To understand the Vacheron Constantin Twin Beat, we need to begin with a universal truth: in most areas of life, the most meaningful innovations are those that address real-life needs, solving practical problems in a sensible way. And those solutions come through questioning orthodox assumptions. In the case of mechanical watches, the received wisdom is that the running time of a watch before it needs rewinding (its power reserve) is fixed by the amount of energy the mainspring can store. In other words, the mainspring barrel has a fixed capacity and thus can release energy only for a fixed timespan. Therefore, a longer power reserve requires either a longer mainspring (much larger barrel) or multiple mainsprings that release their energy one by one (multiple, series-coupled barrels). Both of these conventional solutions require more space in the movement and, consequently, a bigger watch case. It’s like the range of a car: have a bigger tank or build in some energy-saving technology. Now, for time-only automatic watches this limitation of power reserve is not a huge issue, since even a very slim case can accommodate enough mainspring to provide 60 hours of running time (and those who really do find it an…

The post HANDS-ON: The Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar explained appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

More...