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Engraving may not be one of those professions that is fundamental to
watchmaking, but without it horological mechanics would remain soulless
machines, the metal remaining as cold and lifeless as the earth it was mined
from. In its function as a decorative medium, engraving is irreplaceable in the
history of watchmaking, unmistakably a science all its own – with its own
history, techniques, and artists.
The beginnings of engraving on metal are documented at around the fifth century
BC. This artistic form was often used in conjunction with other crafts such as
chasing and repousee, methods different from engraving in that they employ a
shaped metal rod hammered against the metal to make an indentation. Hand
engraving fundamentally employs a short, very sharp metal rod called a graver
that is pushed along a surface by hand. It results in a much sharper line than
other instruments. The development of alphabets brought with it the increased
use of this art form.
During the fifteenth century the engraving art reached its peak. Not only was
it used to decorate armor and commemorative items (heraldry became a critical
issue during this time as a shield was the only item to announce alliance when
the entire body was covered in armor!), but during the Renaissance it became an
art form unto itself in conjunction with an early incarnation of printing. The
close of the fifteenth century heralded the activities of great master
engravers, the most famous and talented of them all being Germany’s Albrecht
Durer. This prodigal talent is unanimously called the greatest of all line
engravers, perfectly able to express his genius within this medium. Living in
Nuremberg from his birth in 1471 until his death in 1528, he was a pioneer in
both line engraving and etching. In the seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries, the epicenter of the engraving art form moved from the Germanic and
Low Countries to the west and south, generally France and Italy, where portrait
engraving began its run.
Because the engravings were turned into prints by means of ink and paper, this
art form can be termed the first successful industrial procedure applied to
artistic representation. At the end of the eighteenth century, machine ruling
came into use among commercial engravers, and as the Industrial Revolution came
along, machines began to take on a larger and larger role within the art form.
Impersonal roll stamping and commercial casting began to overtake hand
engraving, which became largely unavailable except as ornamentation on
firearms, knives, rare gifts, and personal objects owned by the wealthy to lend
them greater value – such as pocket watches. Today most engraving we see is
also done by machine in some form. Hand engraving is still rare, and those who
practice the art are even rarer.
It’s no wonder that this craft, whose beginnings originated on the European
continent, wandered over to watchmaking, an art also rooted in the Old World.
The portable nature of both art forms make them ideal counterparts. A delicate
and exact craft, engraving complements the delicate and exacting nature of
watches and their movements perfectly.
The engraved line is a simple, universal mode of ornamentation, and in intaglio
engraving it is incised directly onto the surface of the chosen metal by hand
using various instruments such as the graver, the burin and the drypoint to
name just a few. Relief engraving is achieved by making the lines and spaces in
negative, leaving the design raised above the surface.
By contrast, the etching technique is obtained by corroding the metal plate
with an acid or mordant. Substances generally used for this include nitric
acid, sulphur, and a mixture including hydrocholoric acid that is known as the
Dutch Bath. This technique was introduced as early as the fifteenth century,
and Durer was one of its forerunners. Today it is a widespread technique used
on contemporary wristwatches to obtain very exact renditions and a “grainy”
look. Case backs of luxury wristwatches made of steel, a very hard substance to
hand engrave, often display etchings achieved by the use of industrial acid
baths. Today this technique is termed “chemical engraving.”
In this day and age engraving is generally done by machine: Lasers and CNC
machines to diamond engrave and mill are among those used industrially. There
are few true masters of the trade left, although according to Adone T.
Pozzobon, proprietor of Adone Galleries and the popular website
engravingarts.com specializing in firearm and knife engraving, “Present-day
master engravers have transformed the craft into a true respected art form.
Never before in our history have engravers reached such high standards in
producing fine engravings.”
The modern era’s arsenal of tools for the master engraver has hardly changed
over the centuries. One important innovation is, of course, the microscope.
This instrument allows the engraver to continue cutting minute areas of metal
to a ripe old age by relieving strain on his eyes. It also allows for a more
exacting view of the area to be engraved. Jochen Benzinger, one of less than a
handful of independent master engravers left in Germany, has always preferred
to practice his profession entirely in the traditional manner – including the
use of only the naked eye when he works. “We work very traditionally in my
workshop, utilizing only traditional hand-held tools and practices.” In
addition to making his own unique pieces, he works with many traditionally
minded watchmakers such as Martin Braun, Roland Murphy and Christiaan van der
Klaauw, mainly embellishing their movements and making them unique pieces.
