The Breitling Watch Source Forums

What do you guys think of this? Although I am not a huge tag fan, I kinda like it. Thoughts?

http://blog.perpetuelle.com/index.php/l ... ept-watch/

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Current collection: Breitling Superocean Heritage I 46, Rolex Submariner, Swatch X ****** Sistem51

Well Tag doesn't have a great track record with concept watches - it took them about 8 years to get the belt drive to market.

I'm not sure about this approach - the hairspring is a fundamentally flawed concept so getting rid of it makes sense, but I would need a lot of convincing that this was the route to try. Most players are looking at more stable / non magnetic materials for the escapement - silicon being the most obvious, and that seems to make more sense.

Have to applaud Tag for trying though - unlike a certain brand that we could all mention.

Wow, if they productionise it, and if (big if) it didn't cost the earth I'd definitely be interested. Heck I'd even (just about) accept the TAG name on the dial!

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Tag seems to be stepping it up lately. Im really looking forward to the 1887 (regardless of the controversy it looks like a cool movement).

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-RJ

WOW! If it really works, then that is one heck of a movement! I am partially super mesmerized due to the nice marketing by those guys making the video seem so epic. But it is a very cool concept, that if it works, could be ground breaking, to say the least? But since they said its powered by the magnetic fields, does anyone know exactly how that works?? and couldnt magnets in close proximity to the watch completely throw it off?

No because magnetism affects the hairspring and.......

This watch doesn't have a hairspring.

but i thought the watch was powered by the magnetic field, and strong magnets do affect the surrounding area. Oh well.... I don't get it, but cool watch!

As I understood it, the watch is driven as a normal mechanical watch with a mainspring but they have exchanged the hair spring with some magnetic do dah

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Breitling Navitimer Vintage
Breitling Emergency Mission

I think aesthetically it has panache. You keep all of the cool-looking mechanical parts, including the balance wheel which is probably the niftiest thing to look at, but you make it more accurate as well.

This reminds me of the Seiko Spring Drive from that standpoint that they both derive electromotive force from the mechanical power reserve and use it to regulate timekeeping. In Seiko's case, they replace the balance wheel also, and use a quartz crystal and electromagnets to regulate the rotation of the "glide wheel" (a unidirectional version of the escape wheel).

It seems that TAG's scheme might also be quite sensitive the magnetic fields...maybe even more so than a regular mechanical watch?

So here is a question for the prof (and any other experts out there): Since a Google search reveals non-magnetic hairsprings were used in watches over 100 years ago, how come the hairsprings of today can be magnetized?

///M

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." --Dave Barry

I think that the hairsprings of today are non-magnetic BUT they can be magnetized as they could be 100 years ago

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Breitling Navitimer Vintage
Breitling Emergency Mission

Modern hairsprings are rarely "non-magentic" they are generally "resistant". Products like nivirox are less susceptible to magnetism than pure steel, but they still have an ability to be magnetised.

The most promising advances in hairsprings that cannot be magnetised at all is with silicon (or silicium, which is fancy silicon). Tags approach of getting rid of the hairspring entirely solves that problem, although other parts can of course be magnetised in a watch - the impact just tends to be negligible.

What do you say...

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Breitling Navitimer Vintage
Breitling Emergency Mission

Brilliant concept and a cool looking watch. I'm definitely interested if the technology works! My first impression was that it looked a little bit like the Zenith.

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Happines is Good Health and a Bad Memory.
"Ingrid Bergman"

Well, there are a few threads they share that ties them together. For example, they joined in December last year to form LVMH Swiss Manufacturers SA.

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