What a stone in a mechanical watch. Why are the very stones in a mechanical watch?
Remember, even as a child, we looked at a wrist watch for father or grandfather, on which the model, brand and number of stones were indicated. The question always intrigued - what are the stones in the watch for? And if they are also precious, then the watch itself became a family one. the most valuable relic. We have already grown up, but nevertheless this issue can still be of concern. To understand this, you need to understand how the clock works and what the notorious stones mean.
Stones in hours
"15 stones" in hours - what does it mean?
Let's figure it out first, what are stones in a mechanical watch? So, watch stones are indispensable parts, most often sapphires or rubies are used, for durable work and less wear resistance of the product. These are bearings that stabilize the friction of parts in contact with each other. Usually 15-17 stones are used per hour. Such a set is only in standard movements, expensive models include a much larger amount of jewelry.
In turn, they can be divided into:
- Functional... These are the ones that are designed to work in the mechanism, provide durability and reduce friction between parts.
- Non-functional... Pebbles for decoration. They have no connection with the axle supports; they can serve to hide stone holes.
On the dial, the first option is usually written, that is, the number of functional crystals.
How does a mechanical watch work?
To understand this issue in more detail, you need to know how a mechanical watch works... Any specialist knows what precious parts are for. Let's understand the issue in a simpler language.
The watch is powered by a special spring that looks like a flat steel band.
When you wind up the mechanism, the spring compresses and stores the energy that it transfers to the drum. The latter, rotating, transfers it to the gears. Gears forming a special wheel system, rotate gradually, without spending all the energy at once. How does this happen?
This problem is dealt with trigger... He completely controls the operation of the gears and does not allow them to rotate chaotically. At the head of this system is the balance regulator. Why is it needed? And in order for the wheel to rotate at a certain speed in one direction and the other.
Stones in the movement
Functionality and work of stones
The stone in the watch is used instead of the bearing. The mechanism works on rotating parts that have their own axes. Each of them experiences tension from two sides, from balance regulator and spring... There is a process of friction everywhere. Bearings are needed to minimize it and reduce wear. It is precisely their function that stones perform.
What is the plus of such unusual, but such necessary details?
Artificial or precious materials do not wear out or corrode
If they are properly sanded and processed, they will be smooth and clean all the time. They increase service life rotating parts. By the way, stones are used not only in watches. There are also impulse stones in pendulums.
Luxury in watches: jewels and their quantity
Now many will be disappointed. Natural ruby or diamond stones are very rare. Usually only limited and expensive production models come across such a unique set. The most common is corundum, a crystalline mineral that has its own distinctive structure made from synthetic ruby or sapphire.
Mineral corundum
This mineral is also excellent. affects wear resistance... Some stones are much better than natural stones. This means that the synthetic material is of higher quality, more uniform and better due to the cleanliness of the product.
How many stones are there in the watch? Many are interested in this question. It is worth remembering that product quality does not depend on the number of stones.
For a good and durable watch, 15-20 jewels are enough
It is simply pointless to put more than 25 stones into the mechanism. If information from the manufacturer indicates the presence of 35 stones, for example, then this is no longer a simple mechanism with three hands.
In Swiss models, very rubies are often used... The same question immediately arises - why are ruby stones needed in mechanical watches and what are they good for?
Ruby stones
Mechanical Swiss watches throughout their history were made only with rubies, and natural ones. Everything changed only in 1902. It was at that moment that " technological explosion"- a method for growing artificial stones was created. There are mechanisms where they are not used. These are quartz products. It doesn't matter how many stones are used here. It has its own system of work, which consists only in a single wheel drive. Only at that moment does the transfer of energy take place. In a quartz watch, 1-2 ruby stones can be used, but this does not mean that the integrity of the mechanism is violated. Find out what time it is possible without them.
The use of crystals and precious materials in watch movements has long been overgrown with myths and legends. But after understanding this issue, you understand that there was nothing supernatural and complicated. Just need look deeper, to the very heart of the watch - to its mechanism.
