FINE TIME

Precious metals promise to put the fine’ back into fine watchmaking, after years of being overshadowed by more prosaic materials. This special section continues the journey we began last issue, with a deep dive into that most desirable of all metals, gold. Of course, platinum is also back...

- ASHOK SOMAN

After almost a decade of deep dives into material innovation in traditional watchmaking, we have finally come full circle. Way back in 2016, we published a longish treatise on gold in watchmaking, which is unsurprising given the popularity of the metal over the centuries. We write centuries here but really we mean the entirety of human history, written and otherwise, because contemporary timepieces are also pieces of jewellery. And so it should surprise absolutely no one that in this second take on gold, we will be outdoing ourselves. In fact, we already have because we published a preamble to this story in Spring this year.

The watchmaking business has always been about both style and substance. Timekeeping is, even today, primarily a utility that drives productivity, efficiency and accuracy - it can literally tell us our place in the universe, depending on how the question is phrased. As with anything this important, there is a symbolic value to be had. It is a value with both power and prestige, which the ruling classes have always understood. Thus, we have arrived at the simplest connection between time and gold.

Now, we will have to address the matter of price quite prominently in this story (and its constituent parts) but it is worth bearing in mind, from the outset, that price is just one of many facets. More than any other precious metal, gold has a certain reputation as a proven store of value, a hedge against both inflation and deflation, and a stable investment class. Gold and silver are the only precious metals to be widely used as both jewellery and currency, distinguishing them from other precious metals. Gold is especially relevant for this examination because there is only one wristwatch in silver today that is widely recognised.

GROWING AND RETAINING VALUE