Act I: Ink, patience and very small details

Welcome to a new blog series that delves into the curious ways of how our watches are made (not in a boring factory-tour way, but in a ‘wow, this is actually quite interesting’ way).

First up is printing!

Every dial, disc, glass (and sometimes movement *cough cough* Khaosify Mechanical!) is printed in our London workshop. The technique is called pad printing. It may have been around since the 19th century, but it’s still the best way to get intricate artwork onto very… very small surfaces.

You might not know of the name, but you’ll know of the results. If you’re reading this on a laptop, chances are the letters on your keyboard were pad printed, or the logos on your toaster, coffee pot or television remote/’thingy’/’doo-dah’ or whatever universal name you call it in your household.

If you’ve ever spotted our pad printer on social media, you’ll recognise the large silicone pad (the big squidgy green thing as most people call it). It gently picks up ink from an etched metal plate and transfers the design onto the component. Carefully, Precisely, Repetitively.

Before any printing happens, each colour is mixed by hand. This part takes a lot of patience. Some inks contain up to 16 different pigments, measured anywhere between 50 grams and 0.005 grams.

Our team must enter full Goldilocks mode and keep mixing until the colour is just right.
It’s slow, deliberate work… but worth it.

Each design is printed layer by layer, with a separate plate for every colour. Ink cups (held in place with magnets) keep everything tidy, and clever little blades skim away any excess so the ink only goes where it’s supposed to.

Then the pad does its thing. Lift. Transfer. Repeat.
Again and again, until every component is finished.

Let’s put it into perspective. You know The Indefatigable Sphinx? (of course you do.) It’s dial has 26 different colours and it’s hour disc has 17, each needing to be printed 2-3 times, so that’s around 85 rounds of printing… per watch!

Our print technicians are deeply passionate about what they do, and we’re very glad they are, because this is where a watch begins to feel like an MJW watch.

Stay tuned for the next part!