Watch stones as a criterion for the quality of a watch movement
Regardless of the brand of mechanical watches, whether it is an expensive "Oris" or an ordinary "Flight", any wrist watch contains hour stones.
In turn, the number of stones in a watch movement is one of the main criteria for the quality of a watch. The significance of this factor is also confirmed by the fact that information about the presence of stones is usually displayed on the watch dial. Moreover, although we are talking about the stones inside the clock, and not in the external decorative inlay, the British call watch stones "jevels" - precious stones. So, what is the connection between the quality of a watch movement and the number of stones in it, what is their function and why are they considered precious?
Precious stones in watches are not used to decorate a piece, as, for example, they adorn Parker fountain pens and ballpoint pens. Any master watchmaker, without hesitation, will answer that the stones in watches are needed to reduce the coefficient of friction between the parts, which contributes to increasing the wear resistance of the entire watch movement. This is the formulation indicated in the NIHS 94-10 standards, which were adopted in Switzerland by the Normes de l "industrie Horloge Suisse organization in 1965. Although the first watches with rubies in the mechanism were made by the famous English watchmaker - George Gray (1673-1751) - at the beginning of the 18th century.He was the first to guess that by reducing the coefficient of friction, you can achieve high quality.By the way, it was he who in 1713 came up with the idea of a free escapement mechanism, which is still used in watches. He has produced over 3,000 pocket watches, embodying the most advanced watchmaking ideas of the time, and in all his watches since 1725, axles, impulse rollers and pallets were made entirely of ruby.
However, it cannot be said that today watch stones are used solely to reduce friction in the movement. After all, the coefficient of friction between hardened steel and a watch stone is approximately equal to that of brass and steel. What is the expediency of using precious stones as bearings for watch movements?
The fact is that the diameter of the pins of the axes of pocket and wristwatches is very small (about 100 microns). It is known from the school physics course that the pressure force is directly dependent on the area of the contacting surfaces. As a result, it can be concluded that watch stones are used not only to reduce friction, but also to preserve the axial supports. Plus, the stone is not subject to corrosion, and its polished surface retains its properties much longer than metal.
Today, artificial ruby is an ideal material for making watch stones. This is justified by the fact that this material has high wear resistance, great hardness, it is perfectly processed, which is very important, it can be polished very qualitatively. Artificial ruby also has an excellent wettability coefficient, which allows the watch oil to be retained on planes without loss, ensuring minimal wear of rubbing surfaces and smooth operation of the entire watch movement. In addition, artificial ruby not only does not oxidize the lubricant over time, but does not even cause the slightest change in its properties.
Depending on the purpose of the watch stones, there are several types of them: overhead, pallets, impulsive and through.
The hemispherical surface of the overhead stones helps to reduce the friction in the bearings. As a rule, this type of stones is used as thrust bearings.
The shape of the "pallet" stone is a rectangular prism. This kind of watchstone is divided into entry pallets and exit pallets. Their purpose can be determined by the angle formed by the plane of the impulse and the plane of the base. The exit pallets have a sharper angle than the entrance pallets.
Impulse stones are used to transfer the interaction from the balance sheet to the truss fork. In section, they represent an incomplete ellipse, made in the form of a cylindrical pin.
Through stones are available with cylindrical and spherical holes. A stone with a cylindrical hole is used as a bearing for the pin of the tribe and the axles of the wheel system. Through stones with a spherical hole are used for the balance axle trunnions. The main feature of all through stones is the presence of an oiler - a special circular recess for keeping watch oil.
In electronic-mechanical watches, depending on the complexity of the mechanism and the availability of additional devices (calendars, a separate stopwatch, etc.), 17 or more stones are used. However, some manufacturers, knowing that the majority of consumers choose watches by the number of stones, use watch stones in the movement inappropriately (for example, place them around the self-winding rotor, etc.) just to write an impressive number on the dial. No matter how prestigious a manufacturer's brand is, be it Rado or Orient, the number of stones in a watch must correspond to the number of axles.
