We are, as the title suggests, talking about watch hacking. But what is watch hacking? Well, it is essentially the act of making a seconds hand stop on a watch by pulling out the crown.
However, on mechanical watches it is not always an integrated part of their construction. In order to get the seconds hand to stop, a mechanical watch needs a lever or some other mechanism to halt the balance wheel. Manufacturers of mechanicals pre-build some watches with this feature.
That being said, hacking can also be established by enthusiastic engineering-minded watch owners. Stopping the balance wheel, by pulling out the stem one-or-two steps, kicks the lever down for a quick freeze. Early development. WWI and the interwar years. Here is a succinct definition from Techopedia.
Hacking is the catch-all term for any type of misuse of a computer to break the security of another computing system to steal data, corrupt systems or files, commandeer the environment or disrupt data-related activities in any way. It should also state that it is often, but not always, done for "fun" and profit.
But you didn't come here for a cybersecurity lesson. You are here to learn about a hacking movement in watches. Horological hacking. A hacking watch movement is one that stops the movement momentarily so that it can be synchronized with a trusted time source or with other watches. If you are a fan of WWII movies, the troops frequently synchronize their watches before starting a mission. In combat, military action is dependent on precise timing and positioning.
And this is the reason the hacking movement was developed. So, how exactly does a hacking movement work? Glad you asked. The beat manager of the mechanical movement is the escapement wheel. This frail-looking gear with widely spaced teeth works continuously to control the movement of the watch's hands. Rather than reinvent the wheel or at least the definition of this wheel, let's see what Wikipedia has to say on the topic. The other end of the lever has a fork which engages with an upright impulse pin on the balance wheel shaft.
Each time the balance wheel swings through its center position, it unlocks the lever, which releases one tooth of the escape wheel, allowing the watch's wheels to advance by a fixed amount, moving the hands forward.
As the escape wheel turns, its tooth pushes against the lever, which gives the balance wheel a brief push, keeping it swinging back and forth.
Here is a simplified 3D model of the escapement wheel 1 and pallet 2 by Constantin Stancescu. In five short years following Bleriot's flight, Europe and most of the rest of the world was plunged into the horror of WWI. Dirigibles and observation balloons were still in use but eventually succumbed to the rapidly developing airplanes. Watches and compasses now served to guide bombers to targets to deliver their ordnance as accurately as possible.
The airplanes of WWI were often hard to control. That meant the pilot was ill-advised to take his hands off the controls to retrieve his pocket watch. The same value that leads Santos-Dumont to seek a solution carried full force into combat. Most aerial combat during WWI occurred during the day due to lack of proper instruments and lights. Bad weather almost always grounded the planes of the time.
So watches did not need large quantities of luminescence. The just needed to be easy to read. Therefore, the iconic black dial and large contrasting Arabic numerals became standard issue. As a result of experiences in WWI, U. Navy captain Philip Van Horn Weems designed an independently adjustable seconds ring. This feature allowed pilots to accurately synchronize their watch with a radio time signal without stopping the sweep seconds hand. Although "hacking" watch movements to allow everyone in a combat unit to synchronize their watches to the second, the practice could result in throwing pilots off course, ruin missions, and risk the airplane and crew.
Following his successful trans-Atlanic flight in , Charles Lindbergh collaborated with Weems to develop the Hour Angle system which further enabled the wristwatch to determine longitude. The German military specified a design that set the standard for what we think of as a classic pilot's watch today. By , aviation advances allowed airplanes to fly at all hours and in foul weather although grounding in severe conditions was common.
The result was the Beobachtungsuhr B-Uhr , or Observer. Your watch will never be more than 30 seconds off when you set it this way. But the movement most commonly associated with this trick is the workhorse Seiko 7S26 featured in many entry-level Seiko models like Seiko 5s and the Seiko SKX.
It was even formerly mentioned in the Seiko 7S26 Manual. The hand-winding feature of a mechanical watch is the ability to power the watch by rotating the crown, usually counter-clockwise.
There are also a few models of hand wound watches that require a winding key, but those are becoming less and less common. Like many features when it comes to watches, manual hand wound watches and automatic watches both have their pros and cons when comparing the two. Automatic, or self-winding watches, are much more convenient. They have a weighted rotor attached to the movement that automatically spins and powers the watch movement as you move your wrist. This eliminates the need to have to manually wind your watch altogether, even though some watches have both automatic and hand winding capabilities.
Many people prefer automatics since you can just slap them on and not have to remember to hand wind your wristwatch to keep it powered. An automatic watch does not come without its downsides, though.
For one, the rotor in an automatic watch is intentionally weighted so that it shifts from side to side when you wear it. The shifting of this weight then winds the balance wheel, powering the watch.
This rotor, however, usually adds both bulk and weight to your watch when compared to watches of the hand wind variety. In addition, if you have a watch with a see-through case back, the rotor can obstruct the view of your movement, making it harder to see. Because of this, hand-winding watches can be made smaller and thinner than their automatic counterparts. Another upside is that some prefer the process of hand winding a watch as opposed to an automatic that automatically winds the movement for you.
Some even call the process therapeutic! While some love the process of winding a watch, others may find it tedious. A small downside is the constant turning of the crown to wind the watch can cause the seal of the crown to wear down prematurely.
This will make it more prone to water damage and less fit for swimming or diving.
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