Accuracy and vitality form the core of the perfect watch, giving it the chance to fulfill years of loyalty to its owner. The Grand Seiko 9F was the first quartz movement ever to reach this ideal of perfection.
The Instant Date Change Mechanism shifts the date display in an instant. With torque similar to that of a mechanical movement, the famously wide hands of Grand Seiko have been made a reality. Better second hand precision means enhanced position on the dial with the markers. The sealed creation makes retention of lubricating oils better.
All in all, the Calibre 9F makes the quartz watch something new, providing better performance and higher toughness. It is the quartz watch that deserves the title of Grand Seiko. A quartz movement rests on the battery as a key energy source. This battery emits electricity to a quartz oscillator, which moves at exactly 32,768 times per second. An integrated circuit (IC) sees these vibrations and signals out a precise time signal each second to the step motor. This then functions together with this time signal, carefully moving a range of gears and the indicator hands.
The 9F quartz mechanism uses a cam and lever together with the date window driving wheel as an element in a feature referred to as the Instant Date Change Mechanism.
With this mechanism, the date indicator driving wheel gathers tension in the lever spring as it moves, slowly releasing the stored fuel when it comes to the location of the cam and pushing the calendar wheel onward in the blink of an eye. While a few mechanical shifts have enough torque to bring instant date changes, Grand Seiko was the initial one to chance the mechanism in a quartz movement.
The idea of aligning the Instant Date Change Mechanism to happen at midnight belongs to Seiko's craftsmen, who carefully organise the mechanism by hand. To ensure there is no time at which the change occurs alone, the mechanism is intended to activate inside five minutes of midnight.
Though the majority of the global quartz movement examples are from an automatic assembly, Grand Seiko's 9F quartz movement, with its range of complex functions, is put together totally by hand. Two top craftsmen gather their abilities together to keep the high quality standard of Grand Seiko. One assembles and date indicator and the other stays in control of the movement.
Then, the dial, markers and hands are put on and the whole movement installed into the case. Putting the watch hands is maybe one of the most delightful and close procedures needing the total skill of an experienced craftsman or woman. The hour and minute hands are put within a parallel space of just 2mm and left in place with the movement axis by force. Only a master in adjustment can make sure that all hands, at just 0.2mm apart, work together without bumping with one another as they move.
To be sure that no issues come to the hands in making, craftsmen clean the end of their pincers many times every day. It is the total efforts of these little details which have brought Grand Seiko to be the standard bearer we know and love today. While manual watches have a mechanism for fine tuning accuracy, these things are not likely in many quartz pieces.
The 9F quartz movement, however, has a regulation switch that brings such precision control to a head. If, because of worldly issues or other things, a watch gets to be too quick or slow, the switch can remedy these issues. Those who can perfectly know the special tendencies of their piece over the years can easily change the accuracy and keep using it for decades to come. With the excellent precision of the 9F quartz movement, many will not need to know this changing function is even there. This is a symbol of the high levels of Grand Seiko.
