The new ETA 2826-2 big date calibre
Thanks to the new ETA 2826-2, the exclusivity of a large date is now within reach for less expensive timepieces. It provides a date display almost twice as large as the vastly popular calibre 2824-2 movement with a display area of 3.7 mm x 2.8 mm. Two discs are fully superposed, the lower disc being imprinted with the numerals 1 to 16, while the upper disc carries the dates from the 17th to the 31st plus a window that allows the dates on the lower disc to be seen. Thus, from the 1st to the 16th day of a month, the window of the upper disc is congruent with the equal-sized aperture in the dial, revealing the current date on the lower disc. The transition from the 16th to the 17th day is performed by the upper disc which also advances by one interval for the 15 days that follow. After the 31st, the window in the upper date disc again lines up with the dial aperture, exposing the numeral 1 on the lower disc.
This mechanism allows a logical date display in which the 1st automatically follows the 31st day. Moreover, double-digit dates appear without a gap. Unlike other solutions, the position of the big date on the dial is not fixed. It can be arranged in many different ways to accommodate signature dial configurations with brand-typical layouts.

Skeletonized ETA 2894S2 chronograph calibre
ETA's Ref. 2894S2 chronograph calibre is a beautifully skeletonized movement with high-tech perfection and decorated with gold-filled engravings. ETA has used the latest-generation CNC machines to produce this delicate skeletonizing. This new capability will make skeletonized movements, so far priced in the bracket of jewel-set timepieces, much less expensive. However, there will hardly be a widespread skeleton trend, because even with modern machines, the process is still extremely challenging.
For its skeletonized watch project, ETA picked the column-wheel controlled 2894-2 chronograph calibre. The dial side of the chronograph module and the basic movement are both skeletonized. The owner of such a chronograph can now see, from the dial side, how a column-wheel works or how the chronograph hand, as well as the minute and hour counters, are driven. A glance at the other side shows the wheel train of the basic calibre and the gold-plated, mirror-polished balance, which, with its large diameter and high inertial mass, accurately dictates the beat of the movement.

After having mastered the fabrication of the ferromagnetic balance-spring in the 1990s, Rolex developed and patented a balance-spring made of a new alloy called Parachrom®. Composed of niobium, zirconium, and oxygen, it has the advantage of being up to ten times more resistant to shocks, and insensitive to magnetic fields.
The research and development work took five years and required the creation of the most advanced techniques. Rolex used its own high-tech methods to create Parachrom® in order to ensure perfect quality, while maintaining complete independence. Unwound, the balance-spring is as fine as a human hair. It is like a 20 cm long ribbon, with a rectangular cross-section of 45 µm x 150 µm (microns). Its fabrication starts by the fusion of niobium and zirconium at a temperature of about 2,300 °C in an oven with electronic bombardment, which was elaborated specifically for this application. A bar measuring 30 cm long and 10 mm in diameter is obtained, which then undergoes a series of operations to create a wire that is 3 km long and 0.1 mm in diameter (the diameter of a hair). Next, the wire is transformed into a long ribbon with a rectangular cross-section that is cut into lengths of 20 cm. Each length is wound into a balance-spring, with its shape fixed by a high temperature thermal treatment in a vacuum.
In 2000, the Parachrom® balance-spring was introduced in Rolex's Cosmograph Daytona, followed in 2005, by its placement in the brand's new GMT-Master II. Its blued colour pays homage to the prestige of the watch, and reinforces the stability of the balance-spring's properties. In fact, in the history of watchmaking, blueing a balance-spring was reserved for the most precise and most exclusive timekeepers.



Technotime takes the plunge
Another player that has made a veritable entrance into the movement game is Techno-time. The company started in 2001 on the ‘vestiges' of France Ebauches that was having a very difficult time. Orchestrating this renaissance were the gentlemen Gerber and Rey, who, at first, wanted to re-launch a complete manufacturer of mechanical movements on an industrial scale. Their principal asset: recognized expertise in the production of an entire family of quartz movements (1.5 million pieces per year, one-third ‘Swiss Made', two-thirds ‘Made in China'), of which many were equipped with additional modules that are, in fact, purely mechanical. This tradition of mechanical modules on quartz movements is the base on which Technotime launched the development of a whole new family of original movements, all, this time, 100 percent mechanical.
"We are not talking, at all, about ETA ‘clones'," insists Philippe Marti, the company's General Director, "nor are we talking about ETA ‘compatible' movements. What we make are totally original movements."
After five years of research and development, Technotime is now selling its first family of movements composed of three calibres designed around an identical base of 13'''1/4 , featuring a double barrel, power reserve of 120 hours, 28,000 vibrations per hour, manual or automatic winding, and a tourbillon. "We are situating ourselves between the haut de gamme manufacture and the mass movement maker. We occupy a middle niche," adds Marti, "with prices that vary between 400 CHF and 800 CHF - but between 12,000 CHF and 22,000 CHF for the tourbillon, crafted by hand in small series." Currently in its delivery start-up phase, Technotime sees itself as "both ambitious and realistic" and sets its production goals to be "of the order of a few tens of thousands of mechanical movements per year."




