[craigsmansion]

> 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 approaching the accuracy of quartz watches by using a complete new method of escapement.

Co-ax movements are surely a worthy innovation, but I wouldn't want to claim it was the most significant horological innovation of the last few centuries.

[lb1lf]

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 say this tongue-in-cheek as my interest in all things horological extends to my having a rubidium standard in the man cave - a hand-me-down HP 5065A. Sadly, my wife does not appreciate the beautiful engineering, and suggested a Seiko wall clock would have to do for our everyday time-keeping needs...)

[craigsmansion]

> one could debate for weeks on end

That is certainly and certifiably true :)

Although I'm very fond of Springdrive (and Seiko in general), it's just an example that I thought would be more recognisable than, say PP's use of ceramic components. I wouldn't want to claim any of these advancements as more significant innovations than Co-Ax escapements in what is increasingly an art-for-the-sake-of-art (or tech-because-we-can) endeavour anyway.

It's best just to marvel and to start thinking of how to explain the expense to the significant other.

[SamReidHughes]

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

[craigsmansion]

Well, for one, the escapement doesn't depend on the quartz crystal for timekeeping, but on magnetic induction.

Spring drive would theoretically work without the quartz components. Seeing how they would generate an electrical current because of the principle, they build a tiny generator to drive a circuit that adjusts the escapement, but doesn't run it.

Also, Spring Drive depends on a fully mechanical wheel train and barrel spring to function; it could not be made to work with a battery.

So what exactly constitutes mechanical and what does quartz here? Is it the wheel train? Does electro-mechanical count as mechanical? Is the mere presence of a quartz crystal in a secondary circuit enough to call it a quartz?

I found it easier to see it a as a new different system for timekeeping instead of trying to place it on an arbitrary scale between "fully mechanical" and "quartz."

[SamReidHughes]

> Well, for one, the escapement doesn't depend on the quartz crystal for timekeeping

No, it uses the quartz crystal for timekeeping. It keeps time like any other digital watch, only it outputs that time by controlling the rotor's speed, and gets its power from the rotor.

It could keep time mechanically instead and still use electronics to maintain the rotor's speed. But in fact it uses a quartz crystal.

[twic]

How does the spring drive actually work? What is the mechanism which keeps it moving at a consistent speed? A quick google only turned up rather vague descriptions.

[craigsmansion]

At the heart of every mechanical watch lies a coiled spring. Within that spring energy is stored that wants to be released.

This energy is released through the wheel train, which is a set of cogs with reductions (some of them attached to the hands).

Left to its own device this system would just spin as quickly as possible until the spring is unwound.

To prevent this, somewhere in the train there is something called a lever escapement. Simple put, this puts a stick in a cog at regular intervals to prevent it from spinning and unwinding freely. This stick is timed by a weight that spins from left to right. This stick literally is what makes watches tick, since that's where the ticking sound comes from.

Spring Drive doesn't poke a stick into a wheel to prevent the system from freely unwinding. What it does do is add magnets to the wheel and stationary coils around it. The wheel can't spin freely since it has to overcome the magnetic induction as the magnets pass the coils. That's the reason SpringDrive doesn't tick and the hands glide instead of stopping and starting.

If it's still unclear, try looking up escapement levers first. There should be a lot of clear animated explanations online.

[twic]

I understand (roughly!) the basic idea of a watch mechanism, and how mechanical escapements work.

What i don't understand is exactly how the spring drive keeps the wheel moving at a constant speed.

I appreciate that this involves magnets, and eddy currents induced by those magnets, but that's a description, not an explanation. What is the mechanism, physically and mathemetically, that keeps the speed constant?