New movements
Time does not stand still and this obviously applies to the watchmaking industry as well, going by the offerings and new precedents set by some of the major brands at BaselWorld.
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WELL-known and proven for its reliability, it is little wonder why the Swiss lever escapement is the de facto industry standard for mechanical watches and clocks today. However, as pointed out by the good folks at Rolex, this industry standard for Swiss watchmaking has seen only limited technical evolution over the past half of a century.
Moreover, they add that the main drawback of the Swiss lever escapement is its low efficiency. Why? the Swiss lever escapement is only able to transfer barely more than a third of the energy it receives from the mainspring through the gear train. This explains the new movement launched by Rolex, known as the Calibre 3255, fitted with the brand's proprietary Chronergy escapement.
Basically, what Rolex has done with its Chronergy escapement is to optimise the Swiss lever escapement's efficiency. The result is an improvement of efficiency by 15 per cent. Moreover, with the Calibre 3255, the power reserve is up 50 per cent at around 70 hours and chronometric precision is now twice as great as an official chronometer, defined as a movement that meets the criteria laid out by the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute.
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