TECHNICAL REASONS
The important parts of a mechanical watch are mainly those that move, that is, the gears, balance and regulator. In the old days, the pivot points of these parts rotated directly in holes that are drilled in two thick brass sheets, separated by posts. To facilitate assembly and repair, the top plate was later replaced by separate elements called "panels".
A lower copper plate (called a "base plate") was drilled with small holes into which the ends of the rotating rods rested. These holes also contained small oil sinks from which oil flowed into the holes to lubricate the friction points of the turns. Over time, they had to be cleaned, tk. the resulting mix of oil and dust formed an abrasive that acted like sandpaper, slowly sawing off the softer base of the plate and to some extent even harder steel rods. With prolonged use, the abrasive action of the petroleum dust mixture, working in concert with the rotating action of the centers, made the holes oval. In this case, the clock would start to run erratically and stop at the end.
These observations have led watchmakers to look for a material that is tougher and that will withstand more wear from the centers. The material they settled on was ruby, second only to diamond in hardness.
A LITTLE HISTORY
The use of the ruby takes us back to 18th century Aglia (this is the time of the cradle of the qualitative measurement of time), where the watchmakers first had the idea to use small ruby balls as a support for the centers of balance. The ruby processing technique was invented by the Swiss optician and astronomer, Nicholas Fatio, who sailed to England in the hope of implementing his invention. He tried to obtain a "royal privilege" for his technique, but Fatio did not receive this and as a result other skilled workers began to produce rubies for watches.
In those days, these stones were second-rate, not popular in the jewelry trade. The technique for the precise processing of rubies gave the British watchmaking industry an edge for about 20 years. Thereafter, French watchmakers such as Abraham-Louis Breguet brought the techniques of English craftsmen to France. This was the beginning of the end of the British monopoly.
For many years, this relatively expensive labor-intensive technique has limited production to extremely high quality and expensive watches. Slowly, the manufacture of such watches became more industrialized, and parts of them more accessible to other aspects of watchmaking.
Making Synthetic Rubies:
top picture - creation of elongated pear-shaped parts of an artificial crystal.
bottom picture - the pear-shaped pieces are cut using a diamond cutting tool. The slices are then cut in half, into squares and circles ranging in size from 0.3 to 0.5 mm in thickness and 1.15 to 2.55 mm in diameter.
SYNTHETIC RUBIES
A further decrease in price accompanied the creation of synthetic rubies, based on a method developed in 1902 by August Verneuil, professor at the Paris Conservatory of Arts and Crafts. In fact, synthetic rubies, as well as their natural counterparts - corundum, that is, a transparent aluminum oxide.
In the industrial counterfeiting process, the main constituent alumina (aluminum oxide) undergoes a series of operations, i.e. cleaning, heating, alloying and crystallization, which results in pear-shaped parts of the artificial ruby. Chromium oxide is added to give the red color of natural rubies.
Large-scale production of rubies has allowed the creation of large quantities of synthetic stones, more uniform in quality than those found in nature. The jewelry trade takes most of these stones. In watchmaking, the cost of rubies came mainly from labor (training needed) as the cost of raw materials was relatively low. Having said that, it should be noted that about 90% of the ruby is destroyed and only the remaining 10% is usable for watches.
COMMERCIAL TRICK?
In the mind of the public, the idea that watches contain jewelry gives them a certain added value of prestige. Manufacturers were quick to exploit this belief and began adding waste stones to increase the price of their products. The term "upjeweling" was an American term coined to refer to this questionable practice, which was fairly widespread in the United States at the time. Has not yet been canceled by US Customs, which has refused "upjeweled" imports from entering the country. There are some people who suggest that their real motives may have been less noble and that this was just a kind of camouflage protectionism for the American watch industry.
