Horological Journal
July 2004 Article of the Month
Introduction and Biographical notes
Introduction
The Levingston ‘Spiral’ hairspring
Metal hairsprings in timepieces
can easily become a problem with respect to their timekeeping accuracy because
metal reacts to temperature changes and is also not inert with respect to
magnetic and corrosive influences. This fact was well known to great watch
makers like A.L.breguet, T. Earnshaw, J.Arnold and E. Dent to name but a few.
They therefore attempted to replace the metal with minerals, but failed due to
the susceptibility of minerals to breakage and the devitrification of glass. In
all other respects, glass would be the ideal material for building a completely
inert hairspring. Robert Hooke, too, had proposed the use of glass for his
hairspring as early as the 1670’s. Renowned metalurgists like Pierre Curie and
Charles Edouard Guillaume succeeded in developing a metal alloy- INVAR- that is
characterised by its low thermal expansion and reduced magnetism. The hairspring
produced from INVAR and its derivative alloys used in today’s watch industry
today, enables the production of time pieces for daily use which exhibit
outstanding accuracy. However, when we turn to high-quality chronometers,
inaccuracies are still evident because sensitivity to temperature changes and
magnetism have not been eliminated completely. This latter aspect is becoming
ever more critical in our high-tech lifestyles because our environment is
severely polluted by magnetism. Whether sitting in a car or on a plane, talking
into a cellphone, standing in the kitchen or watching television, we are
permanently surrounded by magnetism, and this has a considerable effect on the
timekeeping accuracy of our watches.
G.Levingston therefore took up
the ideas of Breguet and others again and began the search for a material
comparable to glass but without its disadvantages. He hit upon carbon fibre, a
material that is full inert with respect to magnetic effects and has a thermal
expansion coeficient approaching zero.
For the past two years I have
had the priviledge of witnessing the development of carbon fibre hairspsrings.
The timekeeping results of the timepieces fitted with these hairsprings have
been so convincing that I have to ask myself why nobody had thought of this
before. After all the, the above-average physical properties of carbon fibres
and their low specific weight coupled with their extraordinary strength are well
known today as an indispensable material in the aeronautical and space industies.
Once it is possible to produce
the “Levingston hairspring” on an industrial scale, every simple wristwatch will
become a high-precision instrument.
Baden-Baden, 25
June
Prof.T.Engel
Biographical notes
Gideon Levingston born in
Ireland 1959 and was educated in England. He trained as a Designer and Goldsmith
at London’s Central School of Art, and is a Freeman of the City of London and
the Goldsmiths company.
He further trained and received his Swiss Watchmaking
Diploma from the Centre de Perfectionnement Horloger at Neuchatel, where
he has also taught.
He is known to museums and watch
collectors for his outstanding restoration work especially in the field of watch
cases with an emphasis on rare and precious eighteenth century pieces with
particular knowledge of A.L. Breguet.
His post graduate research
degree in Physics and Material Science at the laboratories of the French
engineering and research establishment, Ecole des Mines de Paris at
the Sophia Antipolis site, has led to his current development
of a solution to provide a thermally stable and non magnetic oscillator system
in the field of horology and electronics.
He is married and lives with his family in the south of
France where his workshop containing a collection of antique and modern tools
allows him the broad range of restoration and development work he undertakes
today.
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