Introducing the Model 2 Porcelain: Delving Further into the Vitreous Arts
February 28, 2025
In the summer of 2021, our enamellers stayed in a rambling chateau outside the French city of Limoges, a place synonymous with the ‘fired arts’. It was a memorable week spent visiting the museum dedicated to the medium, the local enamel manufacturer and some great artisans working in the region. However, the city is best known for the other fired art: porcelain. Inspired by what we’d seen, and intrigued by a medium so ostensibly similar to enamel, our experiments in porcelain began shortly after returning home.
Enamel and porcelain are often used interchangeably among watch enthusiasts but, despite their similarities (they’re both handmade, kiln-fired products), they are fundamentally different.
Our vitreous, or grand feu, enamel dials consist of a glass-based powder applied by hand to a metal disc, either by sifting or using a wet lay process. They are then fired in a kiln at 840°C, where the enamel melts and bonds to the metal surface. Layers are added until the desired thickness and finish are achieved.
Our porcelain dials consist of a clay body with a high fired vitreous glaze. The clay body is composed of different minerals and compounds such as silica and aluminium oxide, and can be fired to temperatures as high as 1300°C. A vitreous glaze is often applied to porcelain to achieve the desired finish, whether that be opaque or transparent, satin or glossy. The glaze fuses directly with the porcelain body, creating a permanent bond. The intended colour is attained through the ingredients used within the glaze; for instance, the colour black can be achieved by incorporating the compound iron oxide.
In black and white opaque dials, enamel and porcelain look similar, with a glossy lustre and a finish that is uniform and flat, but not to the point of being machine-made.
To complicate matters further, a few watch brands have recently released ‘porcelain’ dials made from sheets of zirconia ceramic – an industrial material, cut into a dial shape. This is a very different process, far removed from the more artisanal handcrafts we’re most interested in at anOrdain.
We encountered many of the same challenges we overcame a decade earlier when working with enamel for the first time. Mastering the material is one thing, but finessing its shape and appearance to meet the functional and aesthetic tolerances of watchmaking is another.
With no living dial enamellers in the UK, our skills were developed in isolation, whereas with porcelain, a real highlight of this project has been working with the talented craftspeople in the UK’s home of pottery, Stoke-on-Trent.
Why porcelain dials? There were two main reasons; we were driven partly by curiosity and the draw of a new challenge, but also by a desire to develop watches with character and individuality at an accessible price.
Porcelain isn’t easy to make, but it is possible to make in small batches, whereas our enamel work will always be one enameller working on one dial. After years of dedicated research, we’ve just finished our first batch of 40 porcelain dials. Fewer will make it into finished watches, but aim is to produce 30 per month from now on.
As with all new releases, they’ll be offered first to those who’ve waited longest. From today, those with a Q2 build slot can order one instead of, or as well as, their enamel watch, and then we’ll offer them to Q3, then Q4 and so on. Finally, we will offer the porcelain dials to existing customers, before making them available on the website to all. As levels of demand and production output involve a degree of uncertainty, we can’t yet say how soon they will be on sale to those outside the waiting list.
We’re currently making only the 39.5mm Model 2, but are developing the 36mm version for launch later in the year. Additionally, the porcelain dials will only be available with the G101 movement by La Joux-Perret and in the brushed case.
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