Are Rolex Watches About to Get More Accurate?

Rolex is known for a lot of things, but perhaps the most prominent is the brand’s reputation for precision.

The Crown’s proprietary Superlative Chronometer standard requires its watches to be accurate to within 2/+2 seconds per day, far exceeding the industry chronometric standard of 4/+6 seconds per day set by COSC. Anecdotally, Rolex watches perform even better in real-world situations and rank among the most accurate mechanical watches on the market.

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Perhaps most impressive of all is how Rolex has industrialized precision on a massive scale. The brand mass produces around a million watches per year, with all of them meeting or exceeding its rigorous chronometric standards.

Given the brand’s considerable success, one would think Rolex would be happy to rest on its laurels with regard to the movements powering its watches. However, a recent patent filing by the company shows that a major shakeup could be on the horizon.

Rolex

The Heart of a Rolex

Rolex exclusively produces its own movements, all of which use the classic Swiss lever escapement. The Swiss lever is the industry standard for escapements — often called the heart of a watch — and has been for centuries. Here’s how it works:

A lever called a pallet fork incrementally releases energy from the watch’s mainspring via a toothed escape wheel on one end via two jewel pallets. At the same, the lever’s movements are regulated on its other forked end by a hairspring-driven balance wheel. Essentially, the two wheels drive each other via the lever, simultaneously powering the watch and regulating its timekeeping.

Rolex currently uses a proprietary and highly optimized version of a Swiss lever escapement called the Chronergy escapement that features lighter and thinner components and unique angles that increase efficiency, and therefore, precision. But it’s still a Swiss lever escapement at the end of the day, which means there is a decent amount of energy lost as well as friction caused by the sliding of the pallets on the escape wheel teeth, meaning the escapement requires lubrication.

Rolex

Is Rolex Getting a Heart Transplant?

Chronergy is a high-performing escapement, but there are theoretically better options out there. The most significant competitor is Omega’s co-axial escapement, which uses three pallets instead of two and two escape wheels instead of one, both on the same axis. This leads to a pushing rather than sliding interaction between the lever and escape wheel, allowing for greater efficiency and reduced friction and eliminating the need for lubrication.

But Rolex may have an ace up its sleeve.

In a recent filing discovered by Revolution, Rolex has applied for a natural escapement patent. A natural escapement itself is not new. The concept was invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet, the 18th-century horologist and founder of Breguet who also counts the tourbillon among his many inventions and innovations.

What is new is Rolex’s proposed industrialized take on the mechanism.

Rolex

A natural escapement uses two escape wheels, side by side, which transmit energy directly to the balance rather than being metered out through a pallet fork. This greatly increases efficiency, reduces energy loss and, because there is no sliding friction, eliminates the need for lubrication.

The main downside of a natural escapement is the delicate nature of making them, which is why we’ve only ever seen such movements in high-horology watches produced in small numbers from brands like Laurent Ferrier and Ulysse Nardin.

In its patent filings, Rolex proposes two different natural escapements — one with dual-plane escape wheels featuring separate teeth for locking and driving, and one with monolithic escape wheels with asymmetric teeth that accomplish both feats on a single plane. The former is more robust and likely more affordable to produce, while the latter is more efficient, slimmer and arguably easier to manufacture but pricier, given that it likely requires silicon for the wheels, per Revolution.

Rolex

Both versions utilize a pallet-free lever as an intermediary between the escape wheels and the balance wheel, differentiating them from a traditional natural escapement. They still require no lubrication and there’s theoretically more energy loss than in a true natural escapement, but the tradeoff is enhanced stability and greater control over the impulse timing, per Revolution‘s analysis.

Will Rolex Make the Switch?

Rolex has filed all sorts of patents over the years for movements and other features that never made it into their watches. But the fact that the brand even filed a patent for a natural escapement at least shows that Rolex’s mad scientists are deep in the weeds when it comes to their research on how to improve the brand’s movements.

Whether these natural escapements ever make their way into a Rolex watch or not, one thing is clear: Rolex’s commitment to horological innovation and chronometric precision is as strong as ever.

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