rcherryuk wrote:I imagine the Chrono runs from a gear which is itself driven from the Quartz movement, so therefore it is a mechanical module as it needs no power itself.
Rob
Hi Rob, If the gear were to wind (and keep wound) a spring which then powered the chrono module, it'd all be a true mechanical chrono module, but from what I've read and from looking at the movement diagrams published by SII, this doesn't appear to be the case. It seems the "mechanical" bit is that the chrono second hand "sweeps" at five beats per second and has the near instant zero reset that we are used to seeing from mechanical chronos. They used mechanical style gear trains and reset mechanisms, but it still seems to be battery powered, which makes sense. It's called a hybrid and it certainly seems to be, but still uses battery power for all functions.
That really doesn't worry me at all, as I like the look of the watch and it's quite a good concept for the chrono - an improvement on the old style quartz chronograph modules. I'm looking forward to seeing the watch on my wrist.
The paragraphs below are from a Hodinkee review of an Autodromo that uses the same SII (Seiko) VK64 moment.
Meca-quartz is a so-called hybrid movement that combines technologies found in quartz and mechanical movements to create an engine that balances the advantages and disadvantages of each. The timekeeping mechanism is essentially quartz. There is a quartz crystal regulator that is powered by a battery and connected to a series of gears that moves the timekeeping hands.
But, when you press the pusher to start the chronograph, the center seconds hand starts moving as with any chronograph. But, you'll notice that it moves like a mechanical chronograph and doesn't tick in one-second intervals. This seconds hand moves five times per second, giving you the same accuracy you'd expect from an automatic racing chrono.
When you reset the chronograph, that's when the real "meca" part of the equation comes into play. Using components taken directly from Seiko's own in-house mechanical chronographs, the chronograph hands are disengaged from the quartz motor and are snapped back to zero. This means you don't get that sweep back to zero that is typical with standard quartz chronos. You get both the look and the feel of a mechanical chronograph instead.