ALMOST UNBREAKABLE WATCHES.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11280, 9 August 1930, Page 9

ALMOST UNBREAKABLE WATCHES.

Until now it lias been iiiadyisablo to let one’s watch fall—heiicefonvardit will bo possible to do. so without harm, thanks to a Swiss invention—the' uflbreaka.ble watch, which can be thrown about like a ball (reports the Genova correspondent of the ian Science Monitor”). In front of an assembly of master watch-linikers: and journalists, these watches were, thrown -up to the ceiling,- bounced down on the floor, were dashed against the walls, .without even varying their) regular tick. The spectators were astonished. What is .the secret of these marvellous watches ? Itus well known that tho central part of the machinery of:a watch is the balance, which turns, on a pivot,’the axle of which reposes' oil rigid supports. In- a chyo'nometef it is essential. tha t the axle of the piv-'; ot should he as thin as;,possible- In a wrist watch, for instance, dt is as' thin ,as 'a 'sheet of paper. ’ But the thinner it is the more easily breakable it is: Jt is nearly always this axlo :that breaks when tho watch fulls. The i inventors, a -watch-maker of. the'factory “Election”., at La Chaux deFonds, ; and liis "three assistants,; have discovered liow,to-protect this axle . from, all accident. The rigid supports of. tho {axle aro. replaced ,by semi-rigid >uPt. Sports—a',sort of spring;which gives at each shock. After the 'deadening of the shodk,: suitably placed springs send!, 'the axle back ; into position. , itsod, the axlo hack into its’original position. ‘ ‘ '