Seiko Spring Drive - The Quiet Revolution

in december 1969 seiko launched sales of the quartz astron the world's first watch using quartz crystal technology the unprecedented accuracy of the quartz watch went on to revolutionize the world of time keeping and we launched sales of the world's first digital quartz watch in 1973 quartz watches could already keep time within one second per day but the seiko quest for accuracy continued in 1978 our development of the twin quartz movement achieved the ultimate accuracy within 10 seconds a year from our first mechanical watch made in 1913 right down to the present day we have an unbroken tradition of evolutionary development of mechanical calibers to create an everlasting timepiece that was the philosophy in 1971 a young man joined suasekosha now seiko epson a physics graduate he was employed as a technical specialist his name was yoshikazu akahane in 1977 young akahane had a brilliant idea he was fired up with the vision of creating a mechanical watch with the highest precision the first prototype was completed in 1982 the second prototype was completed in 1993 in 1997 the swiss society for chronometry published an account of his work in its bulletin the article introduced the innovative concepts behind an entirely new type of movement the spring drive 1997 was also the year that the third prototype was developed switzerland's second largest city basel every year it hosts a watch exposition that attracts participants from more than 2 000 companies around the world known as the basel fair it embraces both watches and jewelry at the 1998 basel fair the announcement of this completely new mechanism was a major focus of attention the prototype shown in basel 1999 the first prototype of an automatic movement 2001 the second automatic prototype 2003 the third automatic prototype and in 2004 the latest automatic movement model as the wearer moves the oscillating weight turns as it rotates it ratchets and winds the mainstream as the mainspring unwinds it provides the power to drive the hands of the watch a special regulator called the tri-synchro regulator controls the movements of the hands a small fraction of the mainspring power is used to generate a tiny electric current this is enough to drive a quartz oscillator and an ic the precisely accurate reference signal from the quartz oscillator is coordinated with the speed at which the main spring unwinds a delicately controlled electromagnetic brake is applied to ensure that the mainstream unwinds at exactly the right rate to match the quartz oscillator for accurate time keeping because of the electromagnetic break the hands keep virtually perfect time the entire mechanism uses smoothly controlled rotary movements with no conventional escapement this means that the hands not only indicate the correct time but also sleep smoothly and continuously in a naturally flowing movement the spring drive movements are assembled by highly skilled and experienced craftsmen the quiet revolution seiko spring drive you

Channel: Cigar King

Views: 548,856

Keywords: seiko, spring, drive, watches

Id: FbmKZ5JXyjo

Length: 8min 43sec (523 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 25 2007