Disturbed by a detail about the new Rolex 1908's movement

[MILGAUSS88]

The faux chatons on a Rolex 1908:

[MILGAUSS88]

Gold chatons without screws:
(Don't ask me how this is done, not a watchmaker.)

[MILGAUSS88]

Traditional gold chatons with screws, as seen on a Lange movement:

[MILGAUSS88]

Originally Posted by Onikage

Pics would be helpful. These are the washers surrounding the jewels correct? Do they look like crap? Comparison?

As you wish.

[wm82]

Its less than half the price of a Calatrava, what did you expect? Looks great for the money and the clasp is leaps ahead of the friction fit stuff of others... Good value for money especially when you will be able to get one BNIB at a good discount soon.

[kieselguhr]

Originally Posted by MILGAUSS88

I have a pocket watch background, and it drives me nuts that the current watch companies act like it is so incredibly time consuming to add geneva stripes, pearlage, enamel dials and gold chatons, when there were millions of pocket watch movements made that way 100 years ago, all without CAD. And for around $350-500 when adjusted for inflation.

You can thank the YouTube hype machine for that. I won’t specify who but there’s one who makes it seem like remontoires and constant force are revolutionary concepts but really it’s age old tech…

[Onikage]

Originally Posted by MILGAUSS88

As you wish.

Thanks man.

[learningtofly]

Originally Posted by MILGAUSS88

The faux chatons on a Rolex 1908:

I don’t think that’s a bad attempt, and I don’t mind tne faux chatons in the slightest.

[Cru Jones]

It’s still a Rolex movement. Robust and reliable, this time with some flourishes. But it ain’t a hand crafted movement. For better and worse.

[windingmybusiness]

Fauxte horology! It’s the new, hot thing.

[SearChart]

Originally Posted by Cru Jones

It’s still a Rolex movement. Robust and reliable, this time with some flourishes. But it ain’t a hand crafted movement. For better and worse.

It's also a lot more water resistant than most Lange/Patek.

I think the 1908 is a better daily watch than any high-end 'holy trinity' dress watch.

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by MILGAUSS88

Gold chatons without screws:
(Don't ask me how this is done, not a watchmaker.)

They're a simple but effective "press fit" into the plate, just as it is with the jewels in the Chatons.
It's been going on for ages and ages in the same manner as machining out a flogged out hole in a plate where a pinion once turned in it and repairing it by pressing in a simple bronze bush or a Jewel.
Think of the common mod/repair and update to the 1861 Speedy movement.
It's a simple matter of clearances
I'm no watchmaker either, but I imagine that a Chaton which is held in with screws is more likely to be an "interference fit", which is fractionally looser in it's hole and could be carefully pushed out by hand once the screws/retainers are removed
I see some people saying that a screwed Chaton is as easy as shiting in the bed and kicking it out with your feet but it's not that easy at all and they need to set up for it as an entirely separate process with multiple steps involved. Especially to do it in a high quality manner. That's why it's not done any more as it adds more separate steps to building a movement which requires the time and the will to pursue it.

With all this talk about the Rolex way of doing it in the 1908
How do they do it like that if they aren't actually "Press fit" gold Chatons???? That's the question
As shown in your first pic, it looks like beautifully executed press fit Chaton to me.
There must be some real manufacturing trick to it, if the speculation is right about them being fakes
Good luck to them i say, as it would be just as easy or very little more laborious to actually put "press fit" Chatons in the plate and do away with the trickery involved.

I don't know where the information came from that they are fakes
Is this verified as being fact???
Or is it something that has been started by someone that talked about it in a relatively credible fashion and the rest of the chattering classes have run with it as though it's gospel???

Seriously.
To repeat, I think it would've been not much more trouble for Rolex to make the Chatons real, rather than going to the trouble of faking them
I suppose there may well be ways to do it in a mass production scenario. If so, good luck to them I say. It certainly adds to the visuals
Perhaps they are simply a shallow press in "surround" to simply dress it up around the Jewel. In that case I suppose they are saving a dollar or two in gold, but at that price point for the watches and given the profitability of Rolex. It's definately a bit of a dirty cheapskate way of doing it.

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by MILGAUSS88

Traditional gold chatons with screws, as seen on a Lange movement:

Nice.
Very nice indeed

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by Cru Jones

It’s still a Rolex movement. Robust and reliable, this time with some flourishes. But it ain’t a hand crafted movement. For better and worse.

Not many are hand crafted these days, but Dornbluth comes to mind in the classic sense of hand crafting

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by SearChart

It's also a lot more water resistant than most Lange/Patek.

I think the 1908 is a better daily watch than any high-end 'holy trinity' dress watch.

This

[Dirt]

Originally Posted by wm82

Its less than half the price of a Calatrava, what did you expect?

That's a good point

[MILGAUSS88]

Finish on a mid grade movement circa 1890: Gold chatons, diamond end stone and damascene.

[MILGAUSS88]

"Incredibly difficult to make" Grand Feu dial.

[MILGAUSS88]

Examples of an enamel O'Hara dial circa 1890.

[MILGAUSS88]

You can decide which was more difficult to make.

[WILLIWALKER]

Originally Posted by SearChart

It's also a lot more water resistant than most Lange/Patek.

I think the 1908 is a better daily watch than any high-end 'holy trinity' dress watch.

Exactly.

We must not forget these components:
Large production
Extensive industrialization: for the assembly of the movement but also for its service. Everything must be logical and with a reliability/simplicity/effectiveness/cost ratio.

Other manufacturers are not interested in reliability, nor in keeping time, nor in water resistance, nor in the vision of a watch that can be repaired for generations at a 'low' cost, etc.

Superb movement and great progress for Rolex.

The fact remains that I can't find it anywhere and that the movement department of this reference is top secret