Thoughts on Non-Traditional Materials

[FuzzyB]

If I was able to preform that kind of craftsmanship in building watches, I would always be looking for the most advanced components I could access to make the product the best I could.

This is an interesting point but it also raises a few questions.

What is the best product they can make? Is it the most accurate? The most easily serviced?

From an accuracy standpoint, it's a break even proposition. In my conversation with the Patek watchmaker, he said the point was to reduce the amount of time the watchmaker had to spend working on the watch. Removing the pallet stones means no adjustment of the pallet stones are needed.

A good watchmaker could and should be able to adjust the pallet stones accurately and precisely. It just takes time, patience and skill. The resulting accuracy of the watch should be the same.

Since the accuracy of the watch is ultimately the same, it seems to come down to servicing the watch. This is a large benefit as the silicon pallet fork does not need to be adjusted. It's a drop-and-go replacement. Servicing that part is definitely an advantage, at least for the watchmaker. I'm guessing they will still charge the same amount or more for servicing that part.

The hairspring should have definite mechanical advantages over its traditional counterpart due to its inability to be magnetized. Silicon gets the win here, no question.

Other than the hairspring, I struggle to see the benefits of these silicon parts for the wearer of the watch. The benefit seems to apply solely to the watchmaker for ease of servicing.

Silicon parts may have other benefits such as the constant force escapement used by G-P that I mentioned in the original post. The advantages gained by the use of silicon in that application can only be gained using that material. There is no traditional alternative.

I think each material certainly has pros and cons, and I appreciate hearing everyone's viewpoint on how these materials can be used in contemporary watchmaking, both traditional (i.e. hand finished watches) and non-traditional (using the most advanced materials and techniques to provide the most accurate watches possible).

[Mew88]

Another important question is who is going to be fixing your watch in the future? With traditional materials, any good watchmaker can repair the watch. With these new materials that can't be fabricated by hand, any repairs will have to be made by the brand. I'm sure they don't mind that aspect, but I would always like to have more than one option.

I too would like more options but the ship of theseus paradox comes to mind.
If I'm buying a Patek out of reverence to their quality standards, finishing and watchmaker involvement, I wouldn't be too happy to send it to a 3rd party watchmaker ultilizing his own, non manufacturer parts.

[Der Amf]

Presumably Patek will be committing themselves to hanging onto the necessary machinery that they can always produce needed spare parts?

[Rdenney]

Presumably Patek will be committing themselves to hanging onto the necessary machinery that they can always produce needed spare parts?

One presumes, but when I bought my last film scanner, I had no notion that it would be the last film scanner I would be able to buy. It has a FireWire interface--how long will I be able to buy computers that have the means to support that interface?

Will the machines needed to laser-carve these parts from silicon wafers (and the silicon blanks themselves, which they surely buy from a supplier) still exist in 50 years? The answer is not obvious to me.

They are probably making what they hope will be a sufficient supply for the future, but there's at least some element of hope there.

Rick "noting that this is not a concern for cheaper watches whose makers do not boast of the ability to maintain in perpetuity" Denney