How we cut patterns to match Rolex and Cartier Watches

We are frequently asked to create patterns to match existing objects and surfaces. Here is an interesting example that shows techniques that can be addapted to other purposes. Here we have sequenced the Rolex; the Cartier design is similar in terms of the engine turning to the Jubilee though the look is quite different.

Cutting Staggered Ribs 6.5mm wide: Rolex President

To cut a Rolex President style cufflink we must first make a kind of slide so that the ribs can be polished whilst lined up. They are then staggered by moving up half a rib.

Trimming the sides of a strip of metal into a dovetail profile. This is made ever so slightly tapered for an eventual tight fit.

The finished centre section, 2mm thick with dovetail slideway profile.

We then recess a 2mm deep channel across the centre of each cufflink blank.

Initially this recessed channel, 2mm deep has has virtical sides.

We then open up the undercut to match the centre piece. Very careful fitting is necessary.

Finished and trimmed to a tight fit, you will notice the two crosses marked inslde the recess, this is a "one way in" fit. Hence the very slight taper.

The ribs are then cut using a very large rib tool 7mm wide. The tool, ground to a precise profile, with a very delicate point in the middle, must be extremely sharp. Actually, we very carefully grind and polish the tip into a small radius to strengthen it and extend its life. This is not very noticeable when examining the finished product.

Of all the designs and makes of engine turning machine, in our experience, only the Plant 14 inch Straight Line Machines can take the heavy cutting required to cut ris this size. The Plant design was a very substantially strengthened version of the Leinhard machine that Plant used to import in the late nineteenth Century.

Rolex Jubilee

The basic technique is the same as the president except we don't dovetail the inserts and there are two inserts, two recesses. To hold them in place for ribbing they are glued with cyanoacrylate, in a very tight fit.

Rolex Jubilee - recessing the two channels and fitting the yellow gold inserts. The inserts were drawn from wire and supplied to us finished. We just fitted them into the recesses we had cut, ready for glueing and ribbing.

After the ribs are cut, the pieces are polished while inline to keep the edghes sharp, then staggered, then trimed to length and finally coloured up with rouge.

The cufflinks for the Cartier design are made using exactly the same technique as the Rolex Jubilee, but the rib profile is different.

Other uses for the Slideway Technique

Other uses for the technique of making small slideways have included chanels for the windows on a 400mm high model of a public building, slides for box lids, a very thin slide running down the outside of a box, cut with lines to disguise it, to connect a secret mechanism. Other cufflinks to match patterns such as those produced by Cartier have also been done using the same technique.