Thermally Powered Mechanical Wristwatch

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 ;-)."

Comments

Heh

[B3ryllium]

Pfft! You're supposed to tell us about this BEFORE christmas!

A good patent

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

Re:A good patent

[Hal-9001]

The mechanism behind a thermal self-winding mechanical watch and a thermally-powered electrical watch are probably quite different. From skimming the patent, it seems that the thermal self-winding mechanical movement uses the thermal winding of a bimetallic spring to wind the mechanical movement of this watch (sort of like how a bimetallic spring is used to regulate a mercury switch in many thermostats). A thermally-powered electrical watch probably uses the voltage generated across a bimetallic junction to drive the quartz oscillator (which is more akin to a Peltier cooler run in reverse). I agree that, while the idea is clever, it does not deserve patent protection for the next twenty years. On the other hand, the market for this type of invention is pretty small, and other watch makers are free to continue manufacturing other types of self-powered movements (self-winding, kinetic generators, thermoelectric, etc.), so granting the patent does not especially harm the market.

$109,000.00

[Scrameustache]

Wow...

I'm reeling from the thought that a watch can be worth more than my whole house.

Better not forget it in your pants come laundry day...

Re:$109,000.00

[Petrol]

I think he arrived at the base price by adding decimal places to his patent number.

Impressive.....but a collector's item

[slashuzer]

This is a collector's item, more than anything else. Just look at the claims in the patent, to give you some idea of the complexity!!

This is a cool gadget. And for those wondering about body temperature.....

The back of a watch embodying the invention is selected to be of a good heat conductive material, which will influence the temperature at the coil. Tests utilizing a thermometer strapped to a wrist, as a watch is, have shown the following temperature variations. When the watch is on the arm for the day, it is subjected to high temperatures due to body heat (on the order of ninety-five degrees). Most watches are worn slightly loose. When the back of the watch is essentially flush on the arm the temperature is up, on the order of ninety degrees F. Due to a slight shift on the arm, the case acts as a heat sink and the temperature drops three to six degrees F. This occurs about every fifteen minutes at room temperatures of seventy-five to seventy eight degrees. In addition there are fluctuations in room temperature due to cycling of the heating or air conditioning thermostats. The changes in temperature at the watch are more frequent and at a wider range when the watch is worn outside. It was found that the temperature at the watch was ninety degrees plus five degrees and minus ten degrees on a day when the outside ambient temperature was fifty degrees, all temperatures being Fahrenheit. When the watch is removed at night and subjected only to ambient room temperature it will very quickly drop to ambient room temperature, usually about seventy degrees. During the night the temperature will cycle with fluctuation in room temperature as the thermostatically controlled heat cycles. When the wearer again puts on the watch in the morning, there will be an increase in temperature of the watch casing back up to the external body temperature of the wearer. Change in temperature in either direction will produce self-winding of a watch embodying the invention.

Truly a perpetual watch!

Prices aren't so out of line

[shoppa]

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.

Memory metals??

[t0qer]

Here's a link,
Here's a link,
why don't I just

link the google search page?

Anyone remember memory metals? They were sort of a greeting card fad for a
while..You would mail a loved one what looked like an unbent paper clip, with
instructions to dip it into hot coffee. Upon hitting the hot coffee the metal
would bend itself into a message. Really neat stuff if you ever got to play with
it.

Re:I'll stick with my Dad's

[Crazy Diamond]

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.

I'll stick with my Seiko Kinetic, thanks

[frankie]

Basically it derives energy from the temperature change when the watch is on top of your arm (flush against the skin == hotter) and when it's flopped to the side (exposed to air == cooler). In other words, it still needs motion to operate, albeit indirectly.

Hence, my trusty kinetic watch is effectively equivalent but a lot more affordable.