Cutting a design or lettering into metal or another hard material, by hand with a graver or by machine or laser.
Engraving draws by removing material. The Getty vocabulary defines it as incising marks on a hard material such as metal or glass with a sharp tool, for the design’s own sake; the printmaker’s engraving, printed from an inked plate, is a separate sense. At Patek Philippe the engraver sketches the motif, scratches its guiding lines into the metal in drypoint, then cuts with burins (gravers) and chisels. Its engravers work on dials, case backs and movement parts, sometimes in relief, cutting away the metal around a motif.
The Swiss profile for the engraver’s federal certificate lists work by hand with a burin, by CNC machine, by laser and by chemical means, and places engravers in French-speaking Switzerland mainly in watchmaking. The Fondation Haute Horlogerie counts work on a rose engine as engraving by machine, the method behind guilloché. In boutiques engraving is a personalization service: Cartier engraves names, initials or dates, at once in a boutique when its machines are free, and Tiffany keeps hand engravers.
In job listings
Engraving most often appears in boutique roles, where sales support staff and care service advisors run the engraving station and personalize purchases. Repair and after-sales technicians engrave by machine or laser. Bench titles such as jewelry engraver and master engraver call for hand engraving, relief work and lettering. See current engraving roles.
