How this Electrostatic Watch Works - Watch and Learn #84

hi this is mark from long islandwatch.com i have a rare thing today i'm reviewing a watch that i don't sell it was a personal pickup it is the accutron space view 2020 or the accutron 2020. uh i got it about a month ago or so it was apparently backordered so it took a while for me to get it but i have it here not wearing it for a particular reason but i will go i'm going to call this a watch and learn because i'm going to really try to go into how the whole thing operates um and then i want to do another watch and learn after this um kind of like evolution of watch movements i feel at this point there's so many different watch movements we can probably talk about all of them in some kind of chronological fashion so that should be fun uh accutron is obviously made by uh bulova owned by citizen so but i could try it was kind of split off as it's i want to say it's his own company um but still very much uh bulova ish but the accusation website is its own website now uh action obviously goes back to i don't get too much of history but you know to uh 1960 or so accutron is kind of a smash of accuracy through electronics accu electronics accutron uh so they've been dormant for a while uh you know precisionist or whatever kind you could say that those are kind of plays on it but the original action was a tuning fork watch hummed this guy does not hum works on something very different so we'll spend a few minutes talking about it i did read through the patent that they filed for it um it doesn't really tell you that much i will say this is my own islander isl 5400 bracelet accutron or bulova whoever you want to call it they're not very forthcoming with information on the whole thing um and my isl85 robins egg blue on a different bracelet um never before come with information as far as technical details and stuff i would say not as much as like something like spring drive is where you know seiko really got into the nuts and bolts and told you how everything works the information they provide with this guy wasn't too much so it's kind of cobbled together but it should be cool it's definitely different let's check it out i apologize in advance for the reflections because the crystal is very deep as you can see it's not it's kind of flat on the top a little bit dome so it does pick up a lot of stuff but anyway i didn't want to wear it in the opening because i want to show you i guess one of the features that it has which is already happening this is what they call power save mode the seconds hand stops whoops the seconds hand stops at the 12 o'clock position if you're not wearing it for five minutes okay and then after you give it a decent amount of motion and the seconds hand will start up now i guess we'll get into so if secondhand starts moving as because i'm moving it around then you know great and we'll talk about it in a minute let's you know kind of let's treat it like a long island watch review and talk about the size and stuff so it is it is large i will admit uh it is 44 millimeters in diameter oh quick backstory why did i get this watch well it was mentioned to me i saw it when it came out a bunch of years ago um i thought it was interesting it was mentioned to me by the urban gentry ttv when i was filming with him not long ago and then again i was on a collection conundrum with just the watch and he had said to me you know pretty much this watch belongs in your collection and he was right so after hearing it from two separate people i went out and bought one 44 millimeters in diameter 16 thick to that domed crystal wow it's a high dome i guess it doesn't really need to be that high but maybe you know i guess it kind of completes the look um and then 50 millimeters lug tip to lug tip it is on a nice croc strap this is real croc i really liked the black the black the brown straw like what's wrong with me it comes on black and you can you can opt for a green croc i opted for the green croc uh it's 22 millimeters beautiful deploying clasp it's standard fare uh let's check out the case back so accutron again accuracy through electronics the tuning fork i guess we'll just go like this the tuning fork which kind of is there is their symbol right electrostatic movement which is kind of getting ahead of us right now space view caliber was a ns-30 sapphire crystal do not open blah blah blah blah blah although this stuff serial number water resistance 50 meters why you would take this anywhere near water i have no idea so let's see i gave you size and stuff oh weight weighs 104 grams so not terribly heavy but it is still a decently large watch the size i believe currently is dictated by the technology will they shrink this i don't know um there can't just come a point in life when uh physics overrides anything you want to do we came across this many times in engineering where you know you can't make a low frequency antenna small because low frequency things need large areas to resonate so kind of like an electrostatic generator on electrostatic motors um they need a larger surface area so will they shrink this down i don't know who knows ah price three thousand six hundred and fifty bucks um i did go to an authorized dealer i did purchase it oh