HOROLOGY
Tag Heuer - Mikrogirder Tag Heuer’s research & development department achieves high horological speeds worthy of the Guinness Book. Hence, the moderate Helvetian watchmaking operation in La Chaux-deFonds is transformed into a High tech research facility worthy of NASA! After their Mikrograph, a chronograph accurate up to 1/100sec (10 times faster than a El Primero movement), Tag immediately moved on with the Mikrotimer, accurate up to 1/1000sec (100 times faster than a El Primero, 125 times faster than a 7750 caliber). Without delay and within only nine months, Tag doubled the frequency with the Mikrogirder,
1/2000sec for 720,000 v/h. The chronograph’s hand is so fast that the human eye cannot catch its movement, nor could our camera. It takes a high frequency camera adapted to sports to decompose its frenetic rotation. One could even say it is ‘horological Darwinism’. First, the Mikrograph’s regulating organ shrunk in size, then the Mikrotimer got rid of the balance and finally the Mikrogirder gave up all kinds of normal regulation, using instead, a series of oscillating beams which work after the Huygens principle. The technical explanation, German motorist-like, is rather off-putting, but the technical implementation is to die for. The sensations are totally new, since not
only the hand is invisible when it spins (the ultimate chic in society), but also the watch strongly vibrates under the power of the regulated signal. The exterior is rather sober and classic: like the Teutonic sports watches; it comprises a stylised stretcher fitted with a sports chrono whose pushers are located on top of the case, like the pocket chronographs from the 70s. The watch is approximately 44mm, the number of copies and the price are undisclosed at the moment, but as a comparison, the Mikrotimer was limited to 11 copies available for €100,000, and almost instantaneously sold out. www.tagheuer.com
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