PVD - Physical Vapour Deposition

PVD stands for "Physical Vapour Deposition". The PVD coating serves to make watches more durable, increase their resistance, and enhance their appearance.

During the vacuum coating process, very fine layers of hard substances in vapor form are applied to the base material, forming a comprehensive coating layer. The entire powder coating must take place in a vacuum chamber to prevent a reaction between the vapor and the air. Layer thicknesses can start in the nanometer range. However, by repeating the process several times, layers up to a few micrometers can be built up.

The great advantage of the vacuum coating process is that the sputtered material does not chemically react with the surface. The adhesion is exclusively due to the process.

The conventional PVD process results in a strong black surface. Therefore, black watches are usually treated with the PVD process and can be easily recognized. Besides the conventional coating with the black material, there is also PVD gilding. In this process, a thin layer of metal is also evaporated and applied to the watch. This results in a gold or rose gold coating instead of a black surface.

In PVD gilding, identical procedures are used as in the conventional PVD coating. However, instead of spraying lead or graphite, gold particles are used.