Re: Quartz second hand that Sweeps?

And there are many many clocks using synchronous motors powered by
household current that provide a silky smooth seconds hand. I
remember when quartz timed analog watches first came out that the
jumping seconds hand was actually a selling point. There were also a
few exotic mechanical watches that provided a jumping seconds hand.

On Nov 16, 12:54 pm, "Jack Denver" <nunuv...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
There were some Metamec Dilectron electric battery clocks (powered by a
C-Cell flashlight battery) that moved the second hand perfectly smoothly
using a 400 rpm synchronous motor (geared down to 1 rpm on the second
hand). In the case of the Dilectron, the synch pulse was provided by a free
running balance wheel but this pulse could just as easily been provided by a
stepped down quartz crystal. If this design could have been reduced to
watch size it could have potentially been one of the most accurate balance
wheel based watches in history because the balance of that watch achieved
the holy grail of total free running - both impulse and escape were magnetic
(and it was ultra high beat to boot - 48kbph). But I'll bet the power
demands of the synchronous motor were much too high for a watch. However,
the synch pulse of this balance could have been divided down to 1x/sec and
used to run a stepper - this would have been a viable design that I wish
someone had built. But the timing (no pun intended) was such that quartz
oscillators became available first and put all hybrid balance
wheel/electrics in the dust bin of history.

"John S." <hjs...@xxxxxx> wrote in message

news:e7d498b7-ee43-43cd-b593-ad4a6e7dbc65@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx





Most electronic movements move the seconds hand in one second
increments to save electricity. There have been a very few quartz
timed movements that provided much smaller increments but they tended
to eat batteries like candy. Electronic tuning fork timed watches
move the seconds hand in a very smooth movement.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

.

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