Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons

What You Need to Know About Hardstone Dials

Explore the ongoing appeal of semi-precious dials.

Timeless Beauty, Renewed Appeal

One of the biggest trends in watches at the moment is hardstone dials, also called semi-precious dials. They've been around for decades, pioneered by brands like Rolex, but in recent years, the vibrancy and one-of-a-kind nature of these unique materials has seen a renewed interest in these fragile beauties.

From jade to turquoise and even meteorites, the visual appeal of hardstone dials is hard to ignore. While plenty of materials are used, they all have one thing in common — their very nature means they're challenging to produce. Regardless of material, the fundamentals of crafting a hardstone dial remain the same — a slender slice is carved from a larger stone. These slices are exceptionally thin — typically around 1mm, but more than double the thickness of a traditional brass dial blank. Even before the dial is placed in the watch, it's an incredibly delicate process, flaws in the stone and the delicate nature of the process lead to an exceptionally high failure rate, with some brands reporting that up to 80% of dials are wasted. But the results are worth it. Take, for example, the glossy black onyx used on this 42mm Girard-Perregaux Laureato. At first glance, the black dial might appear to be a standard lacquer but look closer, and the depth, richness and lustre of the pitch-black onyx would be virtually impossible to replicate.

By its very nature, each hardstone dial is unique, carved from an organic material rather than created on a production line. In fact, many watchmakers embrace the organic nature of the materials to give them character and accentuate the beauty of the stone even more. These 'inclusions', as they're referred to, can be subtle, like the natural flecks and colours found on H. Moser & Cie's Streamliner Tourbillon Wyoming Jade, or they can be more dramatic, like veins and lines that show just how unique the hardstone dials truly are. Rolex often makes use of dramatic inclusions in their hardstone dials. One particularly dramatic example of this style of organic dial design is meteorite dials, which are typically crafted from meteorites made with nickel-iron alloy, which are formed over millennia into striking, geometric patterns known as Widmanstätten patterns. Watchmakers often highlight these patterns through a delicate acid-etching process, as well as colour treatment.One of the more common hardstone materials is mother-of-pearl, sometimes called nacre. This material is produced as the inner shell layer of pearl oysters, mussels, and other molluscs. It can be cut, coloured, and otherwise worked into dials that accentuate the opalescent sheen of the material. Other common materials for hardstone dials are malachite, a green stone with a characteristic layered pattern. Lapis Lazuli, famed for its intense blue colour and vivid metallic inclusions, makes for a particularly dramatic dial.

One material that straddles the line between hardstone and artisanal craft is aventurine. While aventurine feldspar is a naturally occurring semi-precious stone, in watchmaking, most aventurine is 'aventurine glass', an enamel-like material that sees metallic inclusions (typically copper) added to molten glass to create a mysterious material full of star-like flecks. It's often paired with celestial complications to highlight the starry nature of these timepieces, but one striking application of aventurine is on Ulysse Nardin's Diver Starry Night, which layers translucent aventurine material over mother-of-pearl to create diver like no other.Given the variety and truly unique effects hardstone dials can create, it's easy to see the perennial appeal of these semi-precious dials.

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