The reasons for this, and the eventual universal adoption of shock protection, are an interesting story in their own right. Shock protection for the balance staff pivots added extra cost, and most manufacturers were very cost sensitive, knowing that a higher price point would cost sales.
There was also no demand at the time from the public for shock protection; everyone knew that watches were delicate and that if you dropped them they were liable to break, every watch repairer at the time was very well used to replacing balance staffs, and spare balance staffs were readily available from the manufacturers.
It might be thought that the military would be the first to require that shock protection be fitted. A watch with broken balance staff pivots is useless, and if that happened in the middle of a military manoeuvre it could be dashed inconvenient. One would think that army types would be breaking balance staffs left right and centre, but in fact the military were among the most reluctant to see watches fitted with shock protection. W" specification in Neither the A.
It is clear from this that breakage of balance staffs was not a great inconvenience to the British military. In fact, there was a dispute in the military committee that drew up the W. W specification about whether the benefit in reduction broken balance staffs result from shock protection would be offset by the increased time required for regular service of watches with shock proof settings, estimated at 10 - 15 minutes per watch.
This was overcome by changes to the Incabloc design, the introduction of the clip in Lyre shaped spring, which made it quicker and easier to service a shock resistant setting than an old style setting with end stones held in place by screws.
Nevertheless, it was not until that an amendment to the W. The conclusion must be that that the general public and the military types who actually needed a wristwatch to perform their duties mainly officers, not squaddies who were jumping in and out of trenches etc. Before the second world war, vigorous pursuits such as trekking, diving and mountain climbing were the realm of a few and not followed as widely as they are today.
If people outside the watchmaking profession even realised that shock protection was possible, they probably didn't think that they needed it. Shock protection was initially more widely advertised in America than in Europe. It seems that in America, with its more developed advertising industry, shock protection was used as an extra selling point or feature that could be used in advertising, persuading consumers that they needed it and to pay more for a watch with shock protection.
Once watches that were "shock proof" entered the public's consciousness, the early adopters of such watches acquired "bragging rights", and any watch that didn't have shock protection was deemed old fashioned. The feature that made Incabloc a commercial success, and the system that within a short period dominated the market for shock proof settings, was that it was a very clever modular design, making it easy for manufacturers to add to their movements, and it also speeded up watch servicing.
All balance staffs had, and still have, the same four jewels; two bearing or "jewel holes", and two "end stones" or "cap jewels". These all need to be cleaned when the watch is serviced, which means removing the cap jewels. In a watch without shock protection the cap jewels are held in place by one or two small screws, and the first shock protection systems used screws to hold the shock absorbing spring in place.
Incabloc's breakthrough idea was to hold the cap jewel in place with the, now instantly recognisable, shaped Lyre shaped spring clip, which was also the spring that allowed the jewel to move when a shock occurred. Instead of taking longer to service than a setting without shock protection, Incabloc was faster, because instead of fiddling about with tiny screws, simply releasing the Incabloc spring, which was cleverly also held captive to the setting, allows the cap jewel to be removed, and then quickly clipped back into place after cleaning and oiling.
This additional benefit was soon recognised and Incabloc came to dominate the market for shock proof settings. The lifetime of Swiss patents in the s and s was normally 15 years, so Marti's patent for the original Incabloc system would have expired in After that many other shock protection systems such as Kif followed.
Shock protection is a real benefit, and today owners don't have to treat their watches as if they are delicate. A modern mechanical watch can be bashed about with gusto, and some owners take pride in wearing a watch that shows scars from trekking, mountaineering or diving.
The only downside is for collectors of watches that were made before shock protection was widely used. The days of the local watch repairer who could replace a balance staff are now long gone, and watch repairers who can do this are few and far between, which makes replacing a staff with broken pivots an expensive operation.
So if you have a watch without shock protection, take care of it! If you have any comments or questions, please don't hesitate to to get in touch via my Contact Me page. Site Tools Search. Table of Contents History. Incabloc makes both removable and hinged anti-shock mechanisms Removable. Watch Anti-Shock Settings. Terms , Swatch Group. In a mechanical watch movement, every gear has an axle, or arbor, running through the middle of it and a pivot on the end of that axle.
The balance has particularly fine pivots that are extremely breakable, and watches that lack shock protection would only need a small blow to shear them off. What does 17 jewels mean? A watch with 17 jewels is often called a fully jeweled watch. This means that it uses jewel usually ruby bearings in the mechanical movement from the balance wheel all the way to the center wheel pivot. To give you an idea of what we mean, a modern chronograph like the Rolex Daytona has 44 jewels ; however there are behemoths like the IWC Il Destriero Scafusia which has a flying minutes tourbillon and boasts 76 jewels.
Take it as a general rule that a simple mechanical watch without any "complication" - will say a three hand watch should have at least 15 jewels most current are equipped with 17 at the points most exposed to friction.
Some high end movement do have 51 jewels. Higher-grade watches have traditionally used a jeweled movements, which means that jewels originally natural ruby, now synthetic ruby were actually used in the movement. The jewel count refers to the number of pivots with inset rubies - or "jewels"! To reduce metal-on-metal wear and tear, watchmakers needed to find a substance that was harder than metal and so began the use of jewels within watch movements.
The jewels that are hard enough are diamonds, sapphires and rubies. The latter two were cheaper than diamonds and could also be synthetically created.
Friction has the greatest effect in the wheels that move the fastest, so they benefit most from jewelling. A 17 jewel watch has every bearing from the balance wheel to the center wheel pivot bearings jeweled, so it was considered a 'fully jeweled ' watch. I am always pleased when I come across a Swiss-made Avia watch, either a mechanical piece or a good quartz example. Even those Avia watches made elsewhere, in more recent times, can be pretty good, and I have a couple of modern limited edition Avia quartz watches that are well-made and reliable.
It protects the balance staff against even repeated and violent impacts and helps make every SEIKO watch a highly accurate timepiece.
To conclude the answer to the question, yes, Rolex watches are made of real gold. Rolex uses the best quality melee diamonds.
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