Today, Swiss watchmakers no longer use this questionable practice, and their advertising is not based on the number of stones in a movement. The total amount of rubies, ie "adornment with precious stones", may change. In simple manual mechanical watches, the number of stones varies from a minimum of 14 to a maximum of 19. In automatic or more complex watches, the number of rubies is higher. Once someone started a rumor that some repairman stole the rubies from the watch and replaced them with copper parts. This is a completely unfounded myth. It would take a lot of effort for a watchmaker to remove the rubies and replace them and would certainly not be worth his time, given that artificial rubies cost a few cents.
To sum it all up, the presence of ruby stones in a watch is, of course, a factor that adds to the quality of the watch. They are indispensable for the long and correct functioning of a good quality watch.
material taken from the site http://www.europastar.com/
The dials of high-quality mechanical watches indicate not only the brand and model, but also the number of stones. Inscriptions like "15 stones" on grandfather's "Victory" were always very intriguing in childhood. When it was possible to find out that we were talking about rubies, a wristwatch began to seem one of the most valuable things in the house.
Many have grown up and figured out what, in fact, these stones are in the watch. If you have not yet revealed this secret for yourself, then our material will help fill the gap.
How a mechanical watch works
If you ask a specialist about the purpose of stones in watches, he will answer unequivocally: they are needed to stabilize friction and reduce wear on the contacting parts of the mechanism. That's all, simple and straightforward. If you, of course, have an engineering education. For the rest, a translation into a simpler language is needed.
To do this, you should at least in general terms understand how the clockwork works. The source of energy for it is a spring made in the form of a flat steel strip. When the watch is wound, it curls up and stores energy. The other end of the spring tape is attached to the wall of the drum, which rotates and transfers the stored energy to the gears. Several of these gears (usually three or more, depending on the layout of the watch) form a wheel system. It transfers energy.
Why don't the gears spend all their energy at once, but rotate gradually? A trigger is used to control the rotation speed. It is he who prevents the gears from spinning faster than necessary. The release mechanism is controlled by the balance regulator. This is a kind of pendulum that works regardless of the position of the clock in space. It has a coil spring that makes the wheel spin in one direction or the other at a constant frequency. This is how the seconds are counted, which then turn into minutes and hours, reflected on the dial.
A stone is a bearing, but not only
There are many rotating parts in the movement that are mounted on the axles. The main axles are subjected to significant and constant stress. On the one hand, the pressure is exerted by the mainspring, on the other, the rotation is limited by the regulator.
In any mechanism with rotating axles, it is necessary to minimize their friction on a fixed base. This is necessary both to reduce wear and tear and to reduce energy consumption. Usually, bearings are used for this, but in watches they are replaced by the very stones.
The axle bearings in watch movements are very thin. In such conditions, stones are needed not only to reduce friction, but also to increase the life of the rotating parts. Stones are not subject to corrosion and wear. If they are pre-sanded well, then their surface remains clean and perfectly flat for a long time.
The stones are used in other places in addition to the supports of the clockwork. For example, it is the wear-resistant mineral that is attached to the pendulum in order to constantly hit the truss fork. This is the so-called impulse stone.
Regardless of the type and place of installation, all stones in the movement solve a common problem - they reduce the rate of wear. When metal rubbed against metal, it would occur much faster. In addition, the stones retain a special hour-long lubricant. For this, they are given a special shape during drilling.
About the jewels and the number of stones
Here they are forced to immediately disappoint - natural rubies and diamonds are rare in modern watches. They are used only by luxury manufacturers in limited editions or bespoke models. In the bulk, synthetic rubies and sapphires are inserted into the movements. For example, Seiko has a subsidiary in Japan that is exclusively engaged in the manufacture of stones. Synthetic rubies are no worse than natural ones, and often better due to the absence of impurities and a more uniform structure.
The number of stones is another interesting and exciting question for many. How many should there be in a good model? Is 20 enough or will a watch with 40 jewels be twice as good in proportion to their number?
It is wrong to evaluate the quality of watches only by the number of stones. If there are 17-25 stones in the mechanism, then this is quite enough for making all significant bearings from rubies. There is nowhere to put more than 27 jewels on an ordinary watch with three hands and an automatic winding. If the manufacturer indicates 40 or more functional stones, then almost always it is a chronograph or even more complex movement.
