The Côte de Genève finish, what is it?

The "Côte de Genève" finish is the most famous decoration in watchmaking. Since the 20th century, the Côte de Genève finish has decorated the movements of many luxury brands.

But what really is the Côte de Genève finish? We can define it by a scratch which is very precisely controlled and neat, made at the end of the machining of the movement in order to create a decoration. This decoration has several functions:

• The first is of course aesthetic. Indeed, this finish makes it possible to create micro-scratches that catch the light and give beautiful reflections to the movement. Moreover, with the generalization of sapphire case backs, this decoration, placed on the back side and therefore on the wrist side, can be admired.
• However, this is not the only function of this decoration. The Côte de Genève finish also hides the traces of machining that may be left by the machines at the various stages of movement manufacture. The reliefs make it possible to cover these traces which could not be masked without decoration.

At Charlie Paris, you can find this finish on the G100 and C105 movements, which will be on our Alliance models. This is the finish that you can see on the mass and the bridges of the C105 movement in the photo below.