Orbita Press Release 152

ORBITA MECHANICAL WATCH TESTER

Determining the running accuracy and the actual condition of a mechanical watch has always been a task best left to watchmakers as the electronic testing equipment needed to accomplish that task is expensive and complicated. Of course, a watch owner could easily see if his or her watch was running fast or slow, but for many watch enthusiasts that was not enough. What they wanted was an affordable testing device that would be easy to operate and just as accurate as the expensive Swiss made units used by professional watchmakers.

Recognizing the market potential, Orbita began in-house research and development of a suitable microphone device that could "listen" to the ticking of the watch and "hear" the various sounds emanating from the watch's movement. The task was daunting and so Orbita contracted with an electronic acoustic consultant to move the project forward. It took several years to achieve a microphone that was reliable. There were other obstacles to overcome, including the development of signal filtering to eliminate ambient noise and then converting the microphone signal to digital output. Also, at the same time, algorithms had to be developed to render the digital output usable for driving an LED display screen.

Finally, with the engineering completed, and production ready to proceed, Orbita decided to partner with a well-known manufacturer of sophisticated electronic test equipment thereby obtaining the best of both worlds; mass production capability and extremely affordable pricing. The Orbita Watch Tester is comprised of three free standing components:

-- LED Display Module with push button controls.

-- Six position Microphone Stand with spring-loaded watch mount.

-- Power Supply with on/off switch and input/output power cords.

The Tester is easy to use. The watch to be tested is positioned on the Microphone Stand with the watch crown resting against the pick-up fingers. When power is applied, the Tester automatically determines the beat frequency, choosing 18000, 19800, 21600, 25200, 28800 or 36000 beats per hand. Then the beat error in micro seconds, the time error in seconds per day (+ or -) and the beat amplitude is displayed on the screen. A synthesized tick sound may be selected and screen brightness can be adjusted. Testing accuracy is comparable to the expensive Swiss-made professional testers.