Механикалық және кварцтық жүйкенің үйлесімі: Spring Drive сағаты

Hybrid (mechanical and quartz) watch movement

Spring Drive is a name given to a series of watch movements produced by Epson in Shiojiri. The concept of using a mainspring to power a quartz timing package was first conceived in 1977 by Yoshikazu Akahane (赤羽 好和) at Suwa Seikosha (now a part of Epson after a 1985 merger). Specified to one second accuracy per day, the movement uses a conventional gear train as in traditional mechanical watches, but rather than an escapement and balance wheel, instead features Seiko's Tri synchro Regulator system in which power delivery to the watch hands is regulated based on a reference quartz signal. along with automatic and/or stem winding to store energy, just as in a mechanical watch.

The design was first conceived by Yoshikazu Akahane at Suwa Seikosha in 1977 Initial development was hindered by the high energy consumption of the reference quartz crystal and integrated circuit another attempt in 1993 was also unsuccessful for the same reason. The Spring Drive movement was announced publicly in 1997 and presented at the 1998 Basel Watch Fair. In 1999, the first production models were made available in Japan as limited edition, manual wind watches in both the Credor and Seiko brands. The first non limited model was released in Japan in 2002. The 1st spring drive automatic wind movement of Grand Seiko was released in September 2004, the reference number is SBGA001. The first automatic wind Spring Drive model was released in 2005, and coincided with the introduction of the Spring Drive movement to markets outside of Japan.