Rolex employees in an undated photo. (Credit: Rolex)
According to a patent made public Monday, Rolex said it has developed a new method to improve measurement accuracy which could revolutionize how mechanical watches are regulated in the future.
Instead of the traditional method of “hearing” the ticking sound of a watch over a short interval, Rolex's new approach would use advance imaging and a computer algorithm to determine movement transitions of the seconds hand — termed sauts in French, or “jumps” — with exceptional precision.
A series of images of the seconds hand would be captured at a frequency rate 10 to 20 times higher than the hand’s jump frequency. An image analysis program that can be run on a laptop, tablet or smartphone would pinpoint the exact moment a hand moves, including transitions from one stable position to another, a critical parameter for chronometric analysis.
Rolex engineers said using advanced imaging to focus on the dynamic behavior of a watch — rather than static measurements through ticking sounds — could help regulate watches with a precision higher than ever before.
Rolex’s new patent. (Credit: Rolex via Swissreg.ch)