The Best 21st Century Technologies, Part I

Resume the list of advanced technologies radically transformed traditional watchmaking at the beginning of the 21st century.

From time immemorial, watchmakers had to work everything on machines or even by hand, including the tiniest parts in a watch movement, barely visible to the naked eye. This seriously affected the precision of watch movements, catalyzed the invention of inexpensive quartz timekeeping devices, and also held back the development of watchmaking.

Photo Manufacturing or Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE)

Watchmakers only arrived at the idea of a photographic manufacturing process using the DRIE industrial method developed for microelectromechanical systems to manufacture watch parts in the 2000s. This method involves creating parts by streaming charged ions to etch the surface of an object according to a 3D image loaded into a reactor.

DRIE photoreactors don't cut parts out of metal blocks, they shape them using ion-beam etching (or milling) based on predetermined 3D light images. It achieves stunning precision: there's absolutely zero-tolerance for defects, not even one hundredth of a micron.

The Swiss create watch escapement parts from with silicon atoms in photoreactors. These parts are not prone to physical wear from friction or electromagnetic fields, and they don't need to be lubricated, which opens up truly endless possibilities for watchmakers with access to a photoreactor. Now all the prestigious watch houses have escapements with stop levers, hairsprings and escape wheels made from silicon-based material.

Only Japanese watchmakers aren’t happy with silicon, who think it's too fragile and prefer to "sculpt" watch components from nickel atoms, which is what top brands Grand Seiko and Credor do to create their marvelous movements. Overall, DRIE photographic manufacturing is the greatest technological achievement of our time.

Modular Assembly

The technological manufacturing process of modular watch assembly not only rescued Switzerland and mechanical watches in principle. It was proposed and tested at the end of the 20th century by the Swatch Group's founder Mr. Nicolas Hayek Sr. In order to meet the needs of companies in distress, the Swatch Group-owned ETA factory resumed production of quintessential standard movements which have stood the test of time: the ЕТА 2824, ЕТА 2892 and chronograph ЕТА/Valjoux 7750 calibers created in the 1950s.

They were powerful and reliable, and not only did an excellent job at performing their timekeeping duties, they also readily welcomed additional complications, added onto them in the form of modules for various calendars, as well as indicators for power reserve, a second time zone etc.

At the same time, ETA was also busy producing precisely these types of functional modules. Anyone who could buy cases, dials, glass and hands from other Swatch Group subsidiaries could hire a few assemblers and release watches with his or her own name on them. An ideal arrangement!

Despite all the restrictions (connecting to ETA politics) production assembly scheme is still used and works remarkably well. For example, the company Sellita began producing SW 200 and 300 movements, which are cheaper copies of ETA 2824 and 2892 respectively. Common manufacturers of watch cases and dials have also found a place for themselves, which are life-savers for the majority of young Swiss companies.

"Dual-Wing" Movements

No matter how powerful and reliable a watch movement is, any added function it needs to power makes its work significantly harder: there's a good reason why many functions are referred to as complications. These intensive activities consume a lot of energy, and sometimes have a negative impact on the watch's precision.

In 2009, Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced the collector's trilogy of Hybris Mechanica 55 models. One of the three watches in the set was called Hybris Mechanica à Grande Sonnerie, and was equipped with the so-called Dual-Wing movement effectively split in two halves, with one wing responsible for timekeeping and the other for powering the complications.

Each of the "wings" had its own independent escape wheel and mainspring barrel. They only join forces for the balance spring. Soon watches with "Dual-Wing" movements formed their own collection called Duomètre, comprising a total of five complicated models.

It has already seen a tourbillon watch released, followed by a chronograph, lunar calendar function and an indicator for a second time zone. The potential for developing the promising idea of a movement with two essentially independent parts is massive. Well, it would be if it weren't for the complexity and cost of putting the idea into action…

Multi-Balance Movements

Some of us may remember a physics lesson at school about how two pendulums are sure to begin swinging in synchronization after a while if placed next to each other, i.e. this is the phenomenon of the persistence of frequency and resonance. And they'll oscillate in time with the one that's working best. That's why watches with two balance wheels working in unison offer greater precision.

This effect in watches was discovered back in the 18th century by John Harrison when he was working on creating the first marine chronometer known as the Н-1 Grasshopper Clock. Yet it was not until almost three centuries later when new technology made it possible to put this idea into action in a wristwatch. In 2001, the great modern master of watchmaking François-Paul Journe received the most prestigious international award at Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) for his remarkable watch with two balance wheels.

Some of the other watches with more than one balance wheel which stand out from all the rest are the Greubel Forsey GF4 Double Balancier 35° and the Blancpain Le Brassus Tourbillon Carrousel, which was the first to combine two of the most famous gravity-defying regulators in one movement: a tourbillon and a carrousel with its own balance spring, as well as the Roger Dubuis Excalibur Quatuor Silicon, which has an impressive total of 4 balance springs linked by a gear train with five differentials.

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High-Frequency Balances

When two new high-frequency models were introduced at Baselworld 2010 — the Chopard L.U.C 8HF with a balance-wheel frequency of 8 Hz (57 600 vph) and the Breguet Classique Chronometrie 7727 with an even higher frequency of 10 Hz (72 000 vph) — the question on many people's minds was "what do you need that for?"

This is where we need to think back to our schooldays again. That's because the higher the frequency a watch's balance wheel beats at, the more precise the watch. Pocket watches worked at a frequency of 2 or 2.5 Hz. Considering how wide in diameter old movements were, especially the width of their balance wheels, frequencies of 14 400 vph and 18 000 vph were more than enough to ensure consistently accurate timekeeping.

However, problems arose as soon as wristwatches began to take the place of pocket watches in our lives. Caliber measurements were almost halved, parts became smaller, and it became far more difficult to work them to size while adhering to the necessary proportions. There was a dramatic decrease in precision and quality. The first wristwatches were so inferior to pocket watches in terms of accuracy that a deviation of +/- 10 minutes a day was considered almost ideal.

Contemporary theorists came up with a solution. They shortened the balance spring and increased the frequency of oscillation to 21 600 vph at first, and then to 28 800. The work of the balance spring was far more stable. The force of friction prevented the frequency from being made any higher. At the beginning of the 19th century,  Abraham-Louis Breguet himself said, "Show me the perfect oil and I'll show you the perfect watch". He'd still be waiting if he was alive today.

Modern watchmakers have been able to dramatically increase balance frequency to 6 and 7 Hz by using materials which create so little friction that they don't even need to use lubricants anymore. The record-breaking frequency of 360 000 vph was achieved by the engineers at TAG Heuer for their Calibre 360 and Montblanc models, albeit only in the balance for the chronograph (TimeWriter II Chronographe Bi-Fréquence 1,000 and TimeWalker Chronograph 1000).

Three years ago, Zenith unveiled the Defy El Primero 21 watch with a similar chronograph module and a balance frequency of 360 000 vph. This is the high-frequency threshold for mechanical watches. Alternative escapements are needed to prevent energy loss. For instance, TAG Heuer invented a watch with a linear oscillator which beats at a frequency of 500 Hz (3 600 000 vph). Overall, high-frequency watches were a huge step in the development of watchmaking.