Some factories deliberately overestimate the number of stones, knowing that this indicator is positively perceived by the buyer. In such cases, additional rubies are placed in places where it is quite possible to do without them.
However, not always a large number of stones are deception. Certain respected brands are indeed developing complex mechanisms, in which there may be more than 100 stones.
In such a situation, when choosing a watch by the number of stones, it is necessary to figure out whether the functionality of the mechanism corresponds to this indicator.
Swiss watch movement- this is the holy of holies of mechanical clocks, where the uninitiated entry is strictly prohibited. Many myths are associated with the use of stones in the caliber of watches. For example, it was previously believed that the number of stones affects the quality of the move. Is this really so and why these stones are called precious - we will try to clarify in today's article. The main question on the surface is the role of stones in mechanisms. After all, not a single marking without indicating the number of stones inside the caliber.
Every watchmaker will answer without hesitation that the stones in watches are needed in order to stabilize friction and reduce the degree of wear of the contacting surfaces of the movement. The NIHS 94-10 standard on the function of stones in a movement was adopted in Switzerland in 1965.
Clock mechanism and mineral bearings
The watch mechanism is designed in such a way that its main axes are constantly under load: the mainspring forces them to rotate, and the spiral regulator restrains this rotation. The balance support has the greatest work: in addition to the reciprocating movements, a rather weighty balance is attached to it. The junction of the axle with the plate - the stationary part of the mechanism - is subjected to strong friction, and to stabilize it in Swiss watch device special bearings are used.
It is known that the coefficient of friction of hardened steel and ruby is exactly the same as when paired with steel and brass. Why do watchmakers use precious minerals in Swiss watch movements? The pins of the axles, which are inserted into the bearing, are very small in diameter and are only one hundred microns. Therefore, the stones in watches are needed rather to increase the durability of the axle supports in the movement, where reducing friction is a natural solution to the problem. The advantages of stone over metal are obvious: it does not oxidize or corrode, and a polished stone surface will retain its shape longer. The rocks cope better with the load from impacts from the fork arms and the pressure of the escape wheel lugs.
For the first time, the use of precious stones in a watch mechanism was proposed by George Graham, the founder of the Graham watch manufacture. In 1713, Graham invented the free escapement escapement, which is still used today. Graham's hand is responsible for the creation of more than three thousand copies of pocket watches, and each of them contains ruby bearings. Starting in 1725, it was possible in the caliber.
Rubies in hours and their optimal amount
Rubies in hours are located inside the mechanism depending on the function. In the usual three-pointer, the optimal number of ruby stones reaches seventeen. Sometimes the design approach forces you to change some of the stones for brass bearings, and in this case, the true number of stones is written in the characteristics of the watch. Each additional complication adds a number of stones to the movement.
There are many curious cases when the number of stones is several times greater than the required number. For example, markings that include fifty, eighty and even one hundred stones cause confusion among the buyer. A lot does not mean good. This move is misleading for beginners. All stones that are actually used in the movement of a Swiss watch are called functional. All other stones on the caliber perform a decorative function that does not fit into the standard marking accepted throughout the world.
Where are stones not needed? In a quartz watch. The only moment of load on the wheel train occurs when the stepper motor is turning. Due to the fact that there is no mechanical movement in quartz watches, wear is almost completely avoided. Therefore, if the number of one, two stones or without stones is indicated in the characteristics of a quartz watch, this does not mean anything terrible. Those manufactories that are of very high quality without a single stone.
Mechanical Swiss watches for two centuries they were made with real ruby stones inside the mechanisms. The situation changed when the technology for growing artificial rubies was invented in 1902. Such a turn of history in many ways allowed the watch to be produced in large quantities. Nowadays, natural minerals are used very rarely, because artificial stones are more reliable in work and are easier to process than natural ones. Of course, the realization that the watch caliber contains natural rubies brings great aesthetic pleasure. But the use of synthetic stones does not diminish the value of real watch masterpieces.