Alpha or Beta, pt 3

Friday, March 13, 2020

So lets have a look at it from the result – the legendary Beta 21-movement. Its quartz bar (~23mm * 1mm) capsuled in vacuum in a copper tube, was hand-carved and vibrated at a stable rate of 8’192Hz when current is applied. That was a BIIIG step, yes. Compare to a usual 3Hz or 5Hz (Hi-Beat!) mechanical movement or even to the tuning fork humming at a rate of approx. 300Hz – game changer.

Now, what do you do with an oscillation of 8’192Hz in a mechanical way? Right, nothing! It is just much to fast to make use of it in a mechanical way, no chance. So, it was simply divided by two again and again until you have something you can use:

8’192Hz --> 4’096Hz --> 2’048Hz --> 1’024Hz --> 512Hz --> 256Hz --> 128Hz... Wait! What was the rate of the tuning fork-movement? 250 to 360Hz, right?

So after five division we reach a stable 256Hz frequency and obviously this can be used to make a small micro-motor / tuning fork move to sweep a seconds hand. Et voila!
What you have, finally is the first wrist watch clocked by a quartz crystal at breathtaking precision and moved by a tuning fork micro motor making it hum and vibrate very gentle at a rate of 256Hz – yes, you can feel and yes, you can hear it. #nowisntthatamazing!?

To be continued.