BaselWorld 2013 : Antoine Martin
DonCorson
BaselWorld 2013 : Antoine Martin
Antoine Martin has been a well guarded secret for a couple of years now. Martin Braun, the technical brains of this outfit can't unfortunately, use his own name for the brand due to the sale of his former brand. With pocket watch sized watches this brand has been sort of off my radar as IMHO they are simply too big. On the other hand the big slow turning balance wheels coupled with modern silicon escapements of their own design make for a successful mixture of traditional and modern elements.
The Antoine Martin watches include tourbillons and perpetual calendars always with relatively big balance wheels running at pocket watch standard rates. This year Martin Braun has taken that characteristic to the extreme with a 1 Hertz movement which makes two ticks a second. As you can see the balance wheel takes up most of the diameter of the movement, slowly ticking you can see the silicon hairspring expand and contract once a second too.
Martin Braun has taken special precautions so that the balance axle is protected from breakage despite the size and weight of the balance wheel. There are several rubies that are used simply as travel limiters for the balance wheel in addition to the standard axle protection system.
This watch, called the "Slow Runner" is wonderful, even if I think the dial could accept some improvement of design, the one hertz movement is mesmerising. It fits in perfectly with present "slow-up" tendencies. According to Martin that is also the primary goal of this development. Calming down, less hectic, more thinking about what we are doing. This watch is the leasurely contrary of the high speed movements that have sprung up all around recently, with their tiny balance wheels beating frantically at 36'000 bph. Here we see a big balance wheel of 24mm beating slowly and calmly at 7'200 bph. Martin admits that the timekeeping will not be as good as the fast beat movements, he talks of errors when worn of less than 15 seconds a day on the prototypes which should get better in production. Still these watches will never have chronometer performance, but calm down, you've got the time.
With such a mesmerising watch on my wrist there was no way that I couldn't give it my
This message has been edited by DonCorson on 2013-06-24 22:57:10
Antoine Martin has been a well guarded secret for a couple of years now. Martin Braun, the technical brains of this outfit can't unfortunately, use his own name for the brand due to the sale of his former brand. With pocket watch sized watches this brand has been sort of off my radar as IMHO they are simply too big. On the other hand the big slow turning balance wheels coupled with modern silicon escapements of their own design make for a successful mixture of traditional and modern elements.
The Antoine Martin watches include tourbillons and perpetual calendars always with relatively big balance wheels running at pocket watch standard rates. This year Martin Braun has taken that characteristic to the extreme with a 1 Hertz movement which makes two ticks a second. As you can see the balance wheel takes up most of the diameter of the movement, slowly ticking you can see the silicon hairspring expand and contract once a second too.
Martin Braun has taken special precautions so that the balance axle is protected from breakage despite the size and weight of the balance wheel. There are several rubies that are used simply as travel limiters for the balance wheel in addition to the standard axle protection system.
This watch, called the "Slow Runner" is wonderful, even if I think the dial could accept some improvement of design, the one hertz movement is mesmerising. It fits in perfectly with present "slow-up" tendencies. According to Martin that is also the primary goal of this development. Calming down, less hectic, more thinking about what we are doing. This watch is the leasurely contrary of the high speed movements that have sprung up all around recently, with their tiny balance wheels beating frantically at 36'000 bph. Here we see a big balance wheel of 24mm beating slowly and calmly at 7'200 bph. Martin admits that the timekeeping will not be as good as the fast beat movements, he talks of errors when worn of less than 15 seconds a day on the prototypes which should get better in production. Still these watches will never have chronometer performance, but calm down, you've got the time.
With such a mesmerising watch on my wrist there was no way that I couldn't give it my
BaselWorld 2013 Best of the Fair for Watchmaking.
This message has been edited by DonCorson on 2013-06-24 22:57:10
Comments:
amerix June 20th, 2013-09:27
writing 2 beats per second on the dial face would have a more calming effect on me than 7,200 beats per hour, which to a novice could sound like an awful lot of beating going on. The balance wheel could do that even more. In fact my very first memory, at the age of three, is that o...
amerix June 21st, 2013-03:13
an inexplicable - and unforgivable - spelling mistake after all those corrections and revisions ... I was typing at 3 Hertz. amerix This message has been edited by amerix on 2013-06-21 03:22:38
cazalea June 21st, 2013-08:29
I have time for the watch but not the advert on the video a thirty-second golf advert? Don, could that somehow be circumvented? Thanks Cazalea
DonCorson June 21st, 2013-11:12
Not sure what is up... when I start the video I don't get any ad at all. Very strange. Will try and put this on the PP account at utube. Sorry, Don
G99 July 4th, 2013-12:03
that balance is just mesmerising. What i have never been able to understand though is why someone would sell their name even of the brand is their name. Gerald Genta did it and now they put his name on anything. Great video. shame the balance cant be on the front of the watch....or could ...
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DonCorson
BaselWorld: Beat Haldimann
DonCorson
BaselWorld 2013 : Beat Haldimann Beat Haldimann was again present this year at BaselWorld in the independents tent known as the "Palace". Beat was showing his iconic H1 and the new H11 watch. Going from the central tourbillon above the dial of the H1 to the central balance wheel seen throught the back, the H11 is a reduction of complication, but without any reduction in the care. As always Beats watches are made without resort to CNC using the best production technology of the '70s.
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