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Thermally Powered Mechanical Wristwatch

Posted by michael on from the crack-open-the-piggy-bank dept.

Raghu Mani writes "Theremally powered quartz wristwatches - which use minor temperature variations to generate electricity - have been around for a few years. Now here is something a lot more radical - a thermally powered mechanical watch. Invented by an American - Steven Phillips - it uses small temperature variations to wind the mainspring of the watch. A patent has been awarded for this - check out this link. A small article on the technology can be found here and the guy's own website is budapestwatchco.com. I doubt if any of us will be buying one of those watches anytime soon, though - just check out those prices ;-)."

5 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. A good patent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Clever stuff like this DESERVES patents, not one click shopping and silly little algorythms.

    Luckily I live in a country with a sane patent system!

    1. Re:A good patent by Rubbersoul · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So do you think that we could save the patent system by maybe having things review by a committee made up of people in the related field? I am just curious as to how people think we could rework a broke (In my opinion system) to make it respectable again.

      --
      man .sig
      No manual entry for .sig.
  2. Prices aren't so out of line by shoppa · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The prices asked (a few $10000) aren't too far out of line for what is essentially a custom-built watch. I don't think that the self-winding technology is setting the price, just the low production quantities.

    For comparison, the Pulsar, the first digital watch the on the market, cost $2100. A couple years later digital watches were under $20 from Texas Instruments, and just a couple of years after that TI was out of the watch business because they couldn't compete against $4 imports.

    This isn't saying that self-winding watches will take off in the same way; it's just comparing the prices of mass-production stuff versus very low rate production.

  3. Re:Impressive.....but a collector's item by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Most certainly not perpetual. If there were no temperature variations the watch wouldn't run. Somewhere, there must be an activity occuring that produces heat. If the watch was frozen solid its temperature wouldn't change, hence the watch wouldn't run.

  4. Re:I'll stick with my Dad's by Crazy+Diamond · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes they do. At 8 times per second that comes to 28800 ticks per hour. All mechanical watches "sweep" with some slower than 28800vph, and some faster.

    If you have a Rolex you should be able to actually see the ticks and if you put it up to your ear, you can hear and actually count the 8 ticks per second.