Re: Titanium cases

The price of Ti has gone up lately - aircraft grade alloy (6% aluminum, 4%
vanadium, 90% Ti) has gone from $10US/lb. to $20 over the last year, along
with many other metal prices. Nevertheless, considering how light the metal
is, a pound is probably enough for 6 or 8 watches and bracelets or more, so
you are only talking about a metal cost of maybe $3 or $4/ watch. AFAIK, any
respectable Ti watch really is made of Ti alloy thru and thru and is not
plated or layered.





"Frank Adam" <fajp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:v2gup1pfbbsj9tmtmmu8gsfhlenqio4h47@xxxxxxxxxx
> On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 14:16:31 -0500, "Veritas" <paraxial@xxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
>>Of course the phrase "stainless" steel doesn't have a great deal of
>>meaning
>>in itself - there are are wide variety of such steels, and some of them
>>are
>>tremendously tough, hard and corrosion resistant. I looked at a
>>"titanium"
>>watch a little while ago and it didn't quite look like titanium at all -
>>it
>>appeared to have been coated / plated. Any such coatings, platings, or
>>oxide layers are likely to have problems and be polishable. But unless I
>>am
>>missing something, I imagine that a case that is solid titanium and not
>>coated / plated should be able to be polished just like stainless, brass,
>>or
>>just about any other material.
>>
> Ti itself is not used in it's pure form. It is always alloyed with
> something, such as aluminium or iron.
> It has the advantage over stainless steel, that, just like aluminium,
> it also forms a protective layer. While i'm not sure how hard it is,
> if that layer is anything like what forms on plain aluminium, it will
> be extremely hard to break through with polishing, hence the trouble
> with trying to get scratches out of those things.
> Ti is not cheap, so i wouldn't be surprised if the Seikos selling at
> the 100 dollar mark would be just coated. They could well be producing
> the cases from aluminium alloy, which in fact would still be much
> lighter than titanium, then apply a nice coat of Ti on top of that.
>
> --
>
> Regards, Frank


.

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