Seiko’s Magic Lever
Seiko 5 SNK809, featuring all three elements of the Trimatic for less than $100 / Credit: Monochrome
Seiko, one of the last remaining innovators in today’s watch market, built its reputation disrupting the industry. The Seiko group’s inventions, accredited to their large research and development team, have impacted virtually all facets of modern watchmaking. One of such inventions, Seiko’s Magic Lever, is a little-known but widespread mechanism, today found in watches all over the world.
The Magic Lever was first produced in 1959 and first used on Seikos in the early 1960s. It is an automatic winding system, essentially winding the mainspring by oscillating weight in both directions, pushing and pulling the intermediate wheel and benefiting from the extra energy generated from the double motion. It also reduces the impact of shock on the gear train by using pawls instead of gears between the rotor and the barrel; effectively making Seiko’s system not only more shock resistant, but also more energy efficient.
Seiko’s Magic Lever is today found in most of their wristwatches and has also been licensed to other companies in Japan, Switzerland, the United States, and Germany. The mechanism is part of ‘Trimatic’, a trio of patented Seiko inventions that also includes Spron, the alloy developed for their watch springs, and Diashock, their shock resistance system.