Jewellery & Watch News
What is the Spring Drive Movement?
The Seiko Spring Drive watch movement is one of the most ingenious, effective and unique watch calibres ever designed and because of it, the watches that it powers are highly desirable. When it was first released, the movement became one of the most radical changes to watchmaking since the quartz movement debuted in a wristwatch in 1969, coincidentally another revolution created by Seiko.
Alongside the accuracy of the quartz movement, the Seiko Spring Drive boasts the intricate beauty of a mechanical movement to create something completely unique. The movement itself is almost entirely mechanical but one area of the movement has been replaced; the escapement. In it’s place you will find the tri-synchro regulator, a piece of technology entirely designed and created by Seiko engineers.
There is no other mechanical movement like the Spring Drive and so consequently, customers often find themselves perplexed as to how the calibre exactly works. Today, we will be looking into the legendary Spring Drive movement in more detail to help inform and tempt you all into taking a closer look at the collection.
History of the Spring Drive Movement
The Spring Drive movement was first dreamed up back in 1977 when a young Seiko engineer called Yoshikazu Akahane had a vision of creating “the ever-lasting watch”. The timepiece would be wound by a mainspring and provide the same one-second-a-day accuracy of a quartz watch. The first patents for the design were applied for in 1983 and in total, no fewer than 230 patents were applied worldwide for the movement.
The “the ever-lasting watch” was also intended to have a target power reserve of 48 hours, however due to the high energy consumption of the quartz crystal and integrated circuit, this was proving difficult. It took a total of 28 years and over 600 prototypes before the Spring Drive movement came of age, but it was certainly a feat worth waiting for.
How does the Spring Drive Movement work?
As we explained in the introduction, the Seiko Spring Drive movement is almost entirely mechanical except for the escapement which is replaced by a piece of technology called the tri-synchro regulator. The escapement normally acts as a brake between the components, and the collisions between them is the ticking sound that you can hear in traditional watches. However, because of the friction caused between the balance wheel and other components, the parts were susceptible to wear and tear.
To tackle these problems and to greatly increase accuracy, Seiko created the Spring Drive mechanism which puts a brake on the wheel without there being any collisions between components. Due to the lack of friction, this also means that Spring Drive watches are almost completely silent, and the seconds hand doesn’t ‘tick’ around the dial but instead runs perfectly smooth.
Just as the name suggests, the tri-synchro regulator uses three types of energy to regulate the moving parts and establish synchronicity:
- Mechanical power from the mainspring
- Electrical power creating a reference signalling via an IC/quartz oscillator
- Electromagnetic power to apply a brake via a rotor/stator.
These three forces work in together to regulate the way the mainspring unwinds and to ensure immaculate precision of the seconds hand. From the mechanical power of the mainspring, minimal electric power operates through an integrated circuit and vibrates the quartz oscillator which produces highly accurate oscillations which are used to regulate the force of the electromagnetic braking. The integrated circuit monitor can then compare the rotor’s speed with the signal and intermittently applies this magnetic brake to prevent excessively fast rotation.
You can see a visual explanation of how the Seiko Spring Drive movement works in the video below.
Seiko Spring Drive Watches
Now that you know how the Spring Drive movement works and you can fully appreciate its unique blend of traditional mechanical watchmaking and 21st-century technology, we are sure you can understand why Seiko Spring Drive watches are so coveted.
At C W Sellors, we are extremely proud to be official authorised stockists of all the Seiko brands including Seiko Prospex, Seiko Presage, Seiko Astron and Grand Seiko. You can find all these watches on our website including a huge range of Seiko Spring Drive watches here.