Technotime Movement TT718 and Technotime Movement TT791



Technotime Movement TT738


"The demand today is enormous," continues Marti, who formerly worked for TAG Heuer, "and the present economic situation is extremely favourable, but we want to expand gradually and reasonably, with high standards of quality, while giving our products the time to mature. This progressive expansion is the key to success for all industrial development."
With its industrial tool (overseen by a holding group located in La Chaux-de-Fonds), located between its site in Valdahon, France (120 employees involved in blanking, profile turning, cutting, and machining) and in Switzerland (43 people work in assembling the component parts and the movements), and its recognized expertise in supplying mechanical components to the large Swiss haut de gamme brands, Technotime enjoys an important level of autonomy.
A symbol of the renaissance from France Ebauches, Technotime recently announced that it has totally mastered the production of its own balance-springs. This project has been conducted quietly over the past several years, in collaboration with the University of Franche-Comté, and has resulted in finding both the composition of France Ebauches' last balance-spring production in the 1980s (at that time, France Ebauches owned the company, Spiraux Français, which during the 1970s produced 40 million balance-springs per year, before being liquidated), and the old rolling mills that had been sold around the world, and which served as the basis for re-creating new machines.
Technotime is thus capable, at present, of not only producing its own balance-springs, but also of making all the strategic component parts for its movements: balance, pallets, pallets wheel, escape wheel, plate, pinions, gear trains, etc.
"The offer of our own original independently produced movements comes just at the right moment," affirms Marti, "because, historically, the sophistication that we have seen in the haut de gamme sector, with its new functions and indications, is now going to move down to the mid-range mechanical sector. The market for customized movements is considerable. And, another capital point is that a production tool such as ours permits the creation of original and reliable products on an industrial scale. This is an opportunity that the prestige brands are sure to jump on."
Between renaissance of the manufactures, and new offers in terms of the movement, the future of mechanical timekeeping seems rich in developments and surprises to come. The number of new players is greater than those that we have cited here. Due to lack of space, we cannot discuss examples such as STT (ex-Progress) or SFP or Soprod, which are also active in the movement field. And then, there are those such as Christophe Claret and BNB, which are producing movements for the haut de gamme sector. Europa Star will return to all of these in more detail at a later time.



Launch of Blancpain Calibre 13R0



Blancpain has recently presented a new hand-wound base movement. The Calibre 13R0 is equipped with a titanium balance with an adjusting screw system, a Breguet overcoil balance-spring and three barrels ensuring an 8-day power reserve. Simplicity, precision and performance are the main characteristics of this new movement, adorned with extremely refined finishing details.
Due consideration was given to the diameter of the balance, in order to achieve the best possible ratio between mass and inertia, thanks to a larger-diameter balance made in a titanium alloy. (This is far less sensitive to variations in temperature than glucydur, which is used in most modern balances. It is anti-magnetic and is also distinguished by its amazing lightness, which accordingly reduces differences in rate between horizontal and vertical positions, consuming less energy.)
To guarantee the sprung balance a maximum of isochronism (regular oscillations whatever the amplitude), Blancpain has opted for a so-called ‘Breguet' overcoil balance-spring with the outer coil raised and slightly tilted towards the centre on a plane running parallel to the spring. This astute device enables the balance-spring to maintain its round shape at all times (whether in contraction or expansion phases).
The new Calibre 13R0 (in its current hours/minutes/seconds/date version) has an 8-day power reserve (192 hours). To achieve this feat, Blancpain has equipped it with three series-coupled barrels.
Another technical improvement lies in the fact that the date change at midnight and the fast correction may be done in either direction: the finger piece driving the date disc simply slides backward over the teeth and thus runs no risk of being damaged itself or of impairing the disc.
The new Calibre 13R0 was first and foremost conceived as a base movement intended to accommodate various complication modules. This perspective will oblige Blancpain to rework all the famous complication ‘plates' that have contributed to forging its reputation. This movement is also intended to evolve towards a self-winding version. Calibre 13R0 and its future developments should therefore herald a significant renewal in the Blancpain movement collections.

Designed and developed exclusively by the Vacheron Constantin Manufacture, the new calibre 2450 automatic movement is a highly strategic development, designed from the outset to receive additional plates, and will be used to create a new family of complicated movements.
It integrates watch and calendar functions, displaying the date, hour, minute and, by means of a central hand, the seconds. Beating at a rate of 28,800 vibrations an hour, the 2450 has a power reserve exceeding 40 hours. The use of ceramic ball bearings in the rotor system dispenses with the need for lubrication, giving the movement a longer than average life span. Its proportions - 3.60 mm high and 25.6 mm in diameter (111/2 lines) - are perfectly suitable for a men's range of models.
The 22 carat gold rotor is decorated extensively, polished and engraved - with a guilloché effect - in accordance with the exclusive Maltese Cross design with an exterior brushed sunray finish to reflect the light. The movement plate is circular-grained with 650 small circles. The hand-chamfered bridges are decorated with the famous Côtes de Genève pattern perfectly aligned when the pieces are assembled. The gear trains and the heads of the screws with their chamfered grooves are highlighted with a highly polished finish.
The teeth of every wheel, every pivot and every sharp angle are patiently polished, burnished and chamfered, Some of the manual finishing, however, like the chamfering of the steel parts, the moulding of the wheels and the polishing of the pinions, is not carried out for aesthetic reasons alone, but to meet indispensable functional requirements. The 2450 meets, of course, the rigorous standards set by the Poinçon de Genève, the most prestigious official distinction that can be given to a mechanical movement.


Source: Europa Star December-January 2007 Magazine Issue By Pierre Maillard