My new Tag Monaco V4...
Discussion
If I had the money....
That is seriously cool. The belt drive is the *real* innovation there - using a linear mass isn't really that much different to the 'bumper' automatics in the old JLCs in terms of reciprocating motion rather than rotational motion (and why the hell are they using tungsten in a hugely expensive watch made of platinum? Tungsten is as dense as gold, which is great, but platinum is even denser than gold or tungsten so it'd make a better oscillating weight... perhaps it'd be too noticeable when moving around, but they could make it smaller for the same mass and have more room for the barrels... then again it could be due to the ball bearings, which may wear out a platinum weight (tungsten much harder than platinum) so they needed hard materials on both sides).
Also, the balance and escapement looks entirely familiar. What actually is 'revolutionary' about it? Anyone know?
The belt drive is cool though. And they've managed to make it so that the complete watch isn't relentlessly huge and only fit for rap 'artists' in the USA. No doubt they've done the physics of belts vs gears - but unless you're talking massively high-torque applications, in car engines it seems that the most efficient designs use belts or chains rather than a bunch of gears to transmit torque (e.g. cam drives, all auxiliary units). Perhaps this type of design has only become feasible due to recent materials technology advances (i.e. belt materials that can take the torque at the size required) but with even the most traditional manufactures coming up against the limits of what traditional materials can take in terms of torque (tiny tourbillon cages and wheels buckling under the tiny, but too much for the small parts, torque) and having to develop new materials (titanium, silicon, ceramics, etc.), who knows what will happen.
It's an order or magnitude (or more) smaller, but if some of the MEMS research is picked up on by modern mechanical watchmakers then all sorts of fantastic micro-machines could be invented. Whether mechanical could approach quartz in accuracy again is probably a lost cause with timekeeping being related to oscillation frequency (obviously limited in mechanical systems, not so much in electrical or single-atom systems) - but certainly the sudden rush for top watch brands to start developing their own movements is a great thing, and will hopefully enlarge the enthusiast base for such mechanical marvels. I like to think that the counterfeiters had a hand in this - the Swiss were sitting on their laurels and taking the piss... now they've been forced to innovate, they've shown they're the best all along. Bravo.
That is seriously cool. The belt drive is the *real* innovation there - using a linear mass isn't really that much different to the 'bumper' automatics in the old JLCs in terms of reciprocating motion rather than rotational motion (and why the hell are they using tungsten in a hugely expensive watch made of platinum? Tungsten is as dense as gold, which is great, but platinum is even denser than gold or tungsten so it'd make a better oscillating weight... perhaps it'd be too noticeable when moving around, but they could make it smaller for the same mass and have more room for the barrels... then again it could be due to the ball bearings, which may wear out a platinum weight (tungsten much harder than platinum) so they needed hard materials on both sides).
Also, the balance and escapement looks entirely familiar. What actually is 'revolutionary' about it? Anyone know?
The belt drive is cool though. And they've managed to make it so that the complete watch isn't relentlessly huge and only fit for rap 'artists' in the USA. No doubt they've done the physics of belts vs gears - but unless you're talking massively high-torque applications, in car engines it seems that the most efficient designs use belts or chains rather than a bunch of gears to transmit torque (e.g. cam drives, all auxiliary units). Perhaps this type of design has only become feasible due to recent materials technology advances (i.e. belt materials that can take the torque at the size required) but with even the most traditional manufactures coming up against the limits of what traditional materials can take in terms of torque (tiny tourbillon cages and wheels buckling under the tiny, but too much for the small parts, torque) and having to develop new materials (titanium, silicon, ceramics, etc.), who knows what will happen.
It's an order or magnitude (or more) smaller, but if some of the MEMS research is picked up on by modern mechanical watchmakers then all sorts of fantastic micro-machines could be invented. Whether mechanical could approach quartz in accuracy again is probably a lost cause with timekeeping being related to oscillation frequency (obviously limited in mechanical systems, not so much in electrical or single-atom systems) - but certainly the sudden rush for top watch brands to start developing their own movements is a great thing, and will hopefully enlarge the enthusiast base for such mechanical marvels. I like to think that the counterfeiters had a hand in this - the Swiss were sitting on their laurels and taking the piss... now they've been forced to innovate, they've shown they're the best all along. Bravo.
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