The dial is the only way to use Skyset, so it had to feel right before anything else did. We machined eleven knobs in zinc and aluminium and tried four detent springs in each.

Weight and knurl

The final knob is chrome-plated zinc, 30 millimetres across and 58 grams, with 36 knurl ridges cut deep enough to grip with a cold thumb. The mass matters: a light knob spins past a channel; a heavy one settles on it.

The click

Seven detents per turn, five of them channels and two between for the static you hear as you tune. The spring is a flat steel leaf against a cam, the same arrangement used in old band switches. It gives a click you can hear across a quiet room and feel in the knob, which means you can change channel without looking.