A Technical Perspective – The Flexure Revolution, Compliant Mechanisms applied to Watchmaking
In mechanical engineering, compliant mechanisms (monolithic or joint-less structures) are flexible mechanisms that transfer an input force or displacement to another point through elastic body deformation, using the elastic properties of matter to affect the motion of mechanical components. These monolithic, compact and precise components replace several mechanically assembled parts. The absence of mechanical coupling eliminates contact, play, friction, wear, lubrication or dispersions.
Longines is the official partner and timekeeper of the XXI Commonwealth Games to be held on the Gold Coast, Australia in April 2018 and they have just announced the watch of the Games, the ‘Conquest V.H.P. (Very High Precision) Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games’. The Conquest V.H.P. sees Longines turning back the clock to a particularly golden year for both naming components: 1954. It was the year the first Conquest watch was released and it was also the year Longines launched the world’s first quartz clock with atomic precision. This tech was at the heart of a pioneering sports timing instrument invented by Longines, the Chronocinégines. This at the time cutting-edge machine generated a film strip composed of a series of pictures recorded at 1/100th second, allowing judges to record the moment an athlete crossed the finish line. Quartz wristwatches followed 15 years later with the dashing ‘Ultra-Quartz’ model, released in 1969. The Ultra-Quartz would not look at all out of place among modern heritage reissues with its radially brushed cushion case, applied indices and vertically brushed dial. This watch is ‘Very High Precision’ by name and by nature – it promises accuracy of +/-5 seconds a year, compared to…
I like to think of myself as a very ‘everyday’ kind of guy who, for the most part, lives a life wearing smart casual. I’m talking that perfect balance of comfort, function and style. This balance, of course, extends to my tastes in watches, as versatility is paramount — and I like to be prepared. Today we’re looking at the best ‘everyday’ watches of 2017, and only the most versatile made the cut. We’re talking watches that you can start your day with at the gym, wear through a day at the office, and then out to a nice dinner. Tudor Heritage Black Bay 41 First up, the Tudor Black Bay 41 — a simple and refined steel watch, with a beautiful black dial. The BB41 is as at home in the gym as it is in the office. Being a Black Bay, it’s water resistant to 200m, so will stand up to whatever you decide to throw at it over the weekend. Unlike others in the Black Bay collection, the 41 has a polished bezel, which gives enough sparkle that you can dress it up nicely. And if you’re looking to dress it down, then the OEM Camouflage fabric strap transforms…
Hublot take their motto – The Art of Fusion – very seriously. It’s an ideology we’ve witnessed them bring to life ever since their very first watch, which combined a gold case with a natural rubber strap – the likes of which had never been seen before. It’s also an attitude that has allowed for some extremely esoteric partnerships. From French contemporary artists, all the way to synth-rock band Depeche Mode. This year they’ve joined forces with world number one golfer Dustin Johnson. And created a watch specifically designed for golfers to calculate and keep track of their scores. To manufacture the very first mechanical golf watch with an aperture display, Hublot began with the 45mm case of the Big Bang Unico and constructed it from an amalgamation of carbon fibre and aluminium – called Texalium and made exclusively for Hublot. The result is a watch with 100m of water resistance that weighs a mere 97.93 grams. And one with a finish that resembles the familiar texture of a golf ball. Hublot have never been one to take par for the course. And on the inside, they’ve fitted a brand-new module to form the newly complicated MHUB1580 in-house movement. Which…