spring drive
The Quiet Revolution
The only luxury watch brand in the world with this unique technology.
Spring Drive is a unique automatic watch with one-second-a-day accuracy. It generates energy like every other luxury mechanical watch but combines this with a Tri-Synchro Regulator to deliver a level of precision that no mechanical watch can match. The development of Spring Drive was possible because Grand Seiko is one of the very few watch manufacturers in the world with a mastery of all watch-making expertise.
Spring Drive is the only watch movement in the world that is powered by a main spring and has a regulator without an escapement; it is a watch that combines the beauty of the mechanical watch with precision.
In 1977, Yoshukazu Akahane, a young watch engineer, decided to attempt the seemingly impossible, the creation of an ‘everlasting’ watch. His aim was a traditional watch, powered by a mainspring, that would deliver the one-second-a-day precision of which the company’s electronic watches were already capable. 28 years and 600 prototypes later, he realized his dream and Spring Drive was presented to the world.
MECHANISM
Powered by the mainspring
Spring Drive is a unique watch technology. It generates energy like every other luxury mechanical watch but combines this with a Tri- Synchro Regulator to deliver a level of precision that no mechanical watch can match. The development of Spring Drive was possible because Grand Seiko is one of the very few watch manufacturers in the world with a mastery of all watch making expertise.
CRAFTSMANSHIP
Master craftsmanship in assembly
and adjustment
Spring Drive combines the best elements of both mechanical and electronic watches. While three- hand versions have over 200 components, versions with more functions, such as the Spring Drive chronograph have well over 300, all of which are assembled by hand.
The application of lubricating oils ensures the smooth interaction of all the components and there are no fewer than 80 lubrication points in the three hand caliber and 140 in the chronograph. The oils are applied by hand and both time and great skill are required to ensure that that the oils are applied with precision.
Design plans are based on tolerances down to the one hundredth of a millimeter. The final adjustments and refinement of the components are completed by hand, because no machine can match the skills of our craftsmen and women — watchmakers whose superior craft gives rise to the extreme precision of Spring Drive and a power reserve of up to 5 days.
TECHNOLOGY
A seconds hand that moves in glide motion
Because all the motion within a Spring Drive movement is in one direction, the seconds hand moves in glide motion. Just like time itself, the seconds hand moves continuously and silently with no tick or shudder, expressing the beautiful, natural flow of time.
TECHNOLOGY
The most accurate spring-driven chronograph in history
Thanks to the glide motion of the chronograph seconds hand, the Spring Drive Chronograph measures elapsed time exactly and not just to the nearest part of a second. With column wheel and vertical clutch systems for exact button operation, the Spring Drive Chronograph times up to 12 hours, with a precision of one second a day.
