Mark in Paris[Purist]
10488
In fact there are a few elements
Sep 26, 2017,03:41 AM
First, the usual hacking mechanism is a stem stoping quite strongly the balance wheel movement. Knowing how fragile and difficult to set these parts are, it is not the best if used often.
Furthermore, knowing that the aim of having a hacking second feature is usually to be able to set the time at the right second (in the case of being able to push the crown without moving the hands), it is difficult to keep that second of accuracy.
Indeed, when the stem frees the balance wheel movement again, this balance wheel needs some time to reach its normal speed. In that time, you loose a few seconds. Hence, it is not that accurate, even in watches that are equiped with a standard hacking feature.
Finally, I also imagine that Patek didn't decide to implement such a feature in the first calibers because they didn't think it was worth it (reliability issue? room needed? Real interest? Cost issue? People didn't ask for it? etc...).
In some more recent calibers (like the 29-535 Chronograph movement I think but this has to be confirmed), Patek has used another system in order to stop more smoothly the movement when pulling the crown and give it a better acceleration when pushing it again.
Maybe they'll implement it in a 324 replacement in the future, unless they decide most of the people don't use it. We'll see.
I hope this helps.
Best, Mark