![]() The chronograph hand sweeps the dial at a blinding rate of 1,200 revolutions per minute. They doubled this in 2012 with their Mikrogirder, which dispenses with a mechanical pendulum or escapement and uses electronic 1,000 Hz bladed oscillators, giving a frequency of 7,200,000 A/h. ![]() In 2011, TAG Heuer introduced the Mikrotimer Flying 1000, oscillating at 3,600,000 A/h and capable of measuring 1/1000 second increments. In 2005, TAG Heuer introduced a dual-escapement chronograph featuring 360,000 A/h capability. Ulysse Nardin produces a high-beat 36,000 A/h version of the ETA 2824-2 called UN calibre NB11QU. Zodiac and Longines (Calibre 431) produced high-beat calibres in the 1960's and 1970's. The Spring Drive chronograph from Seiko could be considered the ultimate high-beat movement since it has no escapement and can thus measure any sub-second increment. Today, the company only uses it on their 36,000 A/h Grand Seiko models, though they did produce one 43,200 A/h “Super Hi-Beat” model in 2008, the $600k Credor GBBX998. Originally, Seiko used this term for anything faster than 21,600, including their 28,800 mechanical movements. Seiko is also well known for marketing “Hi Beat” watches. Later Zenith watches would feature “Striking 10th” capability, allowing the chronograph to exploit this capability. Introduced as the first automatic chronograph in 1969, this movement beat at 36,000 A/h, giving it the potential for 1/10 second precision. The Zenith El Primero was another famous high-beat movement. Girard Perregaux introduced a 36,000 A/h movement in 1966. This allowed the sweep second hand to complete one sweep each second with 1/100 second precision. One of the first was the 1935 introduction by Minerva of a 360,000 A/h movement, Calibre number 42. Without special engineering, such a watch can only show increments of time equal to the beat rate.įor this reason, manufacturers began to develop high-beat movements. This is most obvious when used in a stopwatch or chronograph, especially a rattrapante movement marked in units smaller than one second. ![]() The oscillation rate of a movement puts an upper bounds on the precision at which it can be read, however. This number is commonly divided by two to give cycles or Hertz, so these may be called 3 or 4 Hz movements, respectively. ![]() Most Swiss watches today beat at 21,600 or 28,800 A/h, giving 6 or 8 beats per second. Commonly, “high beat” is only used to describe movements oscillating faster than 28,800 A/h, though Seiko has used the derivative term “Hi Beat” to refer to 28,800 A/h movements. Zenith's legendary automatic chronograph movement ' El Primero', a high-beat movement with 36,000 A/hĪ high-beat movement is one with a faster-than-ordinary oscillating wheel. ![]()
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