Where is the isochronism?

[jdm]

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but sympathy and admiration for Vincent Calabrese, a self taught independant master watchmaker. I was pleased to meet this affable gentleman and buy his signed book at the Hong Kong Watch and Clock fair in the past.

There we have his latest, an attempt to get away with the hairspring. Basically two springy bars make a third rigid one to bounce in between. An (energy hungry) rack and pinion mechanism then mediates to a conventional balance wheel and lever escapement. My immediate feeling is that the elastic deformation of the bars is so small to not have enough isochronism properties. even if they look like one, they vibrate much too slow to resonate like a tuning fork does.

https://monochrome-watches.com/vincent-calabrese-presents-calasys-a-new-concept-to-replace-the-hairspring-independent-watchmaking/

Have you ever wondered why the hairspring is a long and thin string as opposed to a short one, because it needs to be to provide both elasticity and isochronism with the smallest energy used.

Further to this fundamental defect, I see even some more, as in the large energy absorbed by the impacting between bars, the lack of self-starting, and the difficulty of regulating an "inertial balance", that is with screws.

No matter what will be of this, my praise and best of luck to Mr. Calabrese for his invention.

[Plato]

Ingenious idea. Any flaws could be ironed out over time. 

[JohnC]

On 11/3/2021 at 4:44 PM, jdm said:

immediate feeling is that the elastic deformation of the bars is so small to not have enough isochronism properties. even if they look like one, they vibrate much too slow to resonate like a tuning fork does.

https://monochrome-watches.com/vincent-calabrese-presents-calasys-a-new-concept-to-replace-the-hairspring-independent-watchmaking/

Have you ever wondered why the hairspring is a long and thin string as opposed to a short one, because it needs to be to provide both elasticity and isochronism with the smallest energy used.

Further to this fundamental defect, I see even some more, as in the large energy absorbed by the impacting between bars, the lack of self-starting, and the difficulty of regulating an "inertial balance", that is with screws.

I may be wrong on this, but it seems to me it will still be self starting if the springs are elastic enough and / or there is a dead zone where the rack lever is not in contact with the spring. All it needs to do, I think, is to give the balance enough spin so that when it returns it can unlock the pallet fork. The self starting quality is in the lever escapement, not how the balance wheel is sprung, no? Again, correct me if there is something obvious I am missing.

Likewise re the isochronism, is that a fundamental defect or is that something that can be ironed out?

I am against it solely for the reason that I have already spent a lot of time getting not-terrible at hairsprings and I don't want watch repair to suddenly become easy.

[spectre6000]

14 hours ago, JohnC said:

I am against it solely for the reason that I have already spent a lot of time getting not-terrible at hairsprings and I don't want watch repair to suddenly become easy.

I'm for it for the exact opposite reason!