Smooth Sweeping Second Hand

[gumption rusty]

i was wondering if anyone could explain (in dumb guy terms) how a smooth sweeping second hand actually works.

i saw a video posted here a while ago on how watches work, and how the second hand ticks - but have no clue how they'd arrange it to where it flows smoothly like in a rolex.

are the cogs just really, really small or do they do something else?

cheers

 

[pcsam]

i was wondering if anyone could explain (in dumb guy terms) how a smooth sweeping second hand actually works.

i saw a video posted here a while ago on how watches work, and how the second hand ticks - but have no clue how they'd arrange it to where it flows smoothly like in a rolex.

are the cogs just really, really small or do they do something else?

cheers

its all down to the ticks per second mate ..i think rolex are 8 ticks per second so they do actually tick its just fast and deceive your eyes to thinking its sweeping .......some of the reps tick at 6ps making them look not as sweepy :wink:
if im totally wrong .ignore me :lol: somebody more watchy will explain better :mrgreen:

 

[zuescotton]

yup as stated smooth sweeping is an illusion. 6 appears smooth but, you can see some ticking, as for 8 appears much smoother. I still see ticking in 8 and I'm sure if you look close you will too. Even in Gen Rols you will see the ticks.

 

[gumption rusty]

i was thinking it could potentially be possible to make a "smooth" second hand, though difficult.

you'd have to replace the cog with a bearing the could move slightly during the resting period between ticks to keep the second hand moving. rather than moving it with cogs the bearing would have to be sticky or something and connected to a smooth wheel. this way the hand could move with no ticks whatsoever.

no clue if that's possible or ever been done though.

 

[smithy37]

This was kind of covered in this post:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=54122

However, I am still not convinced gearing can cause more or less 'judder'. Surely it is down to beats per second. Gears can only slow or speed things up, not cause the movement to stall. If a watch beats at 8 beats per second and another watch beats at the same 8 beats per second, then the second hand would mimic the others movement.
Granted, it could be exagerated on longer second hands, but we are talking about the same size watches aren't we?

Guess I have just opened up another can of worms!

 

[gumption rusty]

thanks for posting that link.

i did search for a similar topic but all i found was advertisements for watches.

 

[zuescotton]

I was thinking of a concept like the seiko in my head. But, I was like I'm a noob maybe more abstract than most... But, I'll just keep my mouth shut. lol.