In its effort to combine the precision of quartz and the energy autonomy of the mechanical watch, Seiko has been exploring two areas of research: the generation of energy by a mechanical rotor activating a quartz calibre (the Kinetic line of movements), and the technology known as Spring Drive.
As its name indicates, the heart of this movement is the barrel spring. Seiko had already mastered this technology in 1959, but it needed to develop a new generation specifically for this movement, one made from a highly elastic material called ‘Spron 510.’ The result is a more powerful spring capable of delivering its energy in a more balanced manner over a longer period of time (72-hour power reserve). The spring is armed by a ‘Magic Lever’ fixed directly on the stem of the oscillating weight, thus allowing for better winding (30% more efficient) of the spring.
In this mechanism, it is what Seiko calls the ‘Tri-synchro regulator’ that replaces the escapement. It regulates three types of energy that are used by the movement: the mechanical energy produced by the barrel spring; the electrical energy created from the mechanical energy that activates a quartz resonator; and the electro-magnetic energy that drives the ‘glide wheel’ (literally a glide wheel but here a seconds wheel) to turn eight times a second (which causes a continuous motion of the hand, without visible jerks as in quartz watches).
The engineers at Seiko state that the movement generated inside the Spring Drive is unidirectional, thus eliminating friction due to two-way motion.
With its 276 component parts, of which 80 are found in the mechanical watch for its barrel spring, gear train, power reserve system and its Magic Lever, the Spring Drive thus has nearly all the characteristics of a mechanical timepiece, yet it attains the precision of quartz, which means it is accurate to plus or minus one second a day.
Hand-assembled and finely finished by specialized watchmakers, with great attention to detail (30 jewels), the quality of the timepiece’s case clearly demonstrates the seriousness of the brand’s deliberate move upmarket. Endowed with solemn contemporary styling, composed of variations of the circle, the first watches in the Spring Drive family are imprinted with the most classic values of watchmaking.





Full article in print copy of Europa Star BaselWorld issue 2/2005

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