![]() ![]() Shortly before the beginning of World War II Universal seized an opportunity to create two wristwatch models: the Compur (in 1933) and the Aero-Compax (in 1936). The next year Rolex launched perhaps the most famous diver watch of them all, the Rolex Submariner from that point most of the Swiss companies started to shift their attention towards the sea, trying to produce reliable underwater-capable wristwatches.įounded in 1894 Universal watches are highly disputed among collectors especially for their classic chronographs. The transformation of the simple water resistant watch to the tool diver watch happened at that exact point. Right after WWII, two French combat diving corps started to search for a military grade diving watch, big and easy to read underwater, hermetically sealed and capable to absorb shocks – this helped Blancpain to develop the legendary Fifty Fathoms introduced in 1953. Actually they were Rolex 3646s with special dials made by Panerai. The first ever specialized diving watches were the Panerai, used by the Italian frogmen in the Second World War. Many parts were finished by Universal to higher standards but parts are interchangeable with standard 218 parts! Universal went so far as to design a special logo for the Unisonic range, a combination of the Accutron and UG logo, as seen on the dial and bracelet. 52 but is actually a Bulova Accutron 218D movement. The tuning fork movement is called the Universal cal. integrated bracelet, it is one of the few divers with a Bulova tuning fork movement. In 1866 Louis Francois Clement Breguet (grandson of the respected Abraham Louis) patented an electric clock with a 100Hz tuning fork escapement - shown here as Shockwave animation (slow upload and player required) or here as frozen image.1969 Universal Unisonic-Sub ref. ![]() *It is worth to mention that the application of a tuning fork in watchmaking occurred a century before the birth of the Accutron watch. Read the whole story from the ultimate Accutron source in the Universe that is maintained by the one and only Rob Berkavicius from Oz/Thailand. The Accutron principle is alive also today as all quartz crystals used in modern quartz watches are shaped in the form of tuning fork. Early quartz movements ( Beta21, Accuquartz, Ultra-Quartz) lacked stepping motors and used Accutron technology as the source of mechanical motion. They were the most precise watches in the World for more than a decade and were produced until 1977 when reliable and cheap quartz movements reached the market. These movements have a specific "humming" feature due to the audible 360Hz vibration of the tuning fork thus the entire family of Accutron based watches is widely called "Hummers". ![]() Shown below in 200x microscope magnification! This motion is then transferred by means of a tiny wire called index finger onto an ordinary mechanical gear train in which the smallest wheel contains 300 teeth unvisible to the naked eye. ![]() The electric signal transformed by the transistor activates an electromagnetic coil that puts a metal tuning fork into vibration. This battery powered wrist device was the first in the World to use a transistor thus it was advertized as the first truly electronic wristwatch. Having achieved proper miniaturization and reliability a precision timing-instrument was sold in wristwatch format in 1960 as the Bulova Accutron 214 (and made Hamilton Electric outdated overnight :). The concept was invented* in the 1950's by Max Hetzel (a Bulova employee) for commercial use in watches but this breakthrough technology was also used in NASA satellites and spaceflight instruments. Tuning fork or Diapason widely known as Accutron watches use an acoustic resonator in the form of a vibrating fork as the source of stable resonance/frequency. ![]()
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