Any thoughts on this new case material? IWC has debuted this year bronze and now silicon nitride ceramic as case materials and I have not noticed any discussion on the latter. We must have a few ceramic fans on the forum? I have heard that the ceramic cases are hard but possibly brittle - does anyone know if silicon nitride ceramic offers any advantages? Was it developed simply for color? I'm curious as the brown color doesn't really strike me (maybe a little too subdued but definitely different) but it does open up the possibility of other colored cases that may be more appealing to me. IWC has released some boutique-edition watches with daring colors incorporated into the dial or strap. Any thoughts on bold or impudent case colors?
Silicon nitride ceramic and your favorite color.
- 1 reply
- last reply by sumit 26 Nov 2014
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Master -
ConnoisseurHi Ben,
This is indeed an interesting topic to discuss! Usually, in ceramics there is an inverse relationship between fracture toughness and hardness. Whereas silicon nitride is harder than Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ), it has less flexural strength and less fracture toughness. Of course this will depend heavily of the manufacturing processes involved.
But when you read article at the following URL:
www.iwc.com/en/experiences/lighter-and-harder-than-steel/
One of the things it states (to quote verbatim): "The sumptuous brown colour was achieved by mixing the silicon nitride with titanium nitride. This specific combination of raw materials makes the sintered silicon nitride even harder and more shatterproof than most other ceramics."
It would be interesting to know whether IWC, the pioneers of ceramics, found out a way to make silicon nitride as tough as YSZ, while at the same time ensuring that it remained harder than the latter.