Horological Meandering

TAG Heuer is probably not the darling of this forum but have you seen (and heard) the Caliber 360 in action? Here are some pictures of my piece. All comments are welcome, also the negative ones. I have a big heart / thick skin.

Cheers,
Johan

. . .from a normal chronograph.  In most chronographs, there is only one escapement which keeps time for the watch and also runs the chronograph.  The number of vph of the caliber therefore determines the number of fractions of a second into which the watch can divide time when timing events.  (The 36,000 vph El Primero, therefore, can time intervals as small as 1/10 second.) 

The 360 actually has two escapements; one of them is for timekeeping, and the second is a very high beat (obviously) escapement which only runs when the chronograph is engaged- IIRC it's basically a completely separate movement and has its own mainspring as well (I could be wrong about that, can't for the life of me remember now.)

To some folks this is a bit of a cheat in that a lot of the points of interest in chronograph design traditionally have to do with how you engage and disengage the chronograph from the power train of the watch- vertical clutch vs. lateral clutch vs. tilting pinion and so forth.  Also it's usually thought to be a demonstration of skill to not have running the chronograph have too significant an effect on the rate.  The 360 does an end run around both these issues because it's basically a stopwatch and a time only watch- two separate watches really- inside a single case.  This is either an ingeniously direct, Alexander-cutting-the-Gordian-knot solution, or a terrible abandonment of everything that makes a chronograph interesting in the first place, depending on your disposition .  The other sometimes mooted point is that since human reaction time can't respond faster than about 1/20th of a second anyway, the chronograph is of dubious utility.  My view is that since mechanical chronographs per se are of dubious utility, you might as well find the one that floats your particular, irrational boat.

Either way, congratulations on your new piece and as they used to say in the Royal Navy, may you have joy of your prize!

Best regards,

Jack
This message has been edited by Jack Forster on 2007-03-03 06:34:12

Thanks for taking the time to let me know more about the Purists point of view. I knew about the two separate movements and the dial actually has a rather cool power reserve indicator for the 100 minutes the "caliber 360" chronograph/stopwatch movement is good for.  I got one of the first to reach Hong Kong, which was the one in white gold limited to 100 pieces and when I got the opportunity I decided that I actually wanted to be taken in by the successful marketing spiel. After all, it got the Sportswatch of the Year Prize at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in 2006 and I bought 3 Monacos in the past based on the coolness factor linked to Steve McQueen! I am not under the illusion that this watch is really as ground breaking and fantastic as TAG Heuer will lead you to believe.

There is however something which confuses me, maybe you can help me to explain? TAG Heuer says in their promotional material for this watch as follows:

"This incredible triple-patented movement has more than 230 components and sports a drastically lightened and miniaturized hairspring and escapement mechanism, along with two sets of escapement mechanisms representing an engineering first and allowing it to cruise at regular speed (28,800 vibrations/hour) under normal conditions, then accelerate to immense speed (360,000 vibrations/hour) in chronograph mode."

How to explain that the 28,800 vph accelerates to 360,000 if two entirely separate movements are running alongside each other?

Cheers,
Johan

 

 

since the two escapements are completely separate mechanisms.

But hey, the coolness factor is still there, right?  I mean a 1/100th sec. chronograph- OK, we accept that it is not a conventional chronograph, and we go on with our lives it's still a lot of fun, unusual, and Tag Heuer has a very serious history as a chronograph and stopwatch manufacturer, so what the hell, right?  I mean look, we can be cynical about things like brand image, history and marketing but first of all, there's usually at least a little (and sometimes not so little) nugget of truth back there, and secondly, what's wrong with enjoying the brand aura, as long as you do so eyes wide open?

Jack

>>> for buying cool stuff. Thanks.

I will hang on to my Caliber 360 since I like its white gold case, white dial and unusual design. A shiny white watch with blue details goes excellent with blue jeans and a white t-shirt. Two completely separate movements and a marketing spiel on non-existing acceleration will not make me lose too much sleep.

The distinctly mechanical sound that is produced when the chronograph is running makes me smile and gives me many reasons to time quite unimportant events. It is strange, I don't actually use the chrono function much on my two AP Offshores. I do however use it a lot on this TAG Heuer and even more on the JLC AMVOX 2 which is another recent darling of mine. The latter is probably more to the liking of your average Purist.

Now, bring on the special edition AP Offshore Shaquille O'Neal...! Maybe that one will combine coolness and high quality in equal doses?

Cheers,
Johan

 

 

While I understand that from a haute horology POV, the 360 may not excite anyone, its a very attractive piece in my opinion. I would like to see how it looked with the same hands , but blued, and the 1/100th sub-dial with a narrower blue ring . Any caseback shots?

Wear it well !

The normal watch movement in the Calibre 360 is what TAG Heuer call Calibre 7, actually an ETA 2892-2. I have two mediocre pictures of the back and I am afraid there is not much to be seen. Here goes anyway: