Spring drive for a couple hundred dollars???
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[Begin aside]
PSA: Do yourself a big favor right this very moment, and go to https://theescapementroom.com/ There you will find many articles written by fan favorites @DeeperRed @Porthole and @Aurelian. My god, I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard. Their posts are eff'ing brilliant.
[End aside]
So, I recently came across this video on YouTube...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkQQ9BAnTtw
Why don't they teach us this stuff in school??? I mean, I wasted how much of my life learning absolutely useless trivia about the Roman Empire and how to say, "Donde esta el bano?" when I could have been learning about this???
I love Spring Drive GS, because of the smooth sweep of the seconds hand. But, I couldn't care less about "the movement" per se. Like, I've said before that if someone could create a $5 movement that would produce the same smooth sweep, and stick it into a really nicely finished case with a beautiful dial, I would totally buy that instead of GS!
I wish that Citizen would take this technology, and put it into this watch...
Charge me $1,000?
What about you? Let's say that in some strange alternate universe, Grand Seiko offered 2 identical watches. Both of them look like this...
Watch #1 has the Spring Drive 9R66 caliber
Watch #2 has a tuning fork caliber
You can't tell the difference between the 2 in terms of how smoothly the seconds hand sweeps
Both movements are equally reliable, serviceable, etc., etc.
Watch #1 costs $8,400 and Watch #2 costs $4,400
Which would you choose???
The Artist formerly known as @HotWatchChick69 and formerly-formerly @Omeganut
More from Mr.Dee.Bater
“Hummers” are a bottomless pit of misery. I’ve said my piece… numerous times.
Citizen makes some gorgeous, under-the-radar JDM models. The 1050 and 1060 lines are especially stunning for the price. 😍
If they put this quirky transistor movement in their watches for that smooth second-hand sweep, yet still at 1/10th of the price of a Grand Seiko, they would have instant best-sellers. 👌
Although I'm not entirely sure how robust these movements are in the long run and maybe they have been discarded for a reason.
As for me, I really don't care for top-notch movement specs and I would be perfectly happy with every watch running on a cheap NH35 or quartz movement that I can service or swap myself. I don't work for NASA and a simple 3-hander running 10 seconds fast at the end of the day when I put it back in the watchbox is all good in my book, so I would buy a half-price GS in a heartbeat!
“Hummers” are a bottomless pit of misery. I’ve said my piece… numerous times.
See? Vintage trainwrecks = @porthole doing this...
Citizen makes some gorgeous, under-the-radar JDM models. The 1050 and 1060 lines are especially stunning for the price. 😍
If they put this quirky transistor movement in their watches for that smooth second-hand sweep, yet still at 1/10th of the price of a Grand Seiko, they would have instant best-sellers. 👌
Although I'm not entirely sure how robust these movements are in the long run and maybe they have been discarded for a reason.
As for me, I really don't care for top-notch movement specs and I would be perfectly happy with every watch running on a cheap NH35 or quartz movement that I can service or swap myself. I don't work for NASA and a simple 3-hander running 10 seconds fast at the end of the day when I put it back in the watchbox is all good in my book, so I would buy a half-price GS in a heartbeat!
Yeah, it would be super interesting to know how reliable they are. But, you know, there are all these vintage pieces on sale, and apparently they're still running decades later!
See? Vintage trainwrecks = @porthole doing this...
Oh ok then… they’re fine, they don’t cost a fortune to fix, and they were clearly a technological marvel because you can buy one off the shelf today 😂
Oh ok then… they’re fine, they don’t cost a fortune to fix, and they were clearly a technological marvel because you can buy one off the shelf today 😂
Hmmm... so maybe I should stick to spring drive???
Tuning fork movements got us to the moon. (All the NASA timing equipment borrowed Bulova technology, if not their watches.) It is a glorious dead end.
And they do nothing for me.
Hmmm... so maybe I should stick to spring drive???
Honestly - yes.
I’d stick with new/recent quartz/hybrid rather than vintage, it’s much more fun and reliable. The Citizen is lovely, but just don’t. I have an Omega hummer and whilst it looks better than 30,605 other vintage divers, and is still accurate as a chronometer after 50 years, it was economic folly.
Tuning fork movements got us to the moon. (All the NASA timing equipment borrowed Bulova technology, if not their watches.) It is a glorious dead end.
And they do nothing for me.
Dude… ALL watches and watch movements are a glorious dead end!
Honestly - yes.
I’d stick with new/recent quartz/hybrid rather than vintage, it’s much more fun and reliable. The Citizen is lovely, but just don’t. I have an Omega hummer and whilst it looks better than 30,605 other vintage divers, and is still accurate as a chronometer after 50 years, it was economic folly.
Okay. Makes sense! But what if they resurrected the technology and used modern manufacturing techniques? Would they be as robust as any modern mechanical or quartz movement? Or is there something inherently flawed with the design?
Okay. Makes sense! But what if they resurrected the technology and used modern manufacturing techniques? Would they be as robust as any modern mechanical or quartz movement? Or is there something inherently flawed with the design?
As you allude to, if it was so good as a technology in the first place why haven’t they resurrected it with modern manufacturing practices? The simple answer is I don’t know, and the second answer is actually “pop the back”.
Look at these old electric movements, they look like they were put together in a shed by your grandad with parts of old lawnmowers. I suspect that there are too many moving parts, and by the time the quartz movement was perfected, you were getting as accurate a movement with less bs. Adapt and survive.
Citizen makes some gorgeous, under-the-radar JDM models. The 1050 and 1060 lines are especially stunning for the price. 😍
If they put this quirky transistor movement in their watches for that smooth second-hand sweep, yet still at 1/10th of the price of a Grand Seiko, they would have instant best-sellers. 👌
Although I'm not entirely sure how robust these movements are in the long run and maybe they have been discarded for a reason.
As for me, I really don't care for top-notch movement specs and I would be perfectly happy with every watch running on a cheap NH35 or quartz movement that I can service or swap myself. I don't work for NASA and a simple 3-hander running 10 seconds fast at the end of the day when I put it back in the watchbox is all good in my book, so I would buy a half-price GS in a heartbeat!
Touché. Option 2 Or a 30 bucks Casio AE1200, The Casio Royale... Witha only +/- 30 secs per month... For that matter.