Benzinger is not a watchmaker himself, although he employs a full-time
watchmaker to aid in his work with movements. “You have to have a good
watchmaker to help with the individual components. After the movement has been
dismantled, it needs to be rebuilt, and that is no problem with a good
watchmaker on hand.” Benzinger’s specialty is ornamental engraving, something
he does with visible elan, including flourishing patterns and vine and leaf
motifs. He can, however, work according to the wishes of the client, first
lightly sketching the pattern onto the surface with a pencil. He adds vine and
leaf motifs freehand, with feeling, so that it looks different every time.
Additionally his workshop does skeletonizing and guilloche by hand. Benzinger
taught himself the art of guilloche, as courses for this are no longer
available in metalworking schools, and owns an impressive collection of
historical rose engine machines that have not been produced in over half a
century.
Engraver Kees Englbarts also comes from the traditional engraving region of
central Europe. Born and schooled in Holland – one of the Low Countries – he
formally studied engraving in Germany as well. A young, self-styled freelance
engraver now living and working in Geneva, Englbarts has embraced some of the
more modern additions to the engraver’s tool kit such as a powerful microscope
and the Graver Max, a push graver outfitted with a compressor. Although he also
engraves movements and practical components, giving them a soul to go along
with their beating hearts, his specialty lies in the beautiful rendition of
concrete objects in relief on dials. He loves to try out new techniques and
methods, and was the first to engrave a watch dial made of the rare metal
amalgamate mokume gane. “Using modern techniques to work more quickly and more
precisely are okay. But once it is done machine engraving cannot possibly be
compared with hand engraving,” Englbarts reports. For an in-depth report on
Kees Englbarts please see International Wristwatch issue number 59 from
September 2002.
This is not to say that only Europe produces good engravers – au contraire.
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s official U.S. engraver is actually an American-born,
self-taught watchmaker-turned-engraver, an interest that began as a hobby. J.C.
Randell now owns the title of “professional engraver” (the equivalent of a
European master engraver) earned from the Firearms Engravers Guild of America.
Apart from the classic monograms and initials he styles, Randell’s strong – and
from a horological point of view unusual – point definitely lies in the
three-dimensional renditions that find their origins in the art of firearm and
knife engraving including fine shading and gradual tone changes, techniques
that add to the three-dimensional quality of his work. The fact that Randell is
self-taught frees him from traditional ways of thinking and adds an unusual
style to his work, which he terms “an ongoing process. I only want each of my
engravings to be better than the last.” He thinks up techniques to achieve the
effect he is shooting for, best expressed in his near photo-realistic
portraits. One technique he employs in achieving this is bulino engraving,
although he personally would never term it that way. Bulino is actually a
combination of closely placed lines and dots to achieve various degrees of
shading and 3D imagery. His interest lies not in naming the techniques, but in
being able to ask the question “Do you like my work?” and getting a positive
answer. “Engraving is an illusion, and an illusion should come out to meet the
eye,” he professes. He is most well known in watch circles for his work on
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s classic Reverso model, a watch that possesses a glossy
surface that is not entirely easy to engrave; any buffing and scratching is
immediately visible and unretractable. When working he sketches a basic outline
of the chosen pattern on the surface, after which he uses unusually light lines
to cut the rest of the design utilizing only his experience to guide him.
“Cutting the lines is the actual art,” he says. “Even if I were to draw the
entire design beforehand, I would want to change it along the way anyway. A cut
line is always sharper than a line that has been drawn by pencil.”
Engravers such as Pozzobon who specialize in firearm and knife embellishment
consider the high-definition images of bulino and photo realism the most
difficult and prestigious part of an engraving. Kees Englbarts begs to differ.
“Engravers who can do this are certainly great artists and craftsmen, but you
cannot compare apples to oranges – these engraving techniques are totally
different and may be compared to making a drawing on metal on one hand, and on
the other to doing a sculpture on metal (in bas-relief technique). There are no
world championships in engraving: For me, engraving is like painting, making
music, or any other creative activity. What they have in common is that they
are not hard to do, but hard to do right. The most important thing is the
result!”
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