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Not Quite White

by Lewis Heath  - August 23, 2018

For the first two years we worked almost entirely with a white enamel called DW1 - of the 18 variants of white we'd sourced, this was a remnant of watch manufacturing in the UK; the name DW1 being an abbreviation for Dial White 1. Each enamel has different characteristics and by learning with one we could focus on consistency, finish and how to control warping.

Quality control of early dial prototypes - we began with white enamel and moved onto more complex colours once we had mastered this

DW1 was the one we became most comfortable with, but, several years later when we came to select our launch colours, we didn't include a white dial. It seemed like making another white enamel dial wouldn't be contributing anything new, so instead we chose this Iron Cream enamel. It's got the crispness of white but with a warmth and character that those 18 just don't have.

An angled view of the iron cream dial in an anOrdain Model 1 watch

We're continuing to experiment with different whites and off-whites, but the Iron Cream remains a firm favourite.

 



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