{"id":126964,"date":"2021-08-19T17:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T09:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revolutionwatch.com\/?p=126964"},"modified":"2024-04-17T07:38:52","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T23:38:52","slug":"silver-resurgence-the-black-bay-fifty-eight-925","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revolutionwatch.com\/silver-resurgence-the-black-bay-fifty-eight-925\/","title":{"rendered":"Silver Resurgence : The Black Bay Fifty-Eight 925"},"content":{"rendered":"
And that begs the question\u2014well, two really: what\u2019s so good about silver, and why did we stop using it? First, what\u2019s so good about it is that it is the most reflective metal in the world. That may sound counterintuitive, because for the most part we imagine silver to be a dull, tarnished metal\u2014but that\u2019s not quite what\u2019s meant by reflective.<\/p>\n
Take steel, for example. Shine a pure white light at it and some will be absorbed and some will be reflected, returned back to your eyes for you to see. As much as 40 percent of that light will have gone, leaving the dim grey that we\u2019re all familiar with. Silver, however, will return 95percent of that light, giving it more of a whitish, ethereal glow.
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Tarnishing can be desirable in some watches. Take bronze, for example, a metal favoured by sea-faring vessels for its ability to resist corrosion. If you were to ever see a ship\u2019s propellor made of the stuff, you might disagree, because on the surface it appears that the bronze has indeed corroded. But that\u2019s the magic of it: it forms a protective layer that prevents what\u2019s underneath from deteriorating.<\/p>\n
Turns out, this protective surface layer that grows and evolves over time can be rather aesthetically pleasing. A bronze watch, brand new, shiny and clean, changes every single day, and that evolution of the patterned protective layer becomes a distinct and attractive part of its appeal.<\/p>\n
For silver, however, that really goes against what the material is all about, what makes it special. No point being the brightest metal in the world if it\u2019s covered in a dark layer of tarnish! And silver really can end up looking grimy. It\u2019s not quite the same as the organic, interesting bronze\u2014it just looks, well, dirty. And nobody wants a dirty watch.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s reasonable, then, that watches haven\u2019t been made of silver, really, since the introduction of stainless steel. More or less the same hue, doesn\u2019t tarnish, more resilient to knocks\u2014the brightness of silver can\u2019t quite hold a candle to all those practical benefits. Unless a plucky company under the Rolex umbrella with the resources to develop new and exciting alloys comes up with something else\u2026<\/div>
If Tudor really has developed an alloy of silver that resists tarnishing, that keeps its brightness\u2014and it is bright, the Latin argentum that gives silver its chemical symbol Ag literally translating as \u201cshiny\u201d\u2014then we could be seeing a resurgence of this once great precious metal in watchmaking. Given the price of gold and\u2014heaven forbid\u2014platinum, it bridges the gap between its workaday steel cousin and the lofty premium models.
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