Richard ‘Ipy’ Siegrist oversaw the development of the Laser’s unique dial. Here, he explains how it works and what it says about Oris watchmaking.
Richard – or should we call you Ipy? – tell us a bit about yourself…
My name is Richard Siegrist, but I’m known as Ipy from the name Ipyana, which I got in Tanzania where I was born and lived until I was seven years old. I’m 35 now, married to a beautiful Italian woman (hence the belly) and I live in Basel. By education, I’m a timber engineer. At home, I have a small woodshop where I make furniture or refurbish flea market findings. In the autumn and winter, we go truffle hunting with our dog, which is a nice way to connect with nature.
And what’s your Oris story?
I joined Oris four years ago as a product development engineer. My job is to look for and develop innovative materials and new production processes that can be incorporated into watches. I’m also working on new functions that are not powered by watch movements, which are taken care of by a separate division.
Which projects have your fingerprint on them?
The developments I work on take years to come to light, so a lot of my work to date is only starting to appear now. The most notable is the 3D-printed carbon fibre composite that we developed together with 9T labs you’ve seen in the Coulson Limited Edition and the new ProPilot Altimeter. It was one of my first projects and took three years to get to launch. You have to have a lot of patience in this game! But I love solving problems. And it helps doing it for Oris: I like the company’s independence. It goes its own way.
Let’s get to the Laser’s dial – how is it made?
We’re looking at a phenomenon called optical interference. You can see a dial that has beautiful colours ranging from blue to green to violet. But there is not a single pigment of colour on it. Everything is achieved via a laser treatment that changes the watch’s titanium dial in such a way that the light waves that get reflected back to your eyes only contain a certain spectrum of the visible light, and therefore give you an impression of colour. Normal light contains all the colours of the visible spectrum (and more that are not visible). If a certain range – the longer red waves, for example – gets destroyed, only the medium green and shorter blue waves get reflected. It’s colour creation by addition. We’ve also added a second layer that splits the visible light into its components and creates a shimmering rainbow effect. How you see this depends on your viewing angle.
Wow. And is this a watchmaking first?
Yes, thanks to the process: we were able to combine the colourisation with the shimmering effect. This took years of research and an extensive trial-and-error phase. We are the only ones in the industry that have done this. It’s technological beauty at its most captivating.
Technological beauty – what’s that?
Simply, it’s creating beautiful things with highly technological processes. We’re using state-of-the-art technology to bring out a phenomenon in nature, almost like biomimicry. There are many animals that create their colours with the same effect, a butterfly for example. Harnessing this effect to create such a unique dial is awesome.
Did you work with a partner to deliver it?
Yes. We take great pride in collaborating with cutting-edge Swiss companies that share our innovative, envelope-pushing spirit. We have a long-term and hugely successful partnership with ETH Zürich, one of the world’s most prestigious technical universities, and some of its affiliated research institutions. That gives us access to highly specialised and motivated people working on state-of-the-art technology. We’re involved in every step, though. To develop the lasering technique behind this watch and achieve this surface and finish, you have to own the entire production process.
What was the project development time, and what challenges did you have to get past?
About two years. The big challenge was (as always) to go into serial production. Making a sample is “easy” but being able to scale it up to hundreds and thousands of similar-looking dials was a real challenge. Note the dials have variations in them. This is due to the incredibly tight tolerances that change the effect immediately if you are only 1 or 2 microns off in the thickness of the dial due to the repositioning of the focal point of the laser. We had to do quite some testing to develop the dial holder during the lasering process. It was a lot of fun.
To use layman’s terms, is it like a lenticular?
It has a similar effect, but technically it’s not the same at all. The colourisation is made by manipulating the surface in such a way that light with a certain wavelength is destroyed and others reflected. By playing with these parameters and adding the shimmering effect you get the different colours. In the end, you have a rainbow on your wrist, depending on the viewing angle.
Could it be applied to other watch parts?
It could, but it’s soft and quite supple, so in our view it’s best to use it for components that are protected – such as the dial.
And what does this watch say about Oris?
My brief is to come up with solutions that are sustainable and innovative, and that demonstrate Oris’s independence. This watch answers it by bringing in technology that’s never been used in this industry before. The link with ETH is important, too. We’re passionate about working with young people and giving them opportunities to showcase their talents and ideas. And put all this together with the ProPilot X Calibre 400, and you get an incredible watch that will bring its owner many years of joy – and make them smile.