AL-C watch | Kouma Design

AL-C

Why a watch ?

_For the challenge of creating an innovative watch that I make in small series alone in my workshop in Burgundy.

_In the purest line of Kouma products, AL-C is a watch that breaks with the great principles of traditional watch assembly, allowing for innovative architecture inspired by the manufacturing principles used in the design of aeronautical and technological products.

_The aim is to obtain a watch with character, sculpted and technological but especially lightweight and which can be forgotten once on the wrist of its owner.

_Epoxy carbon is widely used, including, for the first time, in the hands' manufacture.

_Aeronautical grade aluminium machined from billet provides lightness and maintenance ease once polished.

_The assembly on a mounting plate is a major principle of this watch.

_This mounting plate made of epoxy carbon fibre is exceptionally rigid.

_It supports the aluminium case.

_It is the masterpiece of this watch by absorbing all the mechanical forces due to the tightening of the strap and it never deforms.

_No adhesive is used in the assembly of this watch, which allows easy replacement of any part, without damaging any of them during disassembly.

_The crystal of this watch is mineral for more lightness and of a crystalline appearance.

_It is held between two O-rings that guarantee that the watch is waterproof.

_The overall waterproofness of this watch is achieved by a set of 5 O-rings.

-The hands are manufactured in my workshop with my special manufacturing process.

_Both are complex to produce and composed of several unidirectional carbon layers bonded by a very high modulus epoxy resin and then machined by CNC.

_They weigh only a few micrograms, relieving the watch mechanism.

_AL-C is completely handmaid, from the adjustment of each part to the polishing and of course the assembly. It is both a technological watch and a handmade one.

_As in aircraft construction, it requires a lot of time to manufacture to achieve the highest level of quality.

_As part of my quest for reliability, precision and lightness, the choice of movement was made for a top-of-the-range Swiss Quartz mechanism on a metal plate known for its reliability for many years.