India’s Iconic Watchmaker The Jaipur Watch Company (JWC) recently unvieled a collection of India’s first 3D-printed watches. This is the first time a premium watch brand in India has built and designed with the use of 3D-printing technology, which is likely to transform manufacturing in coming years.
The luxury watchmaker had used a stainless steel to 3D print its latest collection of watches. The technology is very simple: you first have to feed the design of whatever you want printed onto a computer using the latest softwares, fill the printer with raw material to be used in the 3D printing, and the object is “printed out” layer by layer. But 3D printing technology currently are not cost-effective, because good printers are still expensive across the world. In the past, a few Swiss luxury watch brands have started manufacturing 3D-printed watches.
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Apart from their unique manufacturing concept, there are other features that make JWC’s timepieces cut above the rest. For example, their dials, which are decorated with 3D-printed motifs and numbers. Also, there are sapphire crystals adorning the watches and giving them a elegant look.
The brand has empowered these watches using a system called the Japanese Miyota mechanical movement 9015, which is quite famous among luxury watchmakers around the globe. High quality design is also showcassed in the genuine handcrafted leather straps of JWC’s 3D-printed line.
Gaurav Mehta, founder and CEO, Jaipur Watch Company, spoke to Guardian 20 about using 3D-printing technology for the brand’s timepieces. “Our brand is renowned for its creativity, and this time we wanted to create a unique concept of which the Indian watch market was completely unaware. We chose to 3D print the watch because it was the only way to achieve the result we wanted. In the 1990s, 3D printing techniques were considered suitable only for the production of functional or aesthetic prototypes. Today, the precision, repeatability and material range have increased to the point that 3D printing is considered as an industrial production technology,” he said.
Mehta told us that it was challenging and expensive to incorporate this technology at their company’s manufacturing plant in Bangalore, without which his dream project couldn’t have seen the light of day.
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While 3D-printed watches have their own unique glamour and charm making them requires lesser time, it is cumbersome to mass manufacture them. Mehta said, “3D printing is a cost effective method to create only a few watches, and of different models. You need to avoid using mass manufacturing processes. We had to create and work upon a lot of designs initially as we were completely new to this technology. There was something to learn at every step.”
For the brand, acquiring this new innovation doesn’t mean moving far from their legacy. The Jaipur Watch Company is perceived as India’s just bespoke watchmaker that began, in 2013, by making watches that contained genuine pre-British time coins on their dials. This hand crafted highlight that helped the organization gain prevalence is additionally accessible in their most recent 3D printed line.
For the producers, modifying an extravagance watch is a workmanship and they search for assembling forms which enable them to make on-request plans. So watch experts can approach with monograms, themes and coins they’d like implanted into their timepieces. They can likewise get the watch backs monogrammed with writings and etchings.
Be that as it may, the question remains: what are the benefits of 3D printing a watch? As indicated by Mehta, it furnishes a chance to work with a quicker assembling framework and building up the item rapidly and easily. “Speed and control are the fundamental advantages of fusing this innovation into the R&D procedure. Be that as it may, for us, the primary favorable position of utilizing 3D printing for our watches is basically opportunity. Not exclusively does this assembling technique offer a great deal of opportunity during the innovative procedure, yet in addition during the creation. It tends to be utilized for fast prototyping, consequently it is additionally a sufficient answer for generation. It offers chances to make new shapes. Amazing plans can be made just in one piece of the watch. There is likewise a probability to re-try the model and republish another rendition while prototyping, which incomprehensible with assembling techniques, for example, infusion shaping, which has been being used for long,” said Mehta.
The range of JWC’s 3D-printed watches starts at Rs 65,000. This collection is retailing via all Tijori stores at Oberoi group of hotels on a pan India level. The watches can also be booked online on the website, www.jaipurwatches.com. The brand is also planning to open their first flagship store at Select City Walk in Delhi by end of 2019.