Friday, May 4, 2007

Who invented kinetic watch?


Japanese company Seiko pioneered the technique and released the first such watch in Germany in January 1988 and April of the same year in Japan (under the name Auto-Quartz). The watches had an average monthly rate of ±15 sec and provided 75 hours of continuous operation when fully powered. Early automatic quartz movements were called AGS (Automatic Generating System); in 1991 the company introduced the Kinetic brand name. Today Seiko offers a wide range of watches with various different Kinetic movements. The top of the line is the caliber 9T82, included in Sportura (international brand) and PROSPEX (only marketed in Japan) Collection. It's sold in limited volume at a price range of about US$3000 which makes it one of the most expensive automatic quartz watches. Kinetic technology has also been used in some of Seiko's Pulsar and Lorus watches.

The OMEGA Co-Axial escapement. A revolution in master watchmaking.

At the dawn of the third millennium, OMEGA presents an innovation that redefines the entire theory of mechanical watchmaking.

The escapement is the heart of every mechanical watch and the basic theory behind it has remained unchanged for over 200 years. Today, OMEGA breaks the mould with a totally new design, the Co-Axial escapement, developed in conjuction with master watchmaker George Daniels.

The new design is based on double Co-Axial escape wheel, a lever with three pallet stones and impulse stone on the balance roller, together with a free sprung-balance. The Co-Axial system reduces sliding friction compared with the lever escapement and thus ensures greater accuracy over time.