SEIKO PROFILE SERIES: MANUAL WIND SPRING DRIVE

Jul 08, 2014,17:07 PM
 

In this article we investigate a small family of watches that use the rare manual-wind Seiko Spring Drive movement. My objective is to illustrate and demonstrate that a Seiko Spring Drive can be a watch that PuristS respect and some of us might even covet.

To explain its significance, I'd like to begin with a short introduction to the variety of movement technologies within our watch cases.

BACKGROUND
Many watch-saavy people divide the watch universe into two major categories - mechanical or quartz. To some, these two categories are synonymous with: 

 ? Hand-crafted or Robot-created
 ? Swiss or Rest-of-World
 ? Hand Power or Battery Power
 ? Good or Bad
 ? Expensive or Cheap

I believe these groupings are a bit inaccurate, and too simplistic. I'd like to briefly categorize things more precisely (at least from my viewpoint) into at least 4 groups:

MECHANICAL
Of course watch lovers tend to prefer traditional movements to power their watches, even if their wives don't ...

 ? hand-wound mechanical watches
 ? automatic (includes hand winding capability) mechanical watches
 ? automatic (omits hand winding capability) mechanical watches - Seiko made many of these 

The hand wind are normally wound with the crown, although a few watches provide a hand crank or motor-drive winder. The automatics may be wound by revolving weights, sliding weights, pulleys and belts, etc. 

QUARTZ
The time keeping function is performed by a crystal oscillator that normally vibrates about 32 kHz. A circuit counts the vibrations and sends a signal to motors that move the hands or display the time on a screen. 

 ? tuning fork watches
 ? quartz crystal watches powered by a battery
 ? kinetic quartz watches, which contain a generator to charge a battery or storage reservoir
 ? solar or thermal powered quartz watches, which reduce or eliminate the battery

Time intervals can be displayed by digital LED or other displays, analog hands, Ana-Digi with both type of display, sliding belts (Devon Tread), etc.

MECHA-QUARTZ
An intermediate zone is occupied by Mecha-quartz watches, which put two types of mechanism together:

 ? a mechanical chronograph module stacked on top of a quartz battery movement (JLC and others make this)
 ? a mechanical chronograph module stacked on top of a kinetic (self-charging) movement (Seiko makes this)

Here's a mecha-quartz chrono with moon phase. Base movement by JLC, styling by Porsche Design, construction by IWC. 





COMBINATION WATCHES
Not quite as integrated are watches with completely separate movements of both quartz and mechanical types in one case, such as this Sjoo Sandstrom.




I would also include in this general category the sophisticated add-on module design of the Linde Werdelin.




MOVING ON
When you look at this list of choices, it seems like we already have enough variations! Any of the above watches can be badly and cheaply made, or can be exquisitely made and expensive. Engineers (or their marketing bosses) can choose the one they like best, then refine, dress up, polish, case in appropriate finery, and sell to the chosen customers.

You may wonder, CAN'T WE STICK WITH WHAT WE'VE ALREADY DEVELOPED? 

Apparently not. Engineers, especially at Seiko (Kinetic) and Citizen (Eco-Drive), Tissot (T-Touch) keep attacking the conflicting problems of more accurate timekeeping, longer autonomy, freedom from batteries, etc. One creative result is the Seiko Spring Drive movement.

MECHANICAL or QUARTZ? A FUSION OF BOTH?
With apologies to J-C Bivet for poaching his favorite Hublot word "Fusion" I think the Spring Drive truly is a fusion of mechanical watch technology with a small and beneficial dose of technology.

Looking desperately for an analogy, I've concluded SD is a bit like combining Gin and Tonic. You can drink either beverage alone, but the combination gives you an extra bonus of enjoyment.

In brief, the Spring Drive is a mechanical watch (the GIN) with a self-powered electronic escapement (the TONIC) replacing the balance wheel. A tiny generator powered by the mainspring provides current to a solid state regulator which uses magnetic repulsion to control the gear train without any physical contact and without any battery.




I know your patience must be wearing thin by now, so I'll get right to the watches.


EXAMPLES OF SPRING DRIVE WATCHES

I bought my first Spring Drive in April 2005. It was one of the first to come into the US. It's an automatic winding Spring Drive.





Notice the winding rotor. While nicely finished, the movement was a bit hard to see under the rotor. And not knowing much about the technology behind it, the movement was also hard to understand. But I liked the watch.


