Seiko

I've been thinking about my visits to three Grand Seiko dealers in the past few months: Los Angeles with AndrewD, Seattle on my boat trip, London on a recent business visit... None of the very friendly sales persons I talked with could articulate the oper...  

Don't tell me we can't figure it out! Mike

Besides I have heard about the Seiko sping drive movement before, but I am eager to learn in this thread what it is all about. Regards anaesdoc

Here are a few diagrams I've modified to help explain what's going on inside a conventional or Spring Drive watch movement. Please lodge any formal complaints about their accuracy with Don in the WatchTech forum ... I'd say that any basic watch has: POWER...  

While I have always appreciated the GS line and Spring Drive, this exercise/content was nice as it allowed me to consolidate my understanding. However, I must say that IT IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GET THE EXPLANATION DOWN TO 25 WORDS!! I mean the bare bones... 

Congratulations on starting us off on a difficult task. You are right that it's going to be hard. But I don't think it's impossible. I'd suggest though that we don't need words like Tri-Synchro Regulator. I took a crack at editing your 200 words of text a... 

Version 2.0, which is 59 words: Accurate time-keeping can be achieved by controlling the gear train. The Spring Drive achieves this by directly integrating the gear train to a glide wheel. Through a circuit, the glide wheel’s rotation is compared to a qua... 

Akahane's marvellous, novel, automatically wound watch where the escapement is replaced by a quartz timed regulator and the power comes from the wound spring's energy. Velo

you got the inventor in there too, nice job. Cazalea

Ok here is my try: Main spring hand wound/rotor. Quartz regulation of main spring via tri-sync regulator, adjusts glide wheel to quartz signals, which results in extremely accurate movement

Nice job Socabaptist. I\'d suggest you look at words that appear twice, such as "Quartz" and "regulator" or "regulation". They may be unnecessary and you could enrich the meaning somewhere else "which" could be omitted too by saying "Result? An extremely ... 

No I just joined - I've been meaning to but just did it yesterday. BTW, thanks for the advice, I'll work on it as several people have said it ain't easy and there is some knowledge of watch movements and their parts to keep it this short. Thanks Richard

This watch does not tick Escapement now clever brake Smooth second hand sweep

(Frantically looking up definition and rules for haiku) 5-7-5 syllables or sounds Hmm. Ken? Other Japanese members?

Brother Ben, you are absolutely wasted in your chosen career - this is genius. Chapeau! [*Reflects*: "Hmmm; maybe he's just wasted..."] :-) Cheers, pplater.

...the kind of thing my friends and I used to amuse ourselves on brain-numbing road trips... Some of the less er, ribald ones I can remember: Last of the Vee Eights. Kundalini wants his hand. That thing's not The Goose. This coffee is hot. I'll spill it i... 

...you are now PPro's Official Poet-laureate in Residence - our very own "POPIR'. :-) Cheers, pplater.

"The Seiko SpringDrive is a no-battery high-end quartz watch. The excellent regulation stems from a highly accurate quartz-crystal timebase, the energy storage from the steel spring of a mechanical timepiece." Yah, I know I cheated a little, those dashed ... 

With just a little finessing, this looks like 25 words to me, "The Seiko SpringDrive watch\'s excellent regulation stems from a highly- accurate quartz-crystal timebase; its energy storage from the steel spring of a mechanical timepiece." Well done, Don. ... 

unfortunately with only 25 words I couldn't start and expand on what I think about the case and dial finishing. That would take another 25. Don

Cheers Mike ...  

“Watch driven by traditional mainspring. Part of mainspring torque turns the watch. Remaining torque is converted into electrical power which monitors and regulates the timekeeping.” I deliberately omitted the words "quartz" and "accuracy" because they ar... 

And showing your watch technical knowledge to our advantage. Now what is torque? - to a watch sales lady this is not an idle question. Thanks and check out the new conditions... Mike

“ Watch driven by traditional mainspring. Some mainspring power mechanically turns the watch. Remaining power activates control unit that monitors and regulates watch by magnetic brake.” Regards, Indera

We are getting to the heart of it.

