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GREUBEL FORSEY UNVEILS THE NEW UNIVERSE OF MECHANICAL NANO
AFTER A DECADE OF FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH, GREUBEL FORSEY IS
WRITING A NEW CHAPTER IN WATCHMAKING HISTORY BY EXPLORING
THE UNIVERSE OF MECHANICAL NANO. THIS ALLOWS US TO FREE OURSELVES
OF EXISTING SPATIAL AND ENERGY CONSTRAINTS.
The pillars of Mechanical Nano are:
• CREATING SPACE – freeing up to 90% of the existing volume –
• PROVIDING ENERGY – Freeing over 60 times more of the existing energy
• CREATING MORE EFFICIENT MECHANISMS – enhancing performance
with up to 3 times less components (prototype 2016) –
• RENEWING CREATIVITY – leading to unexplored complications,
for example the Indicateur de Fréquence (demonstration prototype 2014) –
From clock towers to wristwatches, the history of
clock- and watch-making over the past four centuries
chronicles the ever-increasing miniaturisation of
existing mechanisms.
Greubel Forsey’s EWT* Laboratory toiled away
secretly for ten years, pushing the boundaries of
mechanical miniaturisation until it produced its first
demonstration prototype in 2014. A second prototype
with a watchmaking mechanism was completed in
2016. These prototypes paved the way into this new
universe of Mechanical Nano, where watchmaking
truly enters the realm of the infinitesimally small.
* Experimental Watch Technology
OVERCOMING EXISTING SPATIAL AND ENERGY CONSTRAINTS
Greubel Forsey’s research in Mechanical Nano has
led to remarkable discoveries, validated by laboratory
tests that point the way to this new universe. They
bring us closer to realising the dream of every watchmaker
over the past two hundred years – to free ourselves
from the limitations of space. The technology
of Mechanical Nano opens up limitless horizons,
thanks to these intrinsic characteristics: requiring
only a reduced number of working parts, resulting in
a very much smaller volume with incredibly low energy
consumption.
For watchmakers, the limited space inside the
watchcase constitutes the main technical constraint.
Through Mechanical Nano, we have fundamentally
rethought the watch calibre and reduced its size and
power consumption by the same ratio as the watchmakers
who compressed clock movements to create
the wristwatch two centuries ago.
Up until now, the power needed to drive a wristwatch
mechanism was a limiting factor in terms of creativity
and innovation. Mechanical Nano opens up a
wealth of possibilities so that a power reserve of several
months is no longer just wishful thinking. This
discipline presents us with many new challenges –
and to face them, we must master physical laws that
have hitherto had no bearing on watchmaking.
Greubel Forsey sees unprecedented scope for creativity
and unexplored mechanical applications in this
terra incognita. We have demonstrated, for example,
that a watch mechanism can be powered on the energy
generated by the airflow inside the movement.
Mechanical Nano will also enable us to create new
complications such as the Indicateur de Fréquence.