Is the DAY-DATE "up-to-date" ???

[black_hole]

Dear friends,

I wonder why the Day-Date does not have the new Parachrome spring ???

Would you feel concerned about this ? Does this compromise the magnetic behaviour of the watch ?

Has there been evolutions (updates) of the movement in the last years ?

Finally I wonder somthing. If I buy a Day-Date today and if the parachrome spring is introduced in the day-date line in the forthcoming years, will it be possible to have it on my watch later ?

THANKS !!!

Best regards.

[President]

Welcome!

[John Ireland]

true to Rolex tradition...well tested and durable and accurate. It is made using the latest assembly technologies and rival the quality of the most expensive "handmade/assembled" movements.

There are some interesting advances recently in mechanical watches. I am guessing that most won't retro fit into older models...Rolex or Patek or whoever...and most of these advances will effect service life more than accuracy. The accuracy issue has already been settled by digital watches. And how often are you late to a meeting by 1/3 of a second?

My vintage Rolexes are all more than accurate for my real world real life. The fractional improvement of a modern Rolex movement mean nothing to me. However the ease of servicing the newer movements will eventually pull me in that direction.

It is logical that future watch movements (improvement) will move us toward longer and longer periods of service free operation...with perhaps a little accuracy thrown in. But that also will probably mean entire movement or sub group swaps instead of single part replacements and repair. Just as with cars. You don't fix parts anymore, you just throw out the old assembly and plug in a new one. Those are the economics of manufacturing.

Remember, Rolex is a mass produced high quality watch...not a boutique made high end watch. Very different machines. An old Rolex is like an old Mercedes...as a rule they look great twenty and thirty years later and keep on running and satisfying thier owners.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by black_hole

Dear friends,

I wonder why the Day-Date does not have the new Parachrome spring ???

Would you feel concerned about this ? Does this compromise the magnetic behaviour of the watch ?

Has there been evolutions (updates) of the movement in the last years ?

Finally I wonder somthing. If I buy a Day-Date today and if the parachrome spring is introduced in the day-date line in the forthcoming years, will it be possible to have it on my watch later ?

THANKS !!!

Best regards.

Well basically watch movements have changed very little over the last 100 years or so.And many of my vintage watches 30 plus years old can still perform +2 seconds a day.Now this Parachrome balance spring in reality is not going to make a tremendous improvement on average timing keeping.And the Cal 3035 has not changed since the late 80s,its a very accurate movement,this new Parachrome balance spring might make it more accurate if thats possible but by a very very very small margin indeed .But like all mechanical watches it will still not be as accurate as the cheapest quartz,thats simple a fact of life.And IMHO the biggest improvement in the Cal 3186 is the ball bearing winding rotor,far more than this Parachrome balance spring.And having recently tested the new Daytona thats already fitted with the new Parachrome spring.Against the Daytona with the modded Zenith El-Primo movement without Parachrome spring.Both watches on winder for 3 days in-fact the Daytona Zenith powered one was slightly more accurate.

But when talking of accuracy now In 24 hours, the escapement of a mechanical watch pushes the gears 432,000 times. Since a day has 86,400 seconds, even a watch that runs five minutes fast or slow each day has an accuracy of over 99.6 percent! A finer mechanical watch that gains or loses about nine seconds a day or about a minute a week has a breathtaking precision of over 99.99 per cent. This is very high precision, given the fact that the movement is constantly affected by the earth's gravity, metal expansion and contraction, temperature variations, subtle changes in lubrication and friction, shocks, and so on.

But think about John Harrison's watches made almost 300 years ago.No computer aided graphic designs, no machine robots to cut the precision parts. No Parachrome balance spring only his bare hands and by todays standards very primitive tools.And a watch tested in one of the hardest environments around on the open seas.John Harrison's son William set sail for the West Indies, with the Harrison H4 marine chronometer, aboard the ship Deptford on 18 November 1761. They arrived in Jamaica on 19 January 1762, where his watch was found to be only 5 seconds slow! in almost 2 months at sea thats accuracy and almost 300 years ago and without the aid of fancy named Parachrome balance springs..

[astcell]

But 300 years ago they had no atomic clock. How did they determine 5 seconds?

And it could have been 11 hours, 59 minutes and 55 seconds fast!

[padi56]

Originally Posted by astcell

But 300 years ago they had no atomic clock. How did they determine 5 seconds?

And it could have been 11 hours, 59 minutes and 55 seconds fast!

They had two watches that were set astronomically with each other, now not sure about the science involved, and how they worked it out.But dont forget Robert the world biggest sundial at Jaipur,is very accurate within a fraction of a second.Admit a bit big for the average wrist but the sun is still a very accurate watch indeed.