jensen said. “You’re not distracted by any reflected light. It’s a completely immersive experience.”
"watch" - Google News
January 12, 2020 at 05:00PM
https://ift.tt/37Zhzrg
A Watch That Is Blacker Than Black - The New York Times
"watch" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2RhttI7
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "A Watch That Is Blacker Than Black - The New York Times"
Post a Comment