A French company (SilMach) backed by Timex Group is claiming to have opened a new chapter in watchmaking with the creation of a silicon motor that matches the accuracy of quartz-based movements with the elegance of a mechanical watch’s sweeping hands.
It could bring to an end the trick of spotting a battery powered watch by the jumping motion of its seconds hand because the SilMach motor powers sweeping hands.
This is bullshit. Some of my parents’ wallclock from the early 2000s already got sweeping hands. That “trick” was brought to an end literally decades ago.
Admittedly I’m not that into watches, but my mechanical watches also tick in discrete steps. Those are just smaller steps than once a second.
If that’s what some people apparently care about, why not make a quartz watch move the hands in increments of (say) 1/16ths of a second? It seems totally feasible without fancy new motors.
Higher beat quartz watches do exist, like Bulova’s Precisionist watches (which I believe do beat 16 times per second like you mention).
My understanding is that they are not more common because moving the hands more frequently like this uses battery a lot faster, so the watches either need to be bigger for more battery or require more frequent battery changes.
💀
I’m a tech guy and don’t give a crap about the sweeping motion of a watch hand. I’d rather have a watch that tells me the time, date, my messages, and vitals while also being able to configure how it looks plus change that any time I like. Way more useful than, “Wow, look at that hand sweep by!”
I guess I just don’t “get it” when it comes to watches like this. Is there something I’m missing?
you’re not a tech guy, you’re a tech enthusiast.
someone who understands computers will reduce the “smart” devices in their home to the minimum.
As a programmer, I’m pretty sure I understand computers. It all comes down to who you trust because at the end of the day we all have smart phones with us just about 24/7 with the potential to access just about every aspect of our lives in real-time. Personally, I don’t really trust any company so I limit what I put into my smart phone.
I think it’s interesting just because it’s an innovation. Personally I’m not very interested in smart watches. Everyone’s different though
