Terry O
11
Test done a couple of years ago.
Andreas:
About three years ago, a FPJ Resonance owner had his watch placed in a vacuum chamber (the type used by dealers to test water resistance of a case) with the back removed. When air was removed from the vacuum chamber, the balance wheels quickly lost synchronization - every time.
Now the question of the role that the air inside the case of a Resonance was not answered. Was it the pumping action of the air, induced by each of the balance wheels that aided synchronization (the leading hypothesis), or was it something a little more esoteric?
(If I can find this old posting, I will reply with a link to it.)
While I would like to know the definitive role of the air, the answer doesn't really matter to me. My Resonance "works". It is a beautiful piece of craftmanship and a novel piece of engineering. It is an iconic watch. I love my Resonance.
More posts:
"An odd kind of sympathy"
I have been trying to come to grips with the principle underlying the Resonance. This topic has been discussed before ahci.watchprosite.com but I am not sure there is a conclusion yet. The following is what I have collected from the literature for your co...
Some real food for thought here!
It will probably take a few days to digest and comment more fully, but I wanted to note that in the PurstS discussion you linked there is a further link to a 2002 article on the watch (search for "LINK" in the discussion). That paper notes the behaviour o...
Agnostic
Very interesting discussion paper, Andreas, Thanks. I don’t have any answers but I do wonder if Mr Journe experimented with different distances between the balance wheels when designing the first Resonance watch. If the synchronisation phenomenon has some...
At 5280 feet (1586 m)...
"F.P.Journe already point out..that altitude can influence the chronometry of their watches." I wonder if that's true out here in Denver, Colorado at 5280 ft/1586m? That would be interesting to study, besides the inherent 'dryness' of this sem-arid portio...
Let me try to answer...
what would happen if a Resonance was run in a vacuum? I think we have to consider how these oscillators damp each other. For Journe's, he use the "rack and pinion" to adjust the angle of the balance bridge. Thus can adjust the distance between 2 balance w...
typo before....and for the adjustment
The effect on the air fiction damping depends on altitude not the latitude... Higher humidity, higher air density... bigger fiction... In my point of view...the adjustment on the distance of 2 balance wheel is the key the control the type of the damping e...
Test done a couple of years ago.
Andreas: About three years ago, a FPJ Resonance owner had his watch placed in a vacuum chamber (the type used by dealers to test water resistance of a case) with the back removed. When air was removed from the vacuum chamber, the balance wheels quickly lo...
Thanks Ogygia and Terry …
The information is much appreciated. So this confirms that it is air turbulence or, perhaps, friction causing the “resonance” effect. I wonder if at higher air pressures the synchronisation would be greater (even if the accuracy was affected)? What effect...
so if air is the coupling medium ...
... I think the logic outlined in the Royal Society paper would still apply. I.E the motion of the balances in perfect anti-phase should be the least dampened, because the balances movement at the point at which they are close (in the middle of the moveme...
In my wordings..
I can't agree more on what you said.... IMO, we can focus on the area where 2 balance wheels close to each other. So we only consider up and down motions as it is easier to understand ... If they move up and down exactly in same timing, there is almost no...
air
That's very interesting. Did you find it? In principle, I guess vibrations should be transmitted through air and the force would fall off with the distance, so if the balances are really close, which they are, this could be the source of the synchronising...
Perhaps in a vacuum
the balance wheels would have to be moved closer to each other - perhaps too close to prevent them from touching if subjected to shock. Also Bernoulli's Principle (which enables airplanes to fly) would have no effect in a vacuum, thanks to reduced (here n...
Sympathy for the Resonance
There is an remarkable series of lectures by Walter H. G. Lewin before a freshman physics class at MIT. I single out Lecture 30: Simple Harmonic Oscillations - Energy Considerations - Torsional Pendulum videolectures(dot)net(slash)mit801f99_lewin_lec30 an...
Great post and thread!
I am never tired of learning the secret behind the Resonance, though never really got it... which just makes the Resonance even more fascinating. BTW, here is another good read that has been posted here before: www.watchprosite.com /