AUTOMATIC OR MANUAL WIND?
Most (?) people prefer an automatic winding watch because they don't have to bother winding it every day. I believe that for this reason Seiko now makes most of its mechanical watches with automatic winding. The Spring Drive models (regular, GMT, moon phase, chronograph) are mostly self-winding and unusually, all have a power reserve indicator. One drawback is that the movement is relatively large due to its added (but carefully covered by plates) electronic components.

But from the very beginning of Spring Drive, there have been a limited number of variants with manual winding only. This allows the watch case to be thinner and smaller in diameter. As a collector, he extra rarity of these special editions appeals to me. 

MANUAL WIND SPRING DRIVE WATCHES I HAVE OWNED
Please pardon the fingerprints on this image. It was early days in my watch life...



The first publicly-released Spring Drive watch was this mechanical wind variant released in 1999. I was wearing this and taking these pictures back in August of 2005.

Here it is shown with my Blancpain Aqua Lung for a size comparison. The BP is 38mm and the Seiko about 35-36mm. 


I owned this watch for about a year but sold it because it was a bit small and the integrated bracelet was unpleasant.  

I found the movement to be mesmerizing - and strange but beautiful. It is numbered 7R68A 2. The date is at 3 o'clock, power reserve at 10 o'clock and the plate screws are silver.



After 7-8 years without a manual wind Spring Drive, I landed this beautiful watch, known as GBLH999. 

It's a Credor variation on the hand-wind theme, but with a strap which allows for personalizing the look and the fit. Notice the similar positioning of the date and power reserve complications with those of my 7R68A 2.

 

The movement is labeled 7R88A 2.  Notice the silver slots on the blued screws. Hmmm. Are they blued with heat or painted blue?



OTHER MANUAL WIND SPRING DRIVES (NOT MINE)

Lately, I've been on a quest to find a few other watches with this movement, and once in a while they pop up on an auction site or dealer's inventory. 

This is a Credor GCLH983 containing a 7R88A 1 movement. It's in an equally polarizing case and bracelet design, with identical location for power reserve but with the date moved down to the 6 o'clock location. Note that from this point on, most of the plate screws are blued, whereas on the earlier movements they were not.





These photos came from a vendor but similar views are available on the Seiko Credor website.



It has also been available with a beautiful dark brown dial as GCLH984.



The movement is labeled 7R88A 1. Again the screw slots are not blued which makes me wonder if the blue color is added as paint or dye... or are the slots cleaned and polished?

 


Here's a watch sold long ago by a friend and fellow Seiko lover. The power reserve hand is rotated slightly on its axis, the date has been enlarged and  moved to 6 o'clock position, and the dial has a stylized 24-7 theme.




The movement appears to be very similar. It's a 7R87A 1. 

When I look at the movement numbering scheme it seems that last digit "1" means date window at 6 o'clock and the last digit  "2" means date at 3 o'clock. This watch is consistent, as its 6 o'clock date window(s) match the other "1" models above.




This next watch is one I recently looked at purchasing. It's a very early Seiko (not Credor) version in yellow gold. This very nice watch appears to be very highly polished, with the reflections of the markers clearly visible in the chapter ring.




It's a 7R68A 2 (the same as my original steel watch). So we could surmise that it's an early model with a date at 3 o'clock position.

BTW the 5 copper contacts visible through holes in the plate nearest the crown are used in the factory calibration and checking processes. On this movement, the plate screws are NOT blued.




Now we will jump ahead about 6-7 years and look at an even higher grade of Spring Drive. 

Cases of gold and platinum are not the only luxury treatments that Seiko has given to its hand-winding models. They may also add moon phase and subtract metal (skeletonize) the movement.

This hand-winding Credor moon phase is in a white gold case, and features a tapered case design and squared-off crown that are very similar to its automatic winding brother (which I own).







The automatic version is below. Notice the similarities in case shape and finishing, and the difference in thickness.




Here is a skeleton, limited-edition Credor that features careful hand-finishing on the components. This watch retains the power reserve indicator at 10 o'clock, but does without a date (and a dial).




This is the only image I could find for the back of the watch, on Credor's website. The movement is identified as 7R88 (no date). 
The price of this watch in white gold was about $30k US.



Here are two more special editions. These watches are being produced in small sets of 5-25, which would perhaps be normal for an AHCI production run - which is truly the sort of workshop that produces them (with a much larger parent company behind it).









