[padi56]

Originally Posted by yannis7777

There has been an ongoing argument about this 3185 vs 3186. It is getting tiring to argue about it too. I think we should all agree that the 3186 is an improved movement. It might be a minor one but still this does not mean it is not an improvement.
Rolex took time and spent money on patents in order to improve the 3185 and made the 3186. If there was no point i don't see they would be so dumb to go ahead with the plan.

Here is an article about the parachrom spring:
ROLEX has developed and patented a new hairspring called PARACHROM. This hairspring is made of a niobium, zirconium and oxygen alloy. It has been used for the Cosmograph Daytona starting from 2000.

In 2005 a blue-coloured version was introduced for the new GMT Master II and the Cosmograph Daytona. It has an even better performance as regards to long-term stability. This blue version has also been patented.

The hairspring and balance form an oscillator, the regulating organ of the watch. This oscillator is the guardian of time. The precision of the watch is determined by the regularity of its oscillations. The requirements of this regularity are very great since measuring the time with a precision of 1 second per d ay is like measuring a distance of 1 km to within 1 cm.

To guarantee this extreme precision, the torque must be as constant as possible regardless of the temperature to which the watch is submitted. It is for this reason that only a few, very special materials can be used for the hairspring.

Commonly used alloys have an iron - nickel - chromium base. These alloys are ferromagnetic and so have two major drawbacks: they make the hairspring susceptible to magnetic fields and to shocks.

ROLEX has developed a new family of alloys with a niobium - zirconium - oxygen base know as PARACHROM, which is up to ten times less susceptible to shocks and absolutely unaffected by magnetic fields.

The registered name comes form the fact that the alloy is paramagnetic and that it is coloured (CHROM in Greek).

This development required 5 years of research by physicists and materials engineers and called for the most advanced observation and analysis techniques. It resulted in the filing of applications for two patents, one for the protection of the chemical composition of the alloy, the other the way of modifying the surface of the hairspring to stabilize its properties (blue colouring). The blue colour of the hairspring increase the prestige of the watch. As a matter of fact, in the history of watch making, bluing a hairspring was an operation done only for the most accurate and sophisticated watches.

If the material of the PARACHROM hairspring is very specific, its manufacture necessitates very high technology which is fully mastered in house.

. . .

In 2005, ROLEX introduced another new feature on the PARACHROM hairspring by modifying the structure of its surface. The layer of oxygen present on the surface is transformed and thickened to about 50-100 nm to increase the long term stability of the oscillator even further. This modification of the surface colours the hairspring in blue (colouring by interference). This innovation has been patented.

Bluing steel escapement parts is a very old watchmakers skill used for a century or more . The watch or clock parts are roasted over heat in a small pan around 300°C the surface briefly turns the desired blue, before changing colour again.But Rolex uses a chemical method to make theirs blue


While I would agree that the mod in the 3186 to make the time
zone adjustment more precise is perhaps a plus.But the 3185 has proved to be a very accurate movement so as the rest of all the Rolex movements over the many decades.So IMHO would doubt if any new escapement spring could make them better. Considering the many many millions of them out there in this world today still running and accurate some many decades old.

Nivarox hairsprings used by the majority of all the Swiss industry for many many years including Rolex.But now several manufactures have now made there own under different names simply to stop the strangle hold the Swatch group on the Swiss watchmaking industry.Nivarox is the name for the metal used much like Rolex calling theres Parachrome.Now these alloys are mainly stainless steel type alloys with high concentrations of Cobalt, Nickel and high Chromium (16-22%).And very small amounts of titanium and beryllium.Now Hairsprings made of this alloy are quite wear-resistant and they are practically non-magnetic around 99.9%,plus the alloy is non-rusting and possess a low level of thermal expansion.And when used in conjunction with nickel, brass or beryllium, bronze or Glucydur balance wheels like Rolex and most of the high end brands, so they were 99.9% anti-magnetic to begin with.And even with the Nivarox hairsprings they had to meet the Swiss standard for anti-magnetic watches.Which is to withstand a strong magnetic field of 4800 Amps per meter.And to keeps on running with a maximum deviation of 15- 30 seconds per day.Now this test I am 100% sure that 99% of all watch wearers would never subject or come into contact with such a strong magnetic field no matter what hairspring was in the watch.