The Seiko Spring Drive Explained

Mechanical replica omega watch use devices call escapements which provide the friction necessary to causethe main spring to unwind at a rate consistent with unitsof time (otherwise themain spring would simply unwind all at once). Escapementsare the most intricate, delicate, and expensive components of mechanical and automaticwatches. Automatic WatchesAutomatic watches typically operate just like mechanical watches, except theyuse a small weight or rotor to automatically wind the main spring. The weight windsthe main spring by pivoting around shaft as you move your arm during your everydayroutine. Most automatic watches can also be wound like mechanical watches, thoughthere is seldom a need to do so. Automatic watches are far more common todaythan mechanical watches (when was the last time you saw someone wind their watch?).Quartz WatchesQuartz watches operate entirely differently than automatic and mechanical watches.A quartz omega of watches uses electricity from a battery to osculate a tiny quartz crystalat a very high and very predictable frequency. Those vibrations are counted andadd up to seconds, minutes, hours, etc. Quartz watches are almost always more accuratethan their automatic and mechanical counterparts, usually gaining or losing nomore than 15 seconds per month, and in some cases, as few as 20 seconds per year. (It's usually acceptable for automaticwatches to gain as many as 6 seconds per day, or 3 minutes per month.) Seiko Kinetic WatchesKinetic watches are sort of a combination of automatic and quartz watches. Theycontain a weight like automatic watches which responds to arm movements, but ratherthan winding a main spring, the weight powers a tiny generator which stores powerin a capacitor, or a rechargeable battery. That power is then used to power a standardquartz movement, thus giving you the accuracy of a quartz watch, but without abattery that needs to be replaced. It's worth noting that kinetic watch capacitorsdo occasionally need to be replaced, but much less frequently than standard seiko watches batteries. I have a Seiko Kinetic watch that is over 6 years old, and the capacitorstill works beautifully. The Seiko Spring DriveThe Seiko Spring Drive actually contains a main spring like an automatic or mechanic fashion seiko, but it is made from a material which provides more elasticity than yourtypical main spring, providing a power reserve of 72 hours as opposedto the more common 40 hours. What is really unique about the Spring Drive, however,is that it does not use an escapement to regulate the unwinding of the main spring.Rather, it uses a "Tri-synchro regulator" which regulates the energy generatedby the main spring, and uses that energy to power a crystal oscillator.In other words, the Spring Drive is an even tighter integration between automaticand quartz movements than even kinetic watches because the crystal is directlypowered by the main spring rather than a rechargeable capacitor. The result is accuracy of about one second or less per day, and a completely smooth, sweepinghand movement.The Seiko Spring Drive should be available all over the world (including the US!)sometime after September of 2005. No information on pricing as of yet, but youcan bet I'll be reviewing one of these as soon as I can get my hands on one.