It’s been a busy old week for Patek Philippe. In what some in the Swiss watch industry regard as a controversial move, Philippe Stern has announced that Patek Philippe is embarking on a new era: the silicon Spiromax balance spring will become the new standard for and be gradually added to all future Patek Philippe calibres. In the past year, it has already been integrated into all automatic Calibre 324 executions and the new chronograph CH 28-520 calibres.
The Spiromax balance spring, created in Silinvar to improve the movement’s isochronism, has been used since 2008 in limited editions in conjunction with the Pulsomax escapement (escape wheel, pallet lever, pallet fork) to increase efficiency. The Spiromax was officially introduced in 2006.
Yesterday, Patek Philippe announced another new component in this subassembly: the GyromaxSi. The original Gyromax balance wheel patented in 1951 was developed by the company throughout the 1940s. Its four small slotted poising weights allow precision regulation of the balance spring according to the principle of variable inertia. Now 60 years old, it is finally being replaced. The GyromaxSi flouts conventional design while keeping the same principle. A Silinvar body with two equalising sides are weighted by 24-karat gold rims and the four gold poising screws, which make individualised precision regulation of the rate possible.
The combination of all three of these components now makes for one subgroup warranting a total of 17 patents: Oscillomax.
Silicon research
Philippe Stern pointed out that “over the course of more than 500 years, watchmaking has evolved through continuous research. The tradition of watchmaking is in constant evolution; in the new millennium, the company justifiably asks if silicon is not the next logical step.”
Controversial
However, some industry experts believe it’s not good news for the watchmaking industry and question whether this is not so much a technical revolution as an economic revolution as there are some indications in the patents such as “lower cost” “simplified balance-spiral pairing” “many parts at once” “manufacturing process with less steps” “less manual interventions”. ‘Could silicon become tomorrow, what quartz became in the 1980s: the ultimate solution for cheap watchmaking?’
Celebrations
Unperturbed by such reactions, to celebrate the announcement of all these milestones on April 5th, Patek Philippe also introduced a 300-piece limited edition watch, whose Calibre 240 Q Si proudly contains the Oscillomax. Like its silicon-substantiated predecessors, the addition is eminently recognisable by the words “Advanced Research” on the dial and a view of the subassembly through the sapphire crystal case back. Reference 5550 P is an automatic perpetual calendar that boasts 70 hours of power reserve, a considerable increase over Calibre 240 Q, which has no silicon components.
