Zenith Academy Christophe Colomb Hurricane

[dsio]

http://montre24.com/news/2013-01-15/2527/

Holy crap =O

 

[LouS]

dsio

Holy crap =O

Indeed. And the stilted, badly translated company press release could not be more opaque. The Academy line is Zenith's super-haute horology collection - tourbillons & repeaters, and the Christophe Colomb is the line with the gyroscopically stabilized balance, but what is new about this iteration or why it's called the Hurricane escapes me. Certainly that chain-drive fusee thingy is new, but the rationale is not clear.

 

[dsio]

I think its the fusée-and-chain mechanism but I'm not sure

 

[Gavin]

LouS

why it's called the Hurricane escapes me.

They want you to be swept off your feet.

 

[LouS]

dsio

I think its the fusée-and-chain mechanism but I'm not sure

Yep, you're right, we posted simultaneously. But why?

 

[dsio]

Well from memory the fusée-and-chain's main benefit was that it made mainspring torque uniform over the full duration of its unwinding, back when escapements used at the time were dependent on that, but my understanding is that modern lever escapements are entirely independent of mainspring torque due to being governed by the oscillation of the balance, rendering this unnecessary.

That said, seeing the chain unwind behind the dial would look damn cool

 

[ulackfocus]

dsio

Well from memory the fusée-and-chain's main benefit was that it made mainspring torque uniform over the full duration of its unwinding

Correct.

dsio

but my understanding is that modern lever escapements are entirely independent of mainspring torque due to being governed by the oscillation of the balance, rendering this unnecessary.

Incorrect. The mainsprings are now S shaped which helps counter the loss of torque in the last third.

The backwards curve has more push.

 

[John Chris]

Perhaps it's called the Hurricane because it blows.

 

[LouS]

Chris, if I didn't know you better I'd say you wuz a troll of the first order!

 

[Stewart H]

That's a shame. Just checked and my lottery numbers didn't come up last night.