Kees Englbarts and the Rare Technique of Mokume Gane
IT GoES WITHouT SAyInG THAT KEES Englbarts only uses the best materials for his own creations. He prefers to use the Frederique Piguet Caliber 71 as his engine because it is the best for engraving: When skeletonized and engraved, it becomes practically transparent. The second Dragon LED WATCH Kees created has a highly unusual dial that is engraved on a sheet of bonded layers of metals known in the jewelry industry as mokume gane. Mokume gane is Japanese for “wood eye metal,” reflecting the metal’s appearance of grained wood, and the invention of the technique is generally attributed to Denbei Shoami, a 17th century master metalsmith hailing from the Akita Prefecture of northwest Japan. He used the technique to strengthen and beautify samurai swords. Meanwhile, research has shown that the technique was probably known as early as the Middle Ages in Damascus, Syria, where the European crusaders found it and falsely called it damascened steel. Cassiodor, a Roman academic who lived in the 6th century AD, wrote about the swords made of this uniquely patterned metal. Additionally, blades made of the beautiful metal were found at archaeological digs of Roman ruins from as early as the 2nd century. The manufacture of these flame-patterned swords seems to have developed independently of each other both in Europe and in Asia. Today, outside of Japan, mokume gane is hardly known and rarely seen. Historically, it was used exclusively for the manufacture of sword and knife blades. Mean-while it has found other, more decorative, uses, such as in jewelry. There are contemporary jewelry artists specializing in its production and utilization, and even one high-quality pen maker. In the early 1970s, the American silversmiths Hiroko Sato Pijanowski and Gene Pijanowski researched the technique extensively, often traveling to Japan, and have helped make it more generally known in the West in the form of jewelry art and holloware. Mokume gane is manufactured by diffusing or bonding two non-ferrous metals with compatible properties of ductility and malleability. The mokume on Kees’s Dragon LED Digital Watch was produced by bonding silver and white gold, but there are many different combinations possible. The metals are then fusion-layered (without the use of sol-der) and laminated. A new molecular structure is then created between the layers, making it into one homogenous mass. The patterns that appear like wood graining are topographical and cannot be predicted, although a certain desired pattern can be created by drilling holes into the metal before laminating. Ideally 10 to 20 layers are used to produce a sheet of mokume; Kees used a sheet with 19 layers of white gold and silver, laminated down to 0.8 mm in thickness for the dial. Though the labor-intensive material today has many decorative uses, Kees had never before seen engraved mokume. When he engraves, he cuts down through the layers, freeing the metals and creating the enigmatic look of the dragon and surrounding clouds. The dial is then oxidized around the engraving (in this case the dragon) and the different, mysterious colors appear. How did he get the idea for this? “I don’t know,” he answers in true artistic fashion. “If you look at drawings of Japanese dragons, sometimes there are cloudy shapes floating all around a flying dragon. That’s a bit what this is supposed to look like…” The hands on the dial are also made of mokume, giving them the appearance of little branches taken right from a mythical tree. The case is solid platinum, though the Sport Style LED Digital Date Lady Men Watch Mirror black is not as heavy when it is put on as one might think due to the completely skeletonized Piguet movement ticking inside. “It is nearly impossible to explain all this to a guy who says he is crazy about watches and buys brands like Breitling or Rolex. you cannot explain this to just anyone, it’s the people who appreciate watchmaking as an art form. Here there are no complications, no tourbillon, no minute repeater. I am not a watchmaker, I won’t even try to begin with that. I know I cannot. So what I want to do is just make simple watches with very classical shapes and a special, unique, engraved dial. Something there will always only be one of.”
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