Sweeeeeping seconds hand

[crumpdaddy]

My PT Ultimate has ETA 2836 guts. My coworker just stopped by to show me his gen Sub, and his seconds hand sweeps ever so effortlessly! In comparison to mine, I can see where the seconds hand on mine does move at intervals - although those intervals are miniscule.

I think the 2836 moves at 28,800 vph - can anyone tell me what vph is in a gen sub? It certainly has to be higher than what's in our reps.

Is there an ETA movement that will fit into the sub with a higher vph than 28,800 vph?

 

[crumpdaddy]

Upon further investigation, my friend says the movment in his is Rolex Caliber 3135 31Jewels. I googled that and the vph is 28,800 in it as well.

Why doesn't my hand sweep like his????? Guess if I plopped down a few thousand bucks for mine I wouldn't ask this question [smilie=sign10.gif]

Still would be nice to know

 

[tiresmoke]

I gotta wonder if it has anything to do with the escapement. I suppose depending on the mating surface angles of the escape wheel and pallet jewels, the stop-start-stop movement of the second hand might not be so jarring.

This is all speculation, however. Perhaps someone who really knows what they are talking about might chime in.

smoke

 

[OldeCrow]

I think the other difference is one has a direct drive second hand and the other is indirect. I'm not going to pretend that I really know what that means but I do know even the 36,000 bph movements from ETA stil have more tic-toc to them than the rolex..

 

[crumpdaddy]

I gotta wonder if it has anything to do with the escapement. I suppose depending on the mating surface angles of the escape wheel and pallet jewels, the stop-start-stop movement of the second hand might not be so jarring.

This is all speculation, however. Perhaps someone who really knows what they are talking about might chime in.

smoke

You know tiresmoke, I've been out on timezonereading since posting this - and escapement very well may be the varibable here.

"Several things will effect the how smoothly the second hand sweeps. Most importantly is the type of escapement. The recoil escapements of yester-century won't result in a smooth sweep at all. Seiko's Spring Drive on the other hand is as smooth as they come.

Most mechanical watches you'll be looking at likely utilise the swiss lever escapement. In which case gear ratios (more teeth = smoother sweep) and the number of beats per hour (higher = smoother sweep) are ultimately what affect how smoothly the sweeping second hand will travel."

Maybe our reps don't have this swiss lever escapement.

 

[OldeCrow]

all the modern ETA automatic movements are swiss lever escapements even the genuine co-axial movements that they make for Omega still use the swiss lever

 

[crumpdaddy]

I think the other difference is one has a direct drive second hand and the other is indirect. ...

What do you mean by direct and indirect? Do our reps have indirect?

 

[OldeCrow]

Crump is still right about the escapement playing a role since the rolex movements use a different type of escapement than the ETA movements. Somewhere on timezone is a compareison of the omega seamaster and the rolex submariner where the author went into detail about the differences between the ETA type of movement and the rolex movement.

some reading:

http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t= ... 2306&rid=0

 

[klaatu00001]

I had wondered the same thing re. the sweeping second hand. Heck, I have a Gruen automatic with 2824 movement (USD 44 on E**y) that sweeps so much more effortlessly than any of my reps with ETA movements.

Go figure.

 

[OldeCrow]

another factor is the size weight and balance of the second hand itself

every 2824 2836 2846 will have exactly the same tic-toc regardless of what watch it's in.

 

[d44hvj]

I have noticed the same on my PT Ultimate and havn't yet send it for a good oiling, Would getting the watch seviced make any difference to the ticks or is the general opinion that it is down to the movement?

Also didn't Rolex use ETA movements that were stripped and rebuilt on their watches years ago, (and for the Tudor line now). Does anyone have any experience with these as far as the sweep goes?