The diamond screw: will it be soon used in watches?

Presented at the 2013 EPHJ exhibition under a contractual confidentiality obligation, the idea behind this innovation was formed following a quite uncommon life experience. Charles Egli, a Swiss born in Anvers, was an active diamond dealer until he returned to Switzerland and took up the added-value business of “non-noble” materials; an added value that comes from human knowledge. Since he dealt with valuable stones for the first half of his professional life and therefore acquired a vast experience, Charles Egli is aware of the work that makes a simple piece of steel worth its weight in gold. Thus, in 2007, he opened a company to produce screws. Today, Micro Précis SA is able to produce miniature versions of one third of a watch’s components. It also holds the record for producing the smallest screw in the world.

Micro componant with pencil

At the 2014 EPHJ-EPMT-SMT exhibition, Egli’s patented and copyright idea, the diamond screw, attracted the interest of the luxury watchmaking sector as its screw head could be set with diamonds, jades or rubies.

Considering the amount of screws a mechanical movement contains, including some which cannot be seen from the outside, it seems surprising that no one had the idea of the diamond screw before him. This approach is absolutely coherent with a sector that is able to create high added-value objects by simply mastering the use of a material. Will the decorative screw with no other function than that of beauty and shine be adopted and used in future calibers of complex mechanisms? We do hope so.

Micro screw in titanium

At the frontier of nanotechnology
Discreetly located along Les Acacias, Micro Précis, a specialist in miniaturization and active in Haute Horlogerie and medical implants, was until now a young brand that produced turning parts and screws. The SME worked with the infinitesimally small while partaking in a worldwide media-covered project. When Charles Egli started producing turning parts in 2007, he realized that too often independent watchmaking brands had to deal with impossible deadlines because they needed Hallmark of Geneva quality but didn’t have them. Other particularly well-established actors in the field favored their main clients over SMEs. The demand was therefore tangible and Egli started producing turning parts. He grew fond of this activity where, as he describes it, “the raw material hardly has any value until we put in the effort”.

Seen through a microscope: a hair and a screw of less than 200 microns. That is certainly the smallest screw ever produced and almost a work of art.

With the intention of showing the sector their mastery of nanotechnology and since the 2009 financial crisis affected the activity of the company, its team has used a standard machine to produce a screw of less than 200 microns. That is certainly the smallest screw ever produced and almost a work of art. This has proved a successful approach as word has got around and leading brands now trust the brand and have become its main clients.

During an exhibition in the United States, Egli met the team of ex-fighter pilot Andy Green who wished to break the landing speed world record and reach up to 1,609 km/h in the Boodhound SSC supersonic car. The project was sponsored by the British government, which believed it could encourage youngsters to take up engineering. When Egli daintily offered his know-how about turning parts, he was taken in as a partner. Most importantly though, Micro Précis is their official supplier of micro-pieces for the supersonic car, yet, obviously, the pieces he provides them with are much larger than those the company produces for the leading watchmaking brands.