Uhr mit Silver-Zifferblatt
One watch, one dial, one element. A 39 mm case and a Swiss automatic movement, with a dial cut from a solid block of unalloyed metal — never plated, never an alloy, and never a coloured coating standing in for the element.
Watches are sold and shipped by MG Osmium UG, trading as Maximilian James. We supply and certify the dial metal.
- 39 mm steel case · sapphire · Sellita SW300
- Serial number engraved on the rotor
- Hand-ground sunburst — no two dials identical
- Assembled and inspected in Germany
Four stages, three workshops
See how the dial is madeSpecifications
What it's like to wear
The weight registers first, particularly with osmium — the densest element that occurs in nature. Even at 0.7 mm the dial adds a heft to a 39 mm watch that photographs cannot convey.
"A normal watch dial is 0.3 millimetres thick and made of brass or some other base metal. Here we're talking about 0.7 millimetres of the densest element on Earth, so at least 11 grams comes from the dial alone. It is quite heavy in total — but that feels good in the hand. We always associate weight with quality."
Maximilian James, MJ Watches, August 2026
Then the colour, and this is where the metals separate. Osmium reads as a cool blue-grey that shifts toward steel in raking light. Ruthenium is darker and velvety, absorbing light rather than throwing it back, which gives the hands unusually high contrast. Tantalum carries a grey cast and can appear slightly purple. Most people cannot place it. None of it is pigment or plating — the clear protective coat sits over the metal without altering what you see.
"Osmium is tricky. In the wrong light it looks very dull and grey; in the right light it comes alive and you see this blue shimmer — cool, elegant, almost mystical. It also depends on whether you have the standard watch or the DLC black one, because the black gives the dial an even more sinister look. Everyone has to see it for themselves. My personal opinion is that it looks best outside on a cloudy day."
Maximilian James, MJ Watches, August 2026
Because each sunburst grind is guided by hand, no two dials behave in quite the same way. At 39 mm across and 8.65 mm thick, with 5 ATM and a sapphire crystal, it is built as a dress watch you can wear daily rather than a vitrine piece.
Handcrafted by Maximilian James
Two commercial dial finishers turned this job down — one because its abrasives could not mark the surface, the other because it wanted €20,000 up front to build a sealed chamber first. He does the grinding himself, by hand, on every dial that leaves his workshop.
Meet Maximilian JamesAbout this watch
Questions specific to elemental dials.
Maximilian James. He builds the watches, sells them and ships them. Our part is upstream: we produce the osmium, ruthenium and tantalum dials, certify the metal and supply them to him. Configuring here takes you to the right product in his shop.
Bespoke work is different — if you want a dial in another element, or an existing watch retrofitted, start with us and we will bring him in.
Yes — every dial carries a thin clear varnish, applied after the sunburst grind. It does two things. It protects the surface against oxidation. And it carries the fine print: the MJ Watches logo, the element abbreviation, and the minimum purity of the metal.
The coat is not a plating and not a tint. It sits over the metal rather than altering it, and it dissolves cleanly with spirit if it is ever removed — what is underneath is the unalloyed element, unchanged.
The back of the dial is not printed but engraved directly into the metal, with the MetaMetals logo and the serial number that appears on your certificate.
"The dials don't need any care. They sit inside a sealed case, so no new air reaches them, even when you set the time. All the dials also have a very thin coating, which you can't see with the eye. There's nothing to worry about — they will look the same in a hundred years as they do today."
Maximilian James, MJ Watches, August 2026
Yes. The concern people have read about attaches to osmium in powder form, and to solid osmium heated above roughly 400 °C, regarding the formation of osmium tetroxide. Neither applies to a polished solid dial under a sealed sapphire crystal at room temperature. That formation rate is negligible for properly sintered osmium below 400 °C. The handling risk sits at the manufacturing stage, which is handled under controlled conditions.
"I try to be honest. If money is no object, go for the one you like most — if you like copper, take copper; if you like ruthenium, take ruthenium."
Maximilian James, MJ Watches, August 2026
Osmium if you want the rarest and heaviest, and the blue-grey that no other element gives naturally. Ruthenium if legibility matters — the dark, light-absorbing surface throws the hands into sharp relief. Tantalum for the grey, slightly purple cast.
Gold, silver and copper are also beautiful options — unalloyed, but not platinum-group metals. Silver and copper are easier on the budget. Every dial we supply is certified by us regardless of which metal you choose.
People occasionally also want their watch to fit their style, especially when it comes to combining the different dial colours. If you have questions about that, Maximilian will be happy to advise you. Just reach out to him.
Osmium is one of the hardest metals there is — hard enough that a commercial finisher's standard abrasives could not mark it. Behind sapphire, in normal wear, scratching is not a realistic concern. The relevant property is the other one: osmium is brittle as well as hard, so it resists abrasion but does not tolerate sharp impact.
In many cases, yes — this is how the whole project started, with a restored family heirloom. Feasibility depends on the movement, the dial diameter and the foot positions, so it is assessed case by case. Send us the reference and we will put the question to him.