Côtes de Genève

Côtes de Genève, literally "Geneva waves" or "Geneva stripes", refers to a type of movement decoration created using a lathe with a circular polishing brush that is applied to movement component in vertical strokes, creating vertical stripes with a fine semi-circular pattern. In addition to serving an aesthetic purpose, by removing any traces of machining on the components and catching the light, Côtes de Genève also help to capture tiny micro-particles that may otherwise end up in small drops of lubricant in the movement. They have been so successful that German watchmakers in the town of Glashütte also adopted them, referring to them as the "Glashütter Schliff". Glashütte Original has even made the decoration a focal point of its PanoInverse model, as the photograph below shows.