The Tag Heuer Monaco V4 watch

Watch the movie:

http://www.tagheuer.com/basel2004/monacov4.lbl?v=1

...and be amazed. You've got to love the soul disco meets "Also Sprach Zaratustra" soundtrack aswell

...I just love it. But at an estimated RRP (when it eventually goes on sale) of well above £5K I'll have to pass. First Tag I've really desired.

Michael.

 

i like the look of mechanical skeleton watches but they could do with being more dynamic. there's one bit that whizzes round and thats it. a shame that they couldn't make one where you can actually see the belts and gears actually moving in real time.
the tag looks terrific though, but i do prefer the look of the back to the front!
cheer

julian

 

In the Tag, you will be able to see the belts and everything moving. One thing I don't quite understand is how they're using those 4 wheels to store the energy of the platinum "sled" that moves back and forth. Apparently they had to patent new manufacturing processes to make toothed belts and bearing races that small .

Michael.

 

You mean you've never heard the Deodato version before?

Actually, the watch exemplifies what I don't like in watches: it's cute, but it must be hard to read the time at a glance. Useless, really.

 

Wow !

 

michael,
what i meant was that the belts and cogs inside a watch don't actually move that fast and seem stationary during the time it takes to check the time. if you see what i mean.
the sled probably eventually stores it's energy in a spring. the engineering is amazing though.
cheers

julian

 

Feck me! seen the pictures before but the movie was superb. I want one, but 5k for a wristwatch can't really justify that.

 

Markus: You are a man of excellent taste.
Also Sprach Zarathustra is from Deodato's classic 1972 album 'Prelude" on CTI. Another track on here isPrelude to the Afternoon of a Faun...
The band is absolutely amazing, and features Billy Cobham, Ray Barretto, Stan Clarke, Ron Carter, Jay Berliner, John Tropea (king of funky jazz guitar), Deodato on kbds and, of course, strings and horns. The whole thing was concocted and arranged by Deodato and recorded by Van Gelder in his studios.
Purists hate this stuff, I think it's brilliant fun and the band is supah funkay.
If you must listen to this vinyl masterpiece of kitsch on those silly silver coasters, the Japanese Master Series are the ones to get.
I think quartz watches are just fine (despite or because I have a couple of others that require daily winding when worn).

 

Wow, I have to get me that Deodato album, sounds amazing (btw, never heard of Deodato before :shame: - who is he?). Joel, d'you know where I could find said versions of the silly silver coasters on the net for delivery to Europe?

Michael.

 

amazon have them

 

Deodato is a Brazilian pianist and arranger who was one of the group that landed in the US in the late sixties (Flora, Airto, Hermeto, Sergio, Edu Lobo etc).
He works now mostly as an arranger. If you've heard Bjork's albums Post or Homogenous, then you have already heard Deodato's work: the string arrangements are by him.
Fnac have a bunch of albums here
If you like this stuff, you could also try Os Catedraticos and other artists on CTI/A&M such as Tamba 4 and, of course, Jobim.

 

Here 'tis, at least the Derwent abstract thereof:

Watch movement for large curved watches uses pulley drive of inclined
barrels with oscillating mass winding
Patent Assignee: TAG HEUER SA (TAGH-N)
Inventor: RUCHONNET J
Number of Countries: 105 Number of Patents: 001
Patent Family:
Patent No Kind Date Applicat No Kind Date Week
WO 200406026 A2 20040115 WO 2003EP50301 A 20030709 200411 B

Priority Applications (No Type Date): CH 20021188 A 20020709
Patent Details:
Patent No Kind Lan Pg Main IPC Filing Notes
WO 200406026 A2 F 25 G04B-001/00
Designated States (National): AE AG AL AM AT AU AZ BA BB BG BR BY BZ CA
CH CN CO CR CU CZ DE DK DM DZ EC EE ES FI GB GD GE GH GM HR HU ID IL IN
IS JP KE KG KP KR KZ LC LK LR LS LT LU LV MA MD MG MK MN MW MX MZ NI NO
NZ OM PG PH PL PT RO RU SC SD SE SG SK SL SY TJ TM TN TR TT TZ UA UG US
UZ VC VN YU ZA ZM ZW
Designated States (Regional): AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EA EE ES FI FR GB
GH GM GR HU IE IT KE LS LU MC MW MZ NL OA PT RO SD SE SI SK SL SZ TR TZ
UG ZM ZW

