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Rolex new Hairspring in Syloxi. Small big revolution?
Baselworld is pulsing this week and several main innovations were already presented. Rolex was again one of the big highlights of the watch fair. For watch-making fans, the Swiss Brand revealed a tiny huge new detail: a new hairspring made in Syloxi. And according to Several experts, revolution is in the air. Why though?
The hairspring, a matter of balance
The first time we saw a hairspring or balance spring in history was probably 1657 thanks to Robert Hooke and Christiaan Huygens works. Thanks to their discoveries, pocket watches reached an interesting level of accuracy for that time. And to understand the importance of hairspring, you need to understand first the usage of another key piece in a mechanical watch. That is the balance wheel.
The balance wheel is basically the timekeeper of a movement. It oscillates in both ways bringing the pulse of the watch via the escapement. For several decades the lack of accuracy of many watches was due to a lack of rate control of the balance wheel. Before the invention of the hairspring, the balance wheel was moving freely and was only pushed back thanks to the escapement. What did this mean? Well, that the oscillation of the balance wheel was completely dependent of the driving-force. The invention of the hairspring allowed a better control of the balance wheel rate by bringing a certain consistency. Here is how Wikipedia describes the balance spring: “The balance spring is a fine spiral or helical torsion spring used in mechanical watches, alarm clocks, kitchen timers, marine chronometers, and other timekeeping mechanisms to control the rate of oscillation of the balance wheel. The balance spring is an essential adjunct to the balance wheel, causing it to oscillate back and forth.”
When the first hairsprings were integrated into mechanical movements we realized at that time that temperature was an issue. Why? As all hairsprings were made in metal, it would have a different behaviour depending on the temperature exposure. This effect would especially happen during the inertia moment of the back and forth oscillation. Despite this was a very well known problem, there was nothing really possible to do about it. A small solution was to have the hairspring made in a bi-metal mode, so we would achieve an average behavior in an average temperature. Not great but it was probably the best we could do at that time.
The 19th century brought a spirit of innovation in terms of Alloy
In the late 1890′s, a Swiss physician, Charles Édouard Guillaume, invented the Elinvar. It stands for ELasticité INVARiable in french. It means “Invariable elasticity”.
Photo: http://yesilcimen.com
It is an innovative nickel – steel alloy that would not suffer from temperature deformation. He also invented the Invar, another alloy variant of nickel and iron. Mr. Guillaume was rewarded with the 1920 Nobel Prize in physics. Well done Switzerland! As you can imagine, one of the biggest usage of Elinvar was to build hairsprings for mechanical watch movements. It was a big step as precision increased in a more reliable base.
The Nivarox era started in 1933
Thanks to all the previous work done in alloys, Germans brought to the market a new generation of metallic blend called Nivarox. It is an acronym for “Nicht variabel oxydfest” or “Non-Variable Non-Oxidizing. It is also a nickel and iron alloy with small different variants with titanium, or magnesium. Hairsprings made with this alloy are practically wear-resistant; they are highly non-magnetic, rust-proof and possess a very low coefficient of thermal expansion. Amazing! Nivarox is also the name of a company Nivarox Far SA owned by The Swatch Group.
And it supplies a large amount of the hairsprings you can find in the market. Since the invention of Nivarox, several watch-makers explored different solutions and innovative alloys.
Rolex, leading the way in the hairspring technology
Since The Swatch group took over the Nivarox business, there was also an extra motivation for several brands to get their independence from it. To create a new hairspring can take several years and you might need a lot of patience and know-how to get there. And in terms of know-how, Rolex knows a lot!
The Parachrom hairspring by Rolex. State of the art
After five years of research, Rolex created the blue Parachrom hairspring. Crafted from a paramagnetic alloy, it is unaffected by magnetic fields and up to 10 times more resistant to shocks. Historically, the unique blue colour of the hairspring has been a sign of prestige reserved for only the most accurate timepieces.
Here is a small video produced by Rolex in which you can see a glimpse of the Parachrom hairspring at Rolex in Switzerland. It shows how edgy certain elements of a watch are to produce and only a certain level of quality at work can successfully make it. It is about precision, know-how and dedication.
After years of research, Rolex launched the Parachrom in 2000 in the Cosmograph Daytona and in 2005 in the new GMT Master II. It is also a key natural element in the composition of the Rolex Milgauss because of its anti-magnetic properties. The quest for such a material was a true adventure. Having mastered the manufacture of ferromagnetic spirals in the 90s, Rolex has developed and patented a spiral made from a new alloy, PARACHROM (R). A compound of niobium, zirconium and oxygen. It has the advantage of being up to ten times more resistant to shock and insensitive to magnetic fields. It took Rolex more than 5 years to reach this result. The spiral is thinner than a human hair. Purely fantastic.
2014, Rolex goes even further with the Syloxi.
More than 10 years after the launch of the Parachrom (R) hairspring, Rolex launched this year a new Silicium hairspring called Syloxi. For the moment it is not supposed to replace the existing hairspring but would live side by side in different watch ranges, specifically in the women lines. Probably the complete replacement by the new hairspring would require some changes in all Rolex calibers, especially in the escapement part. According to Rolex, this new hairspring increases the power reserve by 5 to 6 hours, bringing the total level to 55 hours. Interesting for a woman’s watch as we know women are often reluctant to own a mechanical watch as if you do not wear it every day, you end up with a watch that stop working by lack of power reserve. By extending the power reserve, it facilitates the entry door of a female clientele into mechanical watches. Interesting move for Rolex as this year they had amazing female launches at Baselworld like the DateJust Pearlmaster 34.
The power of a leading brand often remains on its capability of always innovate. Innovation is not a matter of money or chance, it is a culture of product development that never stops. Innovative brands need to continuously invest in research and development. As we can see, true innovations can only go from dream to reality thanks to long-term hard work. So no miracles and besides, Rolex has enough talented people in-house to not let things like the Siloxy as a simple matter of chance.
Info sourced at Rolex.com, Wikipedia, ABlogToWatch, RolexForums.com, Watchlounge and Timezone. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.
