Five awesome things about cases made of titanium

Nowadays, after the development of Swiss watchmaking technology has encountered a bottleneck, watch brands have begun to pay great attention to the material of watches. After steel and precious metals, watch cases are now made of ceramic, sapphire glass, titanium and other novel materials. The use of these materials for watch cases is also due to the fact that watch manufacturers value the excellent properties of these materials, such as ceramic is very wear-resistant and titanium is very lightweight.
Titanium as a metal material category, its emergence to improve the previous lack of watch materials, watchmakers see the material's superb performance, designers also love its avant-garde texture, with the continuous progress of technology, titanium watches have become the new favorite of the watchmaking industry. Titanium itself looks similar to stainless steel at first glance, with a silvery-gray luster, retains its color throughout its life at room temperature, never blackens easily, is acid-resistant and hard, and was widely used in aviation and marine diving long before it became a watch material. Titanium alloy is lighter and more corrosion-resistant than stainless steel. The main advantage of titanium alloy over steel is its low density and high corrosion resistance.

Before the mid-1970s, more than 85% of all titanium produced was used in the aerospace industry. Titanium's unique properties: half the density of steel, excellent strength retention (to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit), and much higher environmental corrosion resistance than other metals. This makes it an ideal material for building engines and aircraft frames for jets, rockets and spacecraft.
*Watch weight reduction depends on it
In recent years there has been a trend for watches with large diameters, and if they are made of steel or precious metals, the weight of the case plus the weight of the center of the movement is conceivably too light for the average person to bear. With this in mind, the weight of a watch must be reversed. Titanium weighs 47.90 atomic weights, which is nearly 50% lighter than steel, so a titanium watch is half the weight of its steel counterpart, making it a good choice for fans of larger watches.
* Resistant to pressure without deformation
Titanium is 30% harder than steel and is incredibly hard and strong. In addition, titanium's excellent resistance to pressure makes it one of the favorite materials used in professional diving watches, allowing them to remain undeformed even when submerged in deep waters.
* Superior corrosion resistance
Titanium is highly resistant to corrosion. When exposed to air, its surface forms a tight and tough film that resists many substances that attack metals, especially seawater, so many professional dive watches have turned to titanium!
*Variety of colors
Although the above three qualities are not easily damaged, titanium can also be changed into various colors under the action of electric current, and the original silver-white titanium metal changes into thousands of colors, showing a hundred different shapes.
*Highly difficult to process
Lightweight, tough, corrosion-resistant, these advantages make titanium metal firmly sit on the throne of the metal nobility, but because of the complexity of refining, technical difficulties and relatively difficult to popularize, resulting in titanium watches will be higher than the price of steel.
Titanium as a watch material has very good advantages, summed up:
1, titanium watches are quite comfortable to wear because they are surprisingly light;
2, Titanium is anti-allergenic, it does not contain nickel and is comfortable to wear even when your skin is sweaty;
3, because titanium is harder than steel, titanium watches are more durable;
4, Corrosion resistance makes titanium particularly suitable for diving watches.
Then, can titanium be used as the material for the center of a mechanical watch? Unfortunately, no. Titanium alloy and steel compared to the main advantage of low density, corrosion resistance, but the absolute hardness and strength are not as good as steel, and processing is very poor, and is not suitable for internal parts of the watch, but to do the case still has its advantages, the problem is that it is low brightness, easy to scratch, and rely on the coating (plating) layer to protect. A lot of small holes on the deck is very small, and irregular cutting on the tool requirements are higher, if the plywood strength is high processing difficulty is higher, plus the watch machine center on the hardness of the plywood material is not high, while the anti-wear there are gemstone bearings to take care of, of course, some of the small accessories have high strength material, but small accessories are easy to be processed by the rules. So it is more appropriate to use copper alloy for the clamp material. Although copper will rust and not wear-resistant, but it is cheap, easy to cut, can be plated, lubricated, ruby bearings, steel parts and other components in a relatively "low-cost" way to solve.

Titanium is not a rare metal; it is the ninth most abundant in the earth's crust. The supply of titanium ore will last at least another 10,000 years. It has been found in meteorites, moon rocks, the sun and other planets. However, the relatively slow and expensive process of extracting titanium makes it expensive. For many years, the high price has limited the use of titanium in military and aerospace applications.