All Kreisler cases are made using the cire perdue, or “lost wax,” method of casting. With origins stretching back more than 5,000 years the method has been used to create enduring tools, ornaments, and sculptures in all corners of the world.
Despite this long history, lost wax casting has very little place in the tradition of watchmaking.
Early pocket watch cases were shaped by hand from sheet metal, worked over stakes and refined on lathes. Even as wristwatches developed more expressive profiles in the early twentieth century, cases were typically die-pressed and machined. Today, complex cases are almost always cut from solid metal using CNC machines, with precision and repeatability impossible to match by other methods.
Lost wax casting, by contrast, is an additive process that relies on single use models and molds. Each case starts life as a sacrificial wax model that will be lost in the casting process.
Molten metal is poured by hand into the mold, and in seconds the form is set—ready to be finished, or, if flaws appear, discarded. Every step in the process carries risk but with proper techniques the process can capture extreme intricacy and detail across a series—reflecting both human touch and precise geometry. Famously, sculptors like Rodin, Carpeaux, and Brancusi in 19th and 20th century Paris used the lost wax method to create editions of their masterworks; in some cases preserving the artist’s very fingerprints in the finished bronze statues.
Today, lost wax casting is not a practical approach to casemaking; it is a creative choice—one that favors the process for its history, drama, and results.