The first-ever mechanical movement without hairspring…
Overall, I would say that my taste in watches tends to run more towards the traditional. But this new concept watch from TAG Heuer just unveiled at Baselworld 2010, – the Pendulum – seems to be a great technological innovation and thus worth a closer look. Watch the video first and then I’ll “show and tell” you more about this new and exciting concept watch.
<![CDATA[<object codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZNtvxzY47aE" width="425px" height="350px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZNtvxzY47aE" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" /><param name="pluginspage" value="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></object>]]> The basic concept here is that the hairspring has inherent physical limitations (gravity and temperature are its primary ‘enemies’). New materials such as silicon have made great improvements in overcoming these limitations, but still they exist. So what did TAG Heuer do? It got rid of the hairspring entirely and replaced it with an innovative pendulum “spring” that is regulated by magnets. The pendulum beats at a very high frequency 43,200/hour (6 Hertz) and requires no additional components give its firm rooting in the physics of magnetism. Pendulum gets its name from a creation of the original inventor of the hairspring, Christiaan Huygens in 1675— he actually invented the pendulum clock in 1657.
