Quinting

Quinting has assumed a place in history by conceptualizing and creating the first transparent wrist-watch which is unique worldwide.
Quinting, founded in 1993, was the brainchild of four Swiss engineers, who set out to create unique watches with hands that appear to float in space with no visible means of being turned. After seven years of development by economist and engineer, Pascal Berclaz, the transparent Quinting chronograph was launched. Quinting was able to produce the world’s first transparent watch because engineers were involved in its creation. They incorporated the time-honoured traditions of the watchmaking industry as well as engineering technology to ensure that the timepiece was unique. When the first transparent chronograph was produced it was welcomed with great success and honoured with the prestigious “Official Prize of the Revue des Montres in 1999”.
A transparent Quinting’s movement. The movement in sapphire that requires a high degree of precision and knowledge. The manufacturing process is a great challenge for the firm, which has had to overcome a number of advanced technical problems. With the exception of 7 parts, including the hands, all the components of the Quinting chronograph, numbering 230 and 26 sub-assemblies, are manufactured exclusively for this little marvel.
Essentially, each Quinting watch houses a patented sapphire movement that makes the watch transparent. If you study a complicated movement from a well- established brand, you will find that its movement is made from metal. The Quinting movement is made by superposing several thin-toothed discs of sapphire previously metallised and given an antireflection coating. This is a very complicated system of stationary and mobile sapphires. It must be immediately noted that such a watch could absolutely not be realized with an entirely “mechanical” movement, but it was certainly not easy to obtain it even by adopting an electronic solution that anyway has to use many sophisticated mechanical pieces. Therefore, summing up, this watch might be considered a mechanical one electronically driven. Inside the external rim of the case four motors are hidden from view. From these motors, the hands are driven by a system of mobile sapphire crystals. There are six transparent mobile sapphires – one each for the hours, minutes and seconds. Additionally, there are seven stationary sapphires which hold the assemblage together. The positioning of these glasses is extremely rigorous. The sapphire layers are placed at a distance of at least 0.08 to 0.1 millimetre.

The Quinting manufacture is one of a small circle of watchmakers producing their own movements. All the parts of the Quinting movement are assembled by hand at the manufacture situated in St. Blaise, near Neuchatel in Switzerland. The extremely delicate operation is performed in a dust free room to ensure the perfect transparency.

Working in sapphire is a very precise craft. It requires a delicate hand and 100 percent precision since, unlike metal, sapphire is a nonfusible and nonelastic material. This advanced technique requires a high degree of precision and knowledge, placing the Quinting watches among the most sophisticated and complex on the market.

www.quinting-watches.com

Status

Private Company

Industries

• Computer & Electronic Product Manufacturing
• Electronics
• Jewelry, Watch, Precious Stone, & Precious Metal Merchant Wholesalers
• Manufacturing
• Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods
• Navigational, Measuring, Electromedical, & Control Instruments Manufacturing
• Watch, Clock, & Part Manufacturing
• Wholesale Trade
More

In 1993 four Swiss engineers of excellency fascinated by the world of hands and wheels decided to embark on the most crazy adventure ever seen in the watch-making world: to create a completely transparent chronograph.

A young engineer coming from the automotive sector who was dreaming of a watch with the hands suspended in the air set about achieving his goal. After the long time search of engineers able to develop this watch’s concept he found three highly skilled engineers that could bring it to reality. Together they managed to make function a prototype that was immediately honoured with the prestigious “Official prize of the Revue des Montres”. Nevertheless, to share their exceptional invention with the rest of the world they needed to start the process of manufacturing. They had the chance to meet Pascal Berclaz, an accomplished engineer and economist, who believed in the success of the Quinting project. Thanks to him the fruit of seven years of research, development and testing, the first transparent Mysterious Quinting Chronograph was unveiled to the world in 2000.
The see-through watch was presented to the watch making industry, which immediately recognized the technical and aesthetic value of this pioneering achievement.
Today, under the current leadership of President Pascal Berclaz, Quinting watches are earning a distinguished reputation throughout the watch making industry and challenging the most prestigious brand names.