The sprung-balance, the circular flywheel that swings back and forth thanks to a coiled spring (the hairpsing or balance spring), has been the exclusive basis for mechanical timekeeping since Hooke / Huygens invented it in the late 17th century. Very few watchmakers have challenged its principle, which is at the heart of mechanical timekeeping and chronometry. Today, independent watchmaker Assad Al Hanini has announced a new projectwhich has a concept, of a new type of oscillator with a classic balance wheel… but no hairspring.
If you are into independent watchmaking, you should get yourself familiar with Assad Al Hanini. Since forever he had a love for watches and watch making, Assad relocated to different places in the world like England, Greece, Qatar and several places. He did his bachelor degree in Civil Engineering at the American University and his Master’s in business at the University of Bedfordshire, in England.
With this project to replace the balance spring with a solution presented as simple and effective. Although it has been the basis for mechanical timekeeping for decades, the sprung-balance is not a perfect oscillator and its assembly and manipulations are complex. Among its weaknesses, Calabrese stresses the effects of the points of attachment of the spring (a delicate operation and that creates imperfections in isochronism due to asymmetry) and other negative effects such as gravity.
The principle of his this project is quite simple. It consists in doing away with the traditional balance spring. Instead, on the balance staff, a pinion is geared with a rake that oscillates back and forth as the two arms of a spring alternatively exert a force in opposition to the rotation. The gearing is calculated so that the balance can have the greatest possible amplitude and the rake to have the smallest possible angle of rotation. The patented oscillator concept could be applied to any type of escapement working in conjunction with a sprung balance.
