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New oscillator system in Zenith mechanical watches

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Re: New oscillator system in Zenith mechanical watches

#31

Post by yoz-y »

anfractuosity wrote: post #22
SamReidHughes wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that would make sense. And (googles) you can get a tourbillon clock in your carriage today -- if your carriage is a Bentley Bentayga.

Haha, awesome. Since the tourbillon spring mechanism seems to be constantly rotated with the gyro version, I wonder if there is another way to mechanically keep the tourbillon always level?

Wouldn’t that render it useless though? The purpose of tourbillon is specifically to cancel the effect gravity has on watches or clocks that are stationary. This was a problem with pocket watches that had a mechanism always in the same direction. Tourbillons in wrist watches are largely only for decorative purpose as the hands move and thus the gravity effect averages out.

Re: New oscillator system in Zenith mechanical watches

#32

Post by factsaresacred »

Not only is the content incredibly interesting, but that website layout is perfect. So clean.

The ads page is interesting:

> The typical HODINKEE reader holds a master’s degree or higher, browses from his professional office, earns more than $200,000 per year, owns seven watches, and purchases, on average, three watches per year with an average value of $7,000 or higher per watch.

An attrition rate of three $7,000 watches a year is a lot!

Re: New oscillator system in Zenith mechanical watches

#33

Post by tromp »

olympus wrote: post #17
fsiefken wrote: post #2

So, these watches are all pre-sold and we can't buy one? When would be able to buy a watch with this innovative mechanism?

If you want a watch with a neat movement that is widely available, get a Swatch Sistem 51. Granted it has 5x as many moving parts as the Zenith Defy Lab, but it is actually affordable and pretty neat.

Although Watch Guy [0] was not amused...

[0] http://watchguy.co.uk/review-a-trip-inside-the-swatch-sistem...

Re: New oscillator system in Zenith mechanical watches

#35

Post by makomk »

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #24

Much more practical but much less accurate than an atomic wristwatch[1]. I wonder how small a cesium frequency standard could be made. Miniaturization isn't typically a priority in their design, there's surely room for improvement. [1] http://www.leapsecond.com/pages/atomic-bill/ (Yes, that is a guy with an HP-5071A strapped to his arm.)

High-precision quartz wristwatches with well-designed temperature compensation can get accuracy within single-digit seconds of drift per year, and even that level of accuracy is enough to make them a niche product. Also, you need pretty good battery life in order to ensure the battery doesn't run out before the drift becomes relevant - some of the higher-end quartz movements already struggle with this a little, and chip-scale atomic clocks are much worse and likely to remain that way. Having accuracy of a second in 5,000 years doesn't give you much benefit over quartz because the battery life is measured in days.

Re: New oscillator system in Zenith mechanical watches

#36

Post by SamReidHughes »

lb1lf wrote: post #26
craigsmansion wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the probably largest innovation horology over the past couple of hundred years There was this little thing called the quartz revolution though :) Just because it turned out you can make really cheap watches with it doesn't make it less of an innovation. But limiting the field down to mechanical watches, there is also Seiko's springdrive which manages to combine the durability of mechanical watches whilst approachin…

Fair point. Spring drive is a very fascinating concept and one could debate for weeks on end in the right (or, rather, wrong) circles whether it or co-ax holds the top spot. (Or whether the spring drive is even a fully mechanical movement or a hybrid!) (And I should have been more precise - I meant in mechanical horology; my apologies) Not that there's anything wrong with quartz (except its inherent inaccuracies; I s…

How can we debate whether the spring drive's fully mechanical or not? It's got a quartz oscillator and an integrated circuit.

Re: New oscillator system in Zenith mechanical watches

#37

Post by SamReidHughes »

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #24

Much more practical but much less accurate than an atomic wristwatch[1]. I wonder how small a cesium frequency standard could be made. Miniaturization isn't typically a priority in their design, there's surely room for improvement. [1] http://www.leapsecond.com/pages/atomic-bill/ (Yes, that is a guy with an HP-5071A strapped to his arm.)

It's actually been shrunk down a bit:

http://www.ablogtowatch.com/bathys-cesium-133-atomic-wrist-w...

https://www.hoptroff.com/collections/atomic-timepieces

I think they all use the same "chip".

Re: New oscillator system in Zenith mechanical watches

#38

Post by SamReidHughes »

anfractuosity wrote: post #22
SamReidHughes wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that would make sense. And (googles) you can get a tourbillon clock in your carriage today -- if your carriage is a Bentley Bentayga.

Haha, awesome. Since the tourbillon spring mechanism seems to be constantly rotated with the gyro version, I wonder if there is another way to mechanically keep the tourbillon always level?

Some number of tiny swinging weights could be used to establish the direction of gravity and the escapement could be slowly rotated until it's perpendicular to that direction. Edit: Or let the escapement hang. There's probably reasons why that's difficult.
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