the authorized video actually was acutron that's where i ordered it from um once i'm back where it came in and uh it just i've wanted a whole bunch i've shown in a bunch of videos it is a nice watch so you'll notice as i'm moving it if you're looking at the bottom you can see those two wheels they are spinning it looks like a kaleidoscope almost so there is a rotor in the watch you can't see it and that rotor is geared down much like a kinetic i would say and it's spinning these two these are electrostatic generators i guess we're going to start talking about function um i want to see if i really if i've tackled everything i wanted to talk about the watch came out that cool the watch came out in 2019 um worked on probably many years prior to that unfortunately when it came out kind of pandemic hit um so i would say it's taking a back seat in a lot of ways but it is a really cool watch so what's happening right now is as you can see very sensitive to the rotor moving right in the back as you spin it the rotary's gear is geared down or geared up so make sure you want to look at it and it's spinning these electrostatic generators so what is an electrostatic generator um yeah i guess we're gonna get into it so it's a spinning two spinning discs right and they are almost fan like in in shape almost like a fan they are rotating above what almost looks to me like to be as i go fast enough and i can see through it like an etched uh piece of copper etched circuit board like we would do in uh printed wiring boards and it's jeweled in the middle and for friction to be frictionless and this action much like an electromagnetic motor is causing power to be generated that power is being sent up into this you know we can go what's called a battery it's some kind of an accumulator and that is storing the power so this is how the watch works pretty much almost like an automatic as you move the rotor causes these things to spin and it generates power now acutron says that when they deliver the watch to you when you first receive it it already has two hour two hours two years of power reserve built up in the accumulator here's where things get a little strange okay well accuracy accuracy is within five seconds a day because it is ultimately quartz driven we'll get into the function in a minute it has two function two two power saving functions number one they call power save which is which is what it's in right now so the seconds hand stops if there is not a ton of activity seconds hand stops at 12 after five minutes so i'm just going to kind of take it to the side here i'm going to shake it up a bit like you would a conventional um automatic after so so power save is after five minutes and then here it goes so the second let's talk about the seconds hand for a second well before i get into the next mode second is moving very very slowly as you can see it is not moving with regular seconds it's playing catch up or regular seconds is catching up to it when it gets to the correct indication of seconds on here the seconds hand will pick up speed and start moving at a normal cadence um so after 10 days of it being in power save mode it goes into what they call energy save mode energy save mode the hour minute and seconds hand all freeze and why after 10 days if the watch comes with two years of reserve this one i cannot figure out um that's kind of a strange one to me i don't understand it i have feeling has something to do with battery depletion and if this battery gets too depleted the watch simply will not function will be able to recharge itself i can't verify any of this um i have not i have not not worn it for 10 days so i can't really tell you uh what happens with energy save function other than according to the manual everything stops working um they do say you cannot wind it put it in an automatic watch winder like for a mechanical watch why uh maybe some do with magnets although other than that i don't really understand um they do say that if you wear it daily you'll accumulate about an energy and energy you'll give me about an hour's worth of energy every day so let's get into function and what is going on because this is watch and learn it's already told you about these two generators down here that are spinning and they are really cool to look at but now all of a sudden now we see this thing this is definitely going at a normal seconds cadence yeah you see this is now an electrostatic motor the motor is just a generator right kind of like in reverse generator generates electricity uh kind of a motor uses electricity for movement right so what's going on is this electrostatic motor which is larger than these two uh turbines uh is powering a bunch of wheels and that is powering the seconds hand so the seconds hand is moving super super fluid there is no perception of stop start you know almost like uh the 1960 accutron that you know hummed along at 360 ticks a second uh this is super duper fluid i i guess theoretically the the rotor is stopping starting you know many many many many times but it translates into a very very smooth fluid motion so this is one motor this motor is powering the seconds hand only and this is why the watch has power save mode after five minutes again this turbine shuts down and the