The Coolest Thing You Can Do to a Watch? Hammer It

As watch collectors' interests have started to prioritize design—strange shapes like the Cartier Crash and everyone from Rolex to Nomos pursuing big pops of color—the arms race to distinguish one watch from another by any means possible has gotten especially heated. Lately, several brands have revived an ancient technique that involves small hammers, or in the case of one new hotshot, a chisel. What’s really exciting is that while hammered cases and dials were almost exclusively reserved for the most high-end watches, it’s starting to make its way into slightly more affordable models.One brand that’s never struggled to find innovative ways to keep its dials and cases fresh is Ming. An independent watchmaker based in Kuala Lumpur, founder Ming Thein develops watches using photography techniques that turn a watch’s face from spectacular color to black based on where the hands are positioned and 3D prints the most spectacular mesh bracelets. It’s easily one of the most trailblazing players on the scene. For proof, look no further than the new 37.06 Royal Selangor.MING THEIN | MINGTHEIN.COMEstablished in 1885, Royal Selangor is a Malaysian pewter maker headquartered in Kuala Lumpur that produces jewelry, trophies, objects, tableware, and more. Though pewter is rarely used in watch dials, Ming Thein realized its horological potential: by hammering its surface such that each example is different, he and the artisans at Royal Selangor created an 88-piece limited edition that offers a taste of high-end finishing techniques for well under $10,000. Paired to a titanium case, the undulating surface of the pewter backdrop comes alive, with each hammer mark producing a small valley of material that gives the impression of a Moon-like surface. Needless to say, the effect is striking.Widen your aperture to take in more than just Ming’s new watch, and you quickly realize that the watch industry is playing to MC Hammer’s beat lately: models from fellow boutique favorite Anoma to high-end independent Parmigiani Fleurier are all using similar techniques.Hand-chiselling gives Anoma's A1 Prehistoric a beautiful textured surface Anoma’s A1 Prehistoric is not exactly hammered—its stainless-steel case is technically hand-chiseled, but it creates the same beautiful visual: organic craters and valleys etched into the watch. The chiseling is precise, hard work and requires five hours of attention from an artisan to get each example right. Anoma already offered one of the most distinctive watches on the market on the strength of its unique, triangle-shaped design alone and the new Prehistoric puts the watch in a new stratosphere. (It clearly resonated with fans—all 100 ~$3,900 pieces are currently sold out.)Parmigiani Fleurier’s Carillon Tourbillon, which celebrates the firm’s 30th anniversary, is another example—albeit one from the opposite end of the price spectrum. Made in a run of just five pieces, it’s inspired by an early 19th-century Perrin Frères pocket watch and features a one-minute tourbillon, a minute repeater with four gongs, and a hand-wound movement with wildly detailed finishing. But for many, it’s the watch’s dial that captures the imagination: executed in Morning Blue, its hand-hammered surface beautifully frames the movement’s serpentine gongs and complements the case’s vertical gadroons.Parmigiani Fleurier’s artisan hammering the watch's dial Hand-hammering has been used in watchmaking for centuries, though the practice is so labor-intensive—an artisan actually strikes the dial hundreds or thousands of times using a small hammer or polished steel punch—that it’s historically been reserved for higher-end pieces. Because the process is done by an artisan rather than by machine, each dial or case is thus inherently unique. Depending upon the technique and execution, the result can be a metal component that takes on the visual quality of stone, tree bark, the surface of water, or even snow.These days, however, the technique is making its way downmarket into more affordable pieces, offering those with less than $10K to spend a shot at owning such a watch. Truly, there’s never been a better—or more affordable—time to get hammered!