Horologists

Seiko Digital Watch

The Japanese company Seiko quartz watches with her was partly responsible for the crisis watches in Switzerland. That is why one hears in this country do not like that Seiko is a real one Manufacture. And with the "Spring Drive" has a real innovation in the offer. We have therefore decided as the first retailer in Switzerland, these watches include in our range. Remember, was ridiculed as the first hybrid car? Today, driving around several thousand Toyota Prius on our streets, and in the luxury of Lexus is the combination of gasoline and electric drive as the last Schick. Similarly, it might even go with the "Spring Drive" by Seiko - First smiles, then revered as the vanguard. The real Achilles heel of a mechanical clock is the escapement. It ensures that the time runs out in a regulated river. In the traditional watch this works with delicate, elaborately manufactured items such as balance and anchor. The concept is more than 200 years old and is only developed in small details. Mechanical Clock requires a revision every few years, can it work in theory for ever and repaired. When arrived in the seventies, the first quartz watches to the market, it was thought, now is the true solution to power the watch found. In fact, the quartz clock has about significant benefits. The works are very cheap to produce in large batches and they achieve an accuracy with which is itself the most expensive mechanical clock can never be measured. However, the programmer has its drawback: It requires a battery and electronics are often not to repair, but share the most. For the battery problem, the inventors devised solutions: Auto or quartz Kinetic approaches the one called. It is generated by a lift rotor energy that is stored in a kind of battery. The other approach is the solar energy: small dials integrated into the solar cells power a battery. Devised a new way 30 years ago, the engineers of the Japanese giant Seiko. Seiko? The company has establish a reputation in Switzerland, only "cheap quartz watches." But this is not so. The Seiko Group is indeed a giant Japanese industrial group with 120,000 employees and more than 20 billion francs in sales. The beginnings of the company in 1881 as a repair workshop for clocks (and is thus older than some prestigious Swiss watch company). The watches division annually produces huge numbers: 16 million 352 million watches and watch movements there were in 2005. Mostly these are quartz watches, but also cheap automatic watches leave the production studio in great numbers in the "lion's den", ie the watch market, Switzerland, has Seiko a difficult position a certain reputation Seiko received here in the seventies with the first digital Watch with chronograph and alarm functions or the performances in the James Bond films with Roger Moore. Hardly known in this country, however, that Seiko also produces extremely high-quality watches. Almost 30 years ago, engineers at Seiko began therefore in a system called "Spring Drive" to work - "pen drive" in German. The goal, in a high quality, durable Clock the best of the mechanics and the electronics was connected to. To keep the comparison with the cars: a kind of hybrid technology.1999 Seiko launched the first manual winding watches with this technique. 2005 Seiko introduced at the Basel Watch and Jewellery Show Basel World, the first automatic watch before with "Spring Drive". For operation, the energy is generated at a clock with "Spring Drive" with a lift rotor. This extends, as in a conventional automatic, a spring in their barrel. Each spring will relax only one thing: himself. In a conventional mechanical Clock prevent the inhibition of anxiety and anchor the spring from being able to relax immediately. The revolutionary is the "Spring Drive" now that he is using this spring to power a Gleitrad. With the help of a magnet attached to this wheel energy is generated. This energy in turn supplies a quartz crystal and place it in its vibration of 32768 Hertz. At the same time a kind of brake is supplied with energy, which restrict the Gleitrad at exactly eight revolutions per second. The "Spring Drive" is thus essentially a quartz watch, but the energy is stored in a mechanical component of the spring. Precision is also a quartz watch for a maximum of 15 seconds deviation per month will be specified by the manufacturer. According to statements from owners of this value in practice is much lower than in watch forums there are reports of less than a second difference - per month. A side effect is the gentle glide of the second hand. The conventional quartz watch is revealed by the characteristic jumping every second, when you see the slightly jerky mechanical moving and hear the "tick-tock." The "quiet revolution", the Japanese name for their art. The power reserve of 72 hours is much higher than that of a typical mechanical clock. A standard work of ETA, as in millions of clocks ticking away, it runs up to 44 hours without movement on the clock. Packed is the modern technique in discrete, perfectly crafted steel housings. The design of the watch is more "understated. A Lexus level, instead of the usual German prestige sedans. Not least, the clock real "watches are manufactured," for Seiko produced the works of AZ himself and thus continues in the illustrious club of the watch manufacturers. That may be unwilling to listen to the noble houses in Geneva and the Jura, but it is so. Currently, the models with "Spring Drive" still does not produce large quantities. Finally took some of the first Lexus ridiculed many years to be taken seriously. Even the makers of a Seiko Spring Drive must be resistant against malicious comments, "What? 5,000 francs for a Seiko? ". ..