seconds hand docks at 12 if you're not active reason for that is that this is absorbing a lot of energy from the cap there is a stepper motor on the inside as well that stepper motor is controlling the hour and minute hands as in a conventional quartz watch this watch is not driven by tuning fork it's driven the time regulating mechanism is certainly a quartz crystal in the shape of a tuning fork like all quartz crystals are in any quartz watch so we have two motors you got it electrostatic it's moving just the seconds hand stepper motor like in a conventional watch driving the minute an hour hand but they're all tied both motors are tied to the same quartz oscillator the same time memory if you will the seconds hand even if it's docked knows exactly where it's supposed to be which is why when you wake it up it goes slow and it's waiting to you know for when it's in the position where it's supposed to be and then it takes off in normal seconds cadence let's see i think does that kind of explain the watch you know very different than tuning fork it does run on quartz and this is why i want to do another watch and learn because i feel like you know let's fast forward past sundials and club cedras which is a water clock and all the other stuff we used to use to keep time pendulum clocks let's cut to wrist watches that were automatics mechanicals then automatics pocket watches right and then after that you know the first break was the accutron in 1960 was powered by a tuning fork and then eventually quartz supplanted that and kind of killed it we came out with solar we came out with kinetic um oh let's talk about kinetic in a second okay with kinetic i came out with spring drive which is a perfect marriage between mechanical and electronic did a spring drive video i explained exactly how it works i'll link to it over here um and then this is the next i guess this is the next evolution if you will and i don't think anyone's used an electrostatic generator in a watch before why electrostatic generators so let's talk about kinetics for a second and again i'll talk about kinetics more in the next watch to learn a kinetic watch uses electromagnetics that's um you know you have a rotor wound with coil it sits in a stator but they're very hard to power in a wrist watch that's why kinetics have kind of died away because most people cannot give them enough power to keep them running uh electrostatic generators because it's there's no wound core just these just these this disc that um that rotates it can be made a lot thinner of course then power output is changed and stuff but we can make it a lot thinner and we can put it in a wristwatch yeah it's not too thin but it works let's see so you can see the whole thing oh you know i guess i'll try it on so you guys can check it out you've seen this on my wrist before it you know it's large let's be honest with you but you know as as um accutron says uh it's not a wristwatch it's a conversation piece or some other tagline like that it's very true um just look at the beauty look at that when the seconds hand is moving in that electrostatic motor is spinning and then you have the kaleidoscope effect of the two turbines at the bottom it really does look very very cool um i do have a space view from 1960 and change which you know i'll bring you to the next video but this is really awesome looking definitely cool oh it has loom let's check out the loom not only does it have loom it has very good loom um looks fantastic of course you can't tell what 12 o'clock is but i'm going to let that slide on this one i'm going to slide on my pilot's watches so i'll let it slide here as well but it definitely glows well you can see the time in the dark and the seconds hand is not loomed which is good because hey sometimes it's docked at 12 and it's not moving and just like that i don't know when the seconds hand stopped moving is that while i was filming it in light while it was on my wrist i really didn't pay attention but now you can see that the watch has it's pretty much considered that i was not giving enough energy just kind of moving it around showing you so it stopped like i said it's going to stop now um because it's been five minutes they consider the inactivity uh and then after ten more days if it doesn't get enough activity it will shut the whole watch down again that doesn't make much sense to me but i guess i'll have to investigate some more and we'll see but let's i don't think i went i don't think i zoomed in on the uh that motor before so let's just check out the motor before we call it quits beautiful looking that's you know obviously it's it's stopped and there's the two generators boom so cool i think that is going to do it i hope you enjoyed the video this has been mark from longhouse.com showing you the acutron spaceview 2020. please like the video if you enjoyed it subscribe channel if you've not done so questions or comments put them down below and i'll be sure to address them as soon as i can thank you very much for watching bye

Channel: Long Island Watch

Views: 46,475

Keywords: Accutron watch, Electrostatic watch movement, Watches, Bulova, Bulova accutron, accutron 2020

Id: cFy0OxjUK1w

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 19 2021