This is unusual for a watch manufacture – an in-house electroplating and coating workshop. These are not too common at watch factories, especially smaller ones like Hublot, because of the special permits required due to the hazardous chemicals needed to do plating and coating.
Protective goggles are needed because...
Above: Parts are hung on this and immersed in the dangerous looking electrolyte solutions shown below
Above: Before and after gold-plating
Below: A electroplating demonstration
But because of Hublot’s emphasis on colours and materials, this is a key aspect of the manufacture. Doing this in-house allows for an almost unlimited range of colour variations for watch parts.
Above: Various parts that have been electroplated
Eventually this will be expanded into an in-house materials department that will also do ceramics and other materials. Notably, Hublot also sponsors a PhD in metallurgy at the nearby Lausanne Federal Polytechnic.
Below: A x-ray that performs material analysis and coating thickness measurement to check the conformance of plated parts
This message has been edited by SJX on 2011-04-03 03:14:32