Fun to see a departure from the norm - until this, the probably largest innovation horology over the past couple of hundred years was George Daniels' coaxial escapement (which basically eliminated friction from the equation, ensuring all transfer of energy in the escapement took place between components tangential to each other, allowing for excellent long-term precision)
The plural of anecdote is not data, but my ten year old Omega with coaxial escapement (in a c.2500C) is still accurate to within a second a day without ever having been serviced. That,in my book, is remarkable.
(It is due for a service soon; I do not intend to run it into the ground...)
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.
(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...)
It doesn’t clearly show the mainspring, however at around 10:45 you can see the small gear spinning. That is being driven by the mainspring, and if you removed the escapement it would spin super quick until the mainspring was unwound.
It’s the constant rocking back and forth of the regulator that limits the speed that small gear (called the escape wheel) can rotate, therefore limiting how quickly the mainspring releases it’s energy.
http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/15895-an-electrical-engineering...
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!
Do bear in mind though, even very wealthy collectors also regularly sell pieces and 'trade up' over time. You can only wear one watch at time after all... unless you decide to start 'Schwarzkopfing'
It's not that simple. I have a steel string guitar which, when a string is stuck loudly, will play sharp, then asymptotically approach the Hz it has when sounding its quietest. I hear it, and my digital tuner displays the effect as well. I speculate that when the the string is more perturbed (arced further away from straight), the tension increases more than proportionately to the displacement from straight.
[1] http://www.leapsecond.com/pages/atomic-bill/ (Yes, that is a guy with an HP-5071A strapped to his arm.)
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".
F1 engine tech, in a watch case, and that's not even the innovative part. Sooooo cool.
Ford doesn't make GT's because they're profitable. They make them to sell Mustangs.
New designs are pretty much all digital (for better or for worse). If a spaceship needs a backup timepiece, it will just carry a second digital clock. If a spaceship needs a mechanical lockout, it will just do it with microswitches, solenoids, and digital logic.
I suspect I just reinvented nanotechnology. For some reason, this watch article makes it feel much more real.
Accuracy of this watch has no real value for the owner. He just wants to own technical mobile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_microlattice
I've played around a bit with such super light metals and aerogels as well, they are very interesting materials with surprising properties.
I'm guessing they will make other watches with this movement eventually.
[0] http://watchguy.co.uk/review-a-trip-inside-the-swatch-sistem...
