WATCH CONSTRUCTION AT TITAN
The manufacturing process at Titan allows for three types of watch case construction. If these are understood and respected, design can begin to take scalable measures without replacing infrastructure. While we saw a peak of this in the product tear-down, the construction methods are as follows:
Type of Construction: Top Loaded Construction:
Type of Construction: Bottom Loaded Construction
How it works: Like the name suggests, a top loaded construction is one where all parts of the watch are mounted from the upper cavity of the watch (into which the crystal sits).
How it works: A bottom loaded construction is one where all parts of the watch are mounted from the lower cavity of the watch (into which the caseback is fitted).
Benefit: This kind of construction has the potential to make a watch thinner and is less expensive to produce since a caseback need not be manufactured.
Benefit: This kind of construction allows for easy repair since one doesn’t need to break the crystal to access the components of the watch. Bottom loaded watches are also easy to make watertight and thus a lot of the diving watches are bottom loaded.
Drawback: In this kind of construction, the watch can only be repaired by breaking the crystal (which is often glued down onto the watch). Other companies that follow this construction method: Swatch, Flik Flak.
Type of Construction: Combination of Top and Bottom Construction How it works: This kind of construction involves parts like the crystal and hands to be mounted from the top, while other parts like the movement, dial, and caseback load onto the back of the watch. Benefit: This kind of construction enables companies to make thin watches that are also easy to repair.
Drawback: This kind of construction is expensive.
Drawback: These kind of watches are usually water resistant up to only 5 ATM.
Other companies that follow this construction method: Rolex, Blancpain
Other companies that follow this construction method: Skagen, Timex.
Graduation Project | Titan Vision Next: Explorations in Recrafting the Watch Proposition | 135
