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Pierre-
 Very interesting. When I had asked Citizen about their Eco-Drive models (no
battery, no winding, no need to open the watch, les need to service it,
etc.) IIRC they only mentioned a more conventional 30 seconds per month.
Perhaps they've been hiding that 5 second model from the US market--they
should be bragging about it!

 Back when my Accutron was still state of the art (pre-quartz) Bulova had
developed one model for aircraft that consisted of three stacked "Type 214"
movements, which mechanically averaged each other and drive one set of hands
on the one dial. Once in a while they still come up on eBay, etc., as they
were used on commercial airliners. For a while, they were the most accurate
"civilian" time product on the planet, short of spending millions on an
atomic clock. Then came quartz!

 What I find very disappointing is the amount of routine maintenance that
most watch companies claim their products need. Even Rolex will claim the
watches should receive routine cleaning every 3(?) years, which makes it
expensive to keep up the watches and certain that the rate of the watch will
be changed. And even with their screw-down stem, Rolexes and other "good"
water-resistant watches will leak unless the seals are regularly replaced.
More nuisance value!

 Some years ago when LEDs were new, someone introduced a fully potted sealed
LED watch with solar cells and magnetic contacts instead of a "sealed" stem
or buttons. I can't find reference to it, but know it existed--and the rate
could also be adjusted by the user!

 Of course any mechanical watch will suffer daily variation from gravity
effects, etc. so for regularity an electronic watch with stepping motor or
digital display in theory is most accurate, but then there's the battery
problem. Seiko and Citizen's solutions for permanent (kinetic or solar)
watches would seem to be the most accurate/reliable way to solve that
problem as well, but they still come back to promising Timex accuracy...with
routine seal replacement, etc. required on top of the pricing.

I guess we've still got a way to go in what truly DURABLE accurate watches
can be developed.  I'm content to leave my aging Accutron regulated at about
30 seconds per month. Well, 30-60 as the battery ages out every 18-24
months, I could do better if I changed it annually without fail. That's
good enough for most of what I do, and a backup for the GPS. And Timex.

   

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