Abstract (Basic): WO 200406026 A2
NOVELTY - A watch movement has tensioned (30, 32) belt (20, 21)
transmission between ball bearing mounted pulleys (150, 160, 170, 180)
of the energy from several inclined barrels (15, 16, 17, 18) joined by
a torque divider and charged by a mass (14) oscillating linearly
between sprung stops.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION - A watch movement has tensioned (30, 32) belt
(20, 21) transmission between ball bearing mounted pulleys (150, 160,
170, 180) of the energy from several inclined barrels (15, 16, 17, 18)
joined by a torque divider (40) and charged by a mass (14) oscillating
linearly between sprung stops. Includes INDEPENDENT CLAIMs for the use
of toothed belts and for the manufacture of the belts by moulding
synthetic material on a metal substrate and for partial visibility of
the belts through the watch face. Includes an INDEPENDENT CLAIM for a
regulator that can be set before insertion in the watch.
USE - Watch movement for large watches with non planar shape.
ADVANTAGE - The use of pulleys avoids some disadvantages of gears
including the ability to have inclined barrel axes without expensive
conical gears and so use watches that do not have flat parallel faces.
The inclined barrels allow a curved shape which can be useful for large
watches. Avoids the need to set shaft axes relative to each other with
great precision. Does not require lubrication or metal gear teeth. Can
transmit movement across the mechanism without intermediate gears.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The drawing is a perspective view of
the mechanism.
Linearly oscillating mass (14)
Inclined barrels (15, 16, 17, 18)
Belts (20, 21)
Eccentric tensioners (30, 32)
Pulleys (150, 160, 170, 180)
pp; 25 DwgNo 2/7


International Patent Class (Main): G04B-001/00
International Patent Class (Additional): G04B-019/04


Sorry that the drawing won't come out. As usual, they always get these things wrong, it's not patented, but the subject of a patent application, in this case an International application under the PCT, publication number WO 04/06026. The language is French.

Interesting - every mechanical automatic watch has used a rotor selfwinder since Rolex devised the principle (the "Perpetual" mechanism) in the 1930s. The problem clearly is that you can't use a rotor so effectively in a curved watch. Moreover, the various shaft axes in a curved watch (especially a big one) would not be parallel, and only some very expensive engineering would allow the use of a conventional rotor mechanism.

This watch uses a sliding weight, which, on the face of it (sorry!) wouldn't seem to be as efficient an energy storage mechanism as a rotor, in that there would be positions in which it wouldn't slide, whereas a rotor will always rotate. However, I'm sure that TAG has done its homework, otherwise it wouldn't be releasing it.

For that money, I'd still go for a Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Compressor Geographic...

http://www.orolus.com/jaeger_le_coultre_master.shtml

 

I fear it's more a case of showing my age (45 next month).

 

In which case.. me too (40 next month)...
Anyway, great music is timeless!

 

Guys - are those Russian watches on Ebay (e.g. from here Ebay watches likely to be kosher Russian stuff?

I've got a Lorus Kinetic which I paid £59 for from (chav central!) Argos 3 years ago that (touch wood) is still perfect, but I've always fancied a real manual wind watch...

If you want something with a nice movement though - you could go for a Kundo anniversary clock - I scored one on Ebay yesterday and figured it's the next best thing to be watching in a listening room, if I can't afford a Michell Gyrodec just yet .

 

I bought a couple of those watches from a street seller on the East side of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin not long after the wall came down. They are definitely Russian made but I doubt they're really ex-military because they don't work very well. They're proper windup clockwork watches though, not quartz (which is probably why they don't work that well!).

Those ones on eBay look exactly like the ones I have.

Michael.

 

Nope, Dom, that honour belongs to an Atmos. In fact, it looks better than any turntable. I have one exactly like this (mine's currently having its 20-year service). The torsion pendulum is fascinating to watch.

http://images.google.ch/imgres?imgu...atmos+clocks&start=20&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N