Roger Dubuis - The Time Place

covER fEaTURE
watch in 2004. The remarkable concept watch
was able to substitute traditional pinions and
gear transmission with a belt-driven mechanical
transmission instead and fast became the
one of the most audacious movement designs
in history.
This year, to celebrate their 150th anniversary,
TAG Heuer unveiled the revolutionary watch,
the Pendulum Concept, a concept watch that
completely reinvents the idea of an oscillator.
The avant-garde Swiss watchmaker swapped
the traditional hairsprings with magnets, ultimately
creating the first-ever mechanical
movement without a hairspring.
Most mechanical movements involve four
basic operations where energy is generated,
stored, transmitted then regulated. The hairspring
has always played a pivotal role in the
regulation system. Now, thanks to an “invisible”
or virtual spring derived from magnets,
the physical coiled strip of fine metal alloy –
better known as the hairspring – is no longer
necessary.
The magnetic fields generated are able to provide
alternative oscillations of the balance
wheel and make the pendulum an exceptionally
good timekeeping device due to its
resistance to changes from perturbing forces.
Created by TAG Heuer’s Research & Development
engineers together with Microsystems
research experts at the Integrated Actuators
Laboratory (LAI) over a span of five years,
the TAG Heuer Pendulum Concept beats
at 43,200 beats per hour (6 Hertz) and has
marked a new era in watch-making.
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Pendulum
Tourbillon
TAG Heuer
Monaco
The movement