I know there are other Credor Spring Drive Hand Wind models - such as this GBLR999 version shown in Basel in 2008. Available from Master Shops only for a price in the range of $75k US. Notice the lack of a date window, and a repositioned axis for the power indicator. The case is platinum; the dial pure porcelain made by the famous Japanese china company Noritake. The 24 7 motif is very faintly visible in the porcelain. I love these blue and scalloped hands.




Here's the movement - labeled 7R08A 1. The barrel is skeletonized in a flower blossom motif. You may have seen the same thing on the famous Credor Minute Repeater.




This high-end movement has German silver plates, more jewels than a normal Spring Drive, a special power management system that extends its autonomy an extra 12 hours to 60. Only about 25 watches were produced in total, with production ending in 2011. 

Even if you can't have the watch above, you can get the same hands by purchasing this Credor Spring Drive moon phase (but it's an automatic).


 


CONCLUSION

Seiko's Spring Drive movements are available in various manual wind models. The movement numbers indicate functions of the watch; all the manual wind movements I've seen are labeled 7R n n A n. All have hour, minute, second and power reserve hands. Some have dates, large dates, moon phase, skeleton or engraving.

They offer novelty, beauty and/or some eccentric styling options. They are thin, sleek and nicely-finished movements in cases of stainless steel, gold or platinum. Spring Drives manage +/- 10-15 seconds a month. They require no battery, are likely to need less frequent servicing than a similar watch with a balance wheel escapement, and come at a reasonable price. You can buy either leather strap or bracelet models on the used market. Sadly, as far as I know, there are no modestly-priced models currently in production.

Please let me know if there are any questions about this fantastic variation of the Spring Drive family.

Mike aka Cazalea

REFERENCES

ARTICLES
I discussed this subject a bit earlier in this SEIKO PROFILE SERIES article on Automatic Spring Drives

This excellent article by Jack Freedman written about 10 years ago gives you much more detail on the Spring Drive itself.

A review appeared a few years ago on PuristS - it gives you more images of the beautiful GBLR999. GO HERE.

Ken KIH did a great article on the Credor Spring Drive Minute Repeater. It too is hand wound. 

VIDEOS

You can go to the Credor site to see a short video on these hand-wind, fully-decorated Spring Drives.  VIDEO

Here is a video of the Spring Drive Chronograph (automatic, not manual wind).  VIDEO

SEIKO USER MANUAL

This link takes you to a PDF of the owner's handbook in Japanese and English. HANDBOOK

SEIKO EPSON PR DOCUMENT

In a list of company milestones, the Seiko Epson corporation provides this background on the first Spring Drive model, the one I purchased years ago:











This message has been edited by cazalea on 2014-07-08 17:11:44 This message has been edited by cazalea on 2014-07-08 17:12:26 




This message has been edited by cazalea on 2014-07-08 17:25:35
This message has been edited by cazalea on 2014-07-09 09:09:29


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Comments: view entire thread

 

Informative summary of manual Spring Drive watches

 
 By: MTF : July 9th, 2014-05:32
Cazalea, Thank you for the detailed history of a specialised branch of the Spring Drive watch system. When I lived a short walk from WAKO store (Seiko) in Ginza, Tokyo, I could vicariously look at the (very) limited editions of Credor regularly. Whilst we... 

Thanks MTF - in my research, I'm seeing how fine these watches really are

 
 By: cazalea : July 9th, 2014-09:11
I've had multiple Credors at the mid-level of quality and am now discovering the real beauties. Woe to me when I spend 2 weeks in Japan this fall .... Cheers Mike

Cazalea, this series you started ...

 
 By: small-luxury-world : July 10th, 2014-02:20
helps me a lot at my current research and to understand the brand and their products. Thanks a lot for putting it all together! Oliver

Wow, this IS the reference article...

 
 By: KIH : July 10th, 2014-08:59
.. for the manual wind spring drive. Very informative with detailed facts and photos. Even SEIKO people don't know this much, I bet :-) Great job, Mike! Ken

I don't know who's worse . . .

 
 By: Dr No : July 11th, 2014-10:55
. . . you or Ken. :-) First, Ken shows a GS I've never seen before that induced instant lust . . . . . . and now you have to remind me of a Seiko . . . . . . buried deep in my memory. Torn, Art ...