Beveling and polishing the edges of watch movement components to create smooth, reflective borders.
Anglage replaces the sharp edge where two surfaces of a part meet with a narrow bevel, generally about 45 degrees where the surfaces form a right angle, then polishes it so that it catches the light against the matte or satin surfaces beside it. Bridges, plates, springs and levers all take it. By hand, the bevel is roughed out with a file, evened with abrasive sticks from coarse to fine, polished with a boxwood peg charged with diamond paste, and brought to its final shine with finer paste on elder pith, each pass checked under a loupe.
The term alone does not mean hand work. In series production a diamond tool on a CNC machine often cuts the bevel while milling the part. A. Lange & Söhne points to internal angles: a sharp, straight one is polished by hand, a rounded one suggests machine finishing.
In job listings
Anglage appears in movement finishing and decoration roles at watch manufactures, in listings for an angleur or finishing decorator, alongside polishing and in-process quality control. A listing that asks for hand anglage points to bench work on high-end movements rather than machine operation. See current anglage roles.
