French Watch Designer A.L.B. Enlists Sculpteo for 3D Printing of Uniquely Beautiful Timepieces
It isn’t too often that you come across a watch that just makes you say, “Wow!” Today’s watches all pretty much follow the same basic design schemes, making owning a unique timepiece something quite special. A French company, out of Toulouse, called A.L.B (Atelier Le Brézéguet), is trying to change this though with their ALB 000 “Balade au Brézéguet” and ALB 100 “Secondes d’Eclipse” watches.
Unlike most watches, the assembly and construction involves quite a bit of 3D printing, thanks to 3D Printing supplier, Sculpteo. 3D printing allows the company to create unique designs on a one-to-one basis, rather than having to spend a fortune mass manufacturing multiple watches all at once.
A.L.B. is founded by Simon Pierre Delord who designs and develops the watches, and Vincent Candelle Tuheille, who designs and assembles them. Using 3D printing has allowed them to create a design that makes these watches truly unique, unlike most watches we are all normally used to seeing. While the entire watch is not 3D printed, a large portion of it is.
“We call the printed parts the top ring and bottom ring,” Delord told 3DPrint.com. “But there is no specific words for this part because it is mix between a ring and a dial.”
You can see a photo of the 3D printed portion of these watches below:
The 3D Printed parts of the A.L.B. Watches
Development of a watch takes A.L.B. several months of work, first starting with sketches, then proceeding and moving onto the 3D modeling of the watch, including the use of 3D scanners, before having a prototype created. Then if everything with the prototype looks good, the company has Sculpteo 3D print the top and bottom ring, and then theybegin assembling the watch.
A.L.B. uses a very strict quality control system, where they make sure that all the correct adjustments have been made, prior to a full inspection under a magnifying glass. Once complete, a final water-resistance test is performed to make sure the watch can hold up under water.
As you can see in these photos, these watches are very unique in design, thanks in part to 3D printing technology. As for the price of these watches, Delord tells us that each watch costs 1500 Euros. Not bad considering all of the craftsmanship and design that goes into the creation of these unique timepieces.
What do you think? Would you spend 1500 Euros for an A.L.B. watch? Discuss in the 3D Printed A.L.B. forum thread on 3DPB.com
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