lsmith
72
Great post!
But I must say that Phillipe didn't say a thing to me about the size of the, aww who am I kidding.
I believe there is a long tradition of the 20mm movement, the general idea being that a smaller movement was less affected by the gyroscopic effect of the movement of the arm. I think the first may have been cal. 203 which seems to start about 1920, then 458/466 which was used from 1940's to the 50's, and then cal. 1001/1002 which was used into the 1960's. It works fine in a watch case of 30-35mm, but over that and it does become a curiosity.
I do find it a bit odd that such a fine watch movement, virtually the size of a thumbnail, is so little regarded in comparison with a caliber just one half bigger. It would seem to be a much greater technical achivement to make a movement smaller.
Musings on the Caliber 4400....
