What is PARACHROM?

[taxico]

Jedi posted this here:

http://67.43.1.1/showpost.php?p=690392&postcount=19

The parachrome by Rolex and Spiromax by Patek were developed under a secret joint venture between the two aforementioned companies and a materials science specialist whose name escapes me. Both companies were seeking new technologies in escapement and balance design.

The result among others were the parachrome and PP's silicon based material. Each company decided which one's they wanted and went their separate ways. Philippe Stern, President of PP, revealed this in an interview.

Padi56 posted this here:

http://67.43.1.1/showpost.php?p=691207&postcount=33

I agree Larry the Parachrome spring is most certainly 95% pure hype,and the main reason for Rolex to develope there own hairspring.Was 1 to stop the strangle hold Hayek from the ETA Swatch group,there main supplier of balance springs,they had such a strangle hold,on nearly all the Swiss watch manufactures including Rolex.

But Rolex now can manufacture there own, but still Swatch Nivarox was/is there main hairspring supplier until Rolex becomes totally self sufficient. And the ETA Nivarox H/springs have been in Rolex watches for 40 plus years.Hence the need for this new parachrome balance hair-spring,to be completely self sufficient in all watch parts for Rolex watches.Parachome is just a word like superlative, Rolesor, Rolesium and many more...

i can continue to cut and paste, but i think you get my point...

Personally I think the parachrom hairspring is well and truly over-hyped.Its just because now that Rolex and many other brands have been forced to make there own escapement parts for the very first time ever. And mainly to stop the strangle hold the ETA Swatch group the main supplier of escapement parts to most of the Swiss watch industry for over 40 years Rolex included.

At the moment we have some cal 3135 with the parachrom and some without.It seems like it could be soon a replacement for the Nivarox springs that Rolex has used for the past 40 plus years . I cannot imagine Rolex operating one cal 3135 highly robotised line for the Parachrom and a separate robotised one for the Nivarox hairspring.

The Parachrom on paper might be a very slight advancement if you believe the hype Now the parachrome hairspring by Rolex and Spiromax hairspring by Patek were developed under a secret joint venture between the two companies, both used similar materials first to obtain their own patent but Patek went there own way.But whatever the name they call there hairsprings, it is still just a hairspring,and it don't do anything differently over the Nivarox ones or most other quality made hairsprings.

Now to date the only models to have the in-house escapement parts at the moment are below. But the parachom/paraflex is no big deal IMHO 90% pure hype as the average wearer would find no difference over the Nivorox ones that Rolex has used for the past 40 odd years.And to be called a Chronometer they all have to pass the same test no matter what spring or shock system is in the case.And accuracy mainly come from how a watch is regulated, if any movement is regulated correctly.Then even some low cost movements could pass the COSC test, today a chronometer is not the holy grail of watchmaking.

[taxico]

With any watch no matter what the movement or hairspring its how they are regulated many of my vintage Rolex run to + 1 second a day.Even one Rolex old timer from 1924 still runs well within todays COSC spec and with a bit of simple regulation could better.But if any mechanical watch can run to a few seconds a day either way thats perfectly adequate for me whats in a couple of seconds a day anyway. of

i agree that many watches can be well regulated.

it's easy to regulate a static watch to +1... but the mark of a good movement ensures that after regulation, the movement is stable and has little positional variations, deviations, etc etc...

i'd like to see a 7s26 adjusted to -3 +3s EVERYDAY on the wrist, day after day, in a variety of activities.

tudor manages to do this on a 2824 with the triovis fine regulation device WITHOUT a parachrom hairspring, REGARDLESS OF dial being up, down, left or right, in their dive watches.

[daytona 6263]

i agree that many watches can be well regulated.

it's easy to regulate a static watch to +1... but the mark of a good movement ensures that after regulation, the movement is stable and has little positional variations, deviations, etc etc...

i'd like to see a 7s26 adjusted to -3 +3s EVERYDAY on the wrist, day after day, in a variety of activities.

tudor manages to do this on a 2824 with the triovis fine regulation device WITHOUT a parachrom hairspring, REGARDLESS OF dial being up, down, left or right, in their dive watches.

