Enamelling - Made In Singapore

In watch collecting, the enamel dial especially Grand Feu Enamel is very sought after. Enamel dial timepieces carry a premium and there are very few specialists that specialises in making these dials. Even top manufactures may outsource their enamel dials, preferring to use specialists houses.

In comes Charlotte Hoe, master enameller who created the enamel dials for the Feynman Coalesce Peranakan Series. The series consists of three timepieces and Project Coalesce (see my earlier post) was sold out immediately.

The Lotus (above) is the most colourful of the trio.

From a very young age, Charlotte was already working in the family’s jewellery workshop working on bespoke jewellery with precious metals like silver and gold. Together with sister Rachel, they now run Royal Insignia - the family business. Enamelling is not a specialty normally associated with “Made in Singapore” but Charlotte has brought to the forefront her enamelling skills when she collaborated with Feynman Timekeepers on the Project Coalesce.

The Peacock (above) was perhaps the most complex.

Having graduated from The Lasalle College of the Arts, Charlotte sought to master the art of enamelling. Being such a closely guarded trade craft, there seems to have no “masters” in Singapore she can turn to. So she started exploring place in the UK and the US to learn more about enamelling. What made it even more difficult to find a suitable master was her Asian ethnicity.

The Peony (above) is another multi-coloured piece

With enamelling, the technique uses powdered glass to be fired on a base plate. Because coloured glass fires at different temperature for different colours, shades and hue, the final product must be clear as the process of firing has to be from the hottest to the coolest temperature. Even while one learns the art of enamelling in UK or the US, the training and practicing continues back in Singapore as the humidity, materials like water and equipment all makes a difference in the final product.

The centre of attraction is the dial - and the Peranakans are well known to use enamelled tiles for and in their homes. Richly coloured tea cups with intricate motifs adorn many ornaments which are still in existence today. So the search for an enamelist began. Through an introduction, YK got to know Charlotte whose family makes specialised bespoke jewellery. Perhaps one of the few enamelists in Singapore, Charlotte has had several years of experience working with enamel and precious metals like gold and silver.

While YK had some ideas of what he had wanted, the consultation with Charlotte went to and fro and the final product was somewhat vastly different from the initial impression. I will be posting a separate post on the journey of the enamelling and the challenges. But what I was told was that they had to go through 20 different dials to test the colours and to get the design right to finally get to the final product we see today.

The dial takes about 2 weeks to make but months of trial and error, 20 odd dials later, they perfected the final product. Using the champlevé technique - filling vitreous enamel in cells or troughs in a metal plate, Charlotte has to look for metals that would not warp. Enamel don’t work well with copper or zinc as they will leave impurities and residue which will discolour the final product. In the end, Charlotte chose to use pure silver instead of 925 silver as that still contains a little copper. Pure silver is the best base metal for enamelling.

So what really goes into enamelling the watch dial? Design, colour selection, application, firing at the right temperature etc. While designing the dial, Charlotte has to already know the sequence of filling and firing. And with the cell, she needed to use silver thread to create the trough which needs to be polished after firing. And if you look closely, no two cells or two blue hues will look alike. Charlotte used 5-6 kinds of blue hue to achieve the graduation.

Firing of the enamel dial is between 700ºC and 800ºC. A single colour takes 3-4 applications and firing to achieve the colour graduation. The difficulty lies in ensuring that the opaque enamel does not overlap the translucent enamel thereby losing the graduation effect. And as if the firing was not difficult enough, the enamelist still has to use the polishing stone to sand down the enamel.

I asked Charlotte about the series and which dial was the most challenging one and her respond was "Definitely Peacock!".

For the Peony, Charlotte used a special technique using silver foil to give it extra shine and that makes it more difficult and special (see below).

Enamelling is never perfect but that adds to the character of the dial. This also means no two dials are alike as all the pigments applied are by hand and the final polishing also impacts the final outcome. Several factors will impact the colour and hue and that makes each enamel dial timepiece a bit more remarkable and peculiar.

So popular was Project Coalesce, Feyman Timekeepers went on the release another enamel dial timepiece The Panda. A limited edition of 9 pieces, this iteration is also sold out.

If you are into enamel dials and would like to support Singapore artists, check with Feynman Timekeepers when they are going to release the next enamel timepiece. I assure you that you will be happy with the results.