For consistency, and making a more reasonable task, let\'s exclude the intro title from the word count. So we can all start with this as a given: A Spring Drive watch is ... [25 words or less]

".....the fruit of Tradition and Technology---mainspring torque cum quartz oscillator regulation creates smoother, seamless and accurate timekeeping !" best henry

You created an enthusiastic summary that's a great marketing slogan but doesn't really explain the Spring Drive to a prospective purchaser. Thanks for adding to our inventory of What is Spring Drive . Could you revise slightly to make it more explanatory?... 

that would definitely take more than 25 words to fully explain the mechanism ,of which ,honestly,i cannot say i am capable o fdoing so. i'll leave that to the experts ! best

I suspect I could qualify as expert watch buyer but nothing else. Thanks for your contribution! Mike

Just IMHO, I think there needs to be at some mention of the technologies used in the Spring Drive. If it wasn't for the quartz and glide-wheel innovations, it wouldn't be a Spring Drive! Here's a shorter version down to 18 words: A Spring Drive watch is..... 

I'm looking at your submission which is admirable. And short. Kudos to you! A Spring Drive watch is... a hybrid quartz-mechanical watch that is regulated by feedback on a glide wheel connected to the gear train. Now because I am realizing that I have a bi... 

Setting aside movements like carousel, tourbillon, the Freak and so on, this is the essence of the timekeeping portion of the watch. ...  

Alright Try #2: Main spring wound by hand/rotor. Adjustment of spring via tri-sync regulator, adjusts glide wheel to quartz signals. Result? Extremely accurate movement & sweeping second hand. Thanks Richard

Very Nice summary: " Main spring wound by hand/rotor. Adjustment of spring via tri-sync regulator, adjusts glide wheel to quartz signals. Result? Extremely accurate movement & sweeping second hand." However, Richard, m ay I suggest that you might have... 

Just took out the word tri-sync because at the end of the day its a regulator. So that's 24 words Main spring wound by hand/rotor. Speed monitored via regulator which adjusts glide wheel to quartz signals. Result? Extremely accurate movement and sweeping ... 

Just took out the word tri-sync because at the end of the day its a regulator. So that's 24 words Main spring wound by hand/rotor. Speed monitored via regulator which adjusts glide wheel to quartz signals. Result? Extremely accurate movement and sweeping ... 

Let me use an example to explain my view of not using the "Q" word: As we all know there is a huge stigma on mental illness. Time and time again, family members, patients, and even some clinicians use euphemisms or minimize symptoms, but this only results... 

Greetings again Cholack, Thanks for continuing along on this quest! Of course we can use any words we like in the Seiko Spring Drive description. And you are right - at some point the word QUARTZ will appear in the conversation. I feel perhaps that it rep... 

I'll answer the easier of these questions first. I must thank you for your edit. Its given me another attempt at this: A Spring Drive is....a movement whose mainspring powers the hands and micro timing circuit. Precision is achieved by regulating the glid... 

Ok it's been fun, just trying it as a poem. Main spring wound by hand/rotor. Speed monitored via regulator which adjusts glide wheel to quartz chronometer. Result? Extremely accurate movement and sweeping second hand motor

Ok it's been fun, just trying it as a poem. Main spring wound by hand/rotor. Speed monitored via regulator which adjusts glide wheel to quartz chronometer. Result? Extremely accurate movement and sweeping second hand motor

I can't say that I have chosen a clear winner yet. We might say "they are all winners" but that's no fun, is it? What do you participants think? Can we go any farther in our definition? Do we have anything more to offer to the struggling Seiko Salesperson...  

and for the fun of it and sheer joy of playing and for the love of game my try says: "Barrel and main spring coupling to Generator and Speed Control Circuit making it first and only mechanical powered quartz watch and vice versa" Yours D

I will add it to the list. I guess we should make a poetry category! Mike

I cannot hope to present the technical aspects of the amazing Seiko Spring Drive system in 25 words or less. Therefore, please accept this lighthearted but sincere attempt at haiku, and only 23 words! Spring forth and generate electric anticipation For th... 

Excellent job! Perhaps we should leave this contest running for some time - we are not the fastest group, but certainly the most creative. Cheers, Mike

Here's a Haiku about the Spring Drive, which I wrote for fun: There is no tick tock Only the smooth pass of time That defines this clock Cheers, Cholack

I have been negligent in explaining how the SPRING DRIVE in 25 WORDS contest has come to an end. HOW IT STARTED I was hoping that we could come up with a statement that would be useful to Seiko as they trained their in-store brand ambassadors (sales assoc... 

a lawyer maybe :) Honestly.... thank you for finale very well said only thing is that this post should be new thread IMO because this way many will miss it and that would be pity Yours Damjan