Well IMHO without the Seiko 7S26 and comparable movements from Miyota (Citizen), Orient, and ETA, many people would not be able to experience the joy of owning a mechanical watch today.And given the reliability and robustness of the Seiko 7S26 movement,IMO I would not be shocked to see this movement run for 15-20 years without even a service.Its quite a well made movement,but not a pretty movement to look at,but with many good things like the Diafix cap jewels,and the nickel power train wheels,that are a bit stronger than the traditional brass type wheels.And can be easily tuned to + - 5 seconds a day or better with a bit of patience in the regulation, but will have to be re-regulated from time to time to keep accuracy.But what I have found most mass produced Seiko's tend to run +10 to +15 seconds out of the box as they are all mostly factory set.I once bought a Alpha Chronograph off Ebay bought it mainly for the movement.Now the Alpha column-wheel movement is based on the old Swiss Venus 175 design but not a 100% exact copy,movement is quite well finished,and put together, but not as good as the Swiss original.Quite amazed with the accuracy out of the box it tested at +9 seconds a day.Now this movement is the Chinese Seagull ST19, and with some regulation has met the Swiss COSC standard without any problems.And to date this movement has been running almost continually for 4 years now, but I have re-regulated it a few times and still runs way inside the COSC spec,very good for a watch that cost then just $60.

[taxico]

Well IMHO without the Seiko 7S26 and comparable movements from Miyota (Citizen), Orient, and ETA, many people would not be able to experience the joy of owning a mechanical watch today.And given the reliability and robustness of the Seiko 7S26 movement,IMO I would not be shocked to see this movement run for 15-20 years without even a service.Its quite a well made movement,but not a pretty movement to look at,but with many good things like the Diafix cap jewels,and the nickel power train wheels,that are a bit stronger than the traditional brass type wheels.And can be easily tuned to + - 5 seconds a day or better with a bit of patience in the regulation, but will have to be re-regulated from time to time to keep accuracy.But what I have found most mass produced Seiko's tend to run +10 to +15 seconds out of the box as they are all mostly factory set.I once bought a Alpha Chronograph off Ebay bought it mainly for the movement.Now the Alpha column-wheel movement is based on the old Swiss Venus 175 design but not a 100% exact copy,movement is quite well finished,and put together, but not as good as the Swiss original.Quite amazed with the accuracy out of the box it tested at +9 seconds a day.Now this movement is the Chinese Seagull ST19, and with some regulation has met the Swiss COSC standard without any problems.And to date this movement has been running almost continually for 4 years now, but I have re-regulated it a few times and still runs way inside the COSC spec,very good for a watch that cost then just $60.

you, my learned friend, must led a nice life and have a good job that isn't laborious.

low beat movements can go on for a much longer period without service than higher beat ones (1570, 7s26, et al... and perhaps i may be as bold as to say the omega calibre 2500!).

the microstella balance screws are also difficult to tune by an amateur due to its initial complexity, but easy to get done right with only a few adjustments.

the basic japanese/swiss/swiss clone automatic movements are easy to adjust, but difficult to get just right without multiple adjustments.

remember, this is a discussion about the parachrom hairsring... let me re-iterate my stand:

while i am not agreeing nor disagreeing that it has been used as a marketing tool, i must stress that the hairspring appears to be part of an evolutionary process by rolex to bring everything in-house, and it deserves to be understood for what it is - a better hairspring than what was used previously.

in the same vein that we cannot say the lexus is-f is an overhyped product because in singapore, few of us will get to drive it for what it's capable of... because a toyota corolla or the is-250 does the same job and will make no difference to most drivers.

neither did i disagree that most watches can be adjusted to within COSC-specs (which in itself, is an out-dated specification IMO), but most cheap movements won't be able to stay within COSC-specs when put up to grueling punishments that SOME of us go through.

this same reasons is why some watches will stop before its power reserve is exhausted (eg, the iwc BP 7day) so as to eliminate any semblance of inaccuracies due to an unwound hairspring, and why some watches are touted as being anti-magnetic or have silicon hairsprings (eg, the omega 2500 "D" !).

rolex didn't invent the bread slicer, but what they did do is to make their own slicer that is more reliable.

my contribution to this thread ends here.

[bluemandarin]

Parachrom Hairspring

Do all current production Rolex models come with the blue parachrom hairsprings (includ. airking, datejust etc.), or is this just limited to the higher end models?

[triton]

you may want to read previous posts and click on this link to read more

Do all current production Rolex models come with the blue parachrom hairsprings (includ. airking, datejust etc.), or is this just limited to the higher end models?

[skydweller_sg]

Not sure if its already implemented across the board
But it makes sense for rolex to implement the parachrom hairspring to all its models, rather than to continue to rely on nivarox, which is owned by its competitor swatch