Friday, March 20, 2015

All New Rolex Super-Movement: Calibre 3255




...BaselWorld 2015 Introduction...


All New Rolex Super-Movement 
Calibre 3255
Perfection Has Been Achieved

Rolex has pushed the envelope of mechanically precise movements for over a hundred years, and with the advent of the all-new Rolex Calibre 3255 has created the most precise mechanical movement ever made.


Rolex watches have historically been very precise, and the vast majority of them have adhered to the COSC standard, which is "Minus 10, Plus 2", seconds per day. With the advent of the Rolex Calibre 3255 Rolex has set a new standard of "Minus 2, Plus 2", seconds per day. In other words, the Calibre 3255 is as close as possible for a mechanical movement to perfection as possible.


Rolex thought of everything with the development of this new model. If for any reason the movement does not fall within the new standard of "2 seconds per day", it can be very easily adjusted to be brought back into spec. The movement also increases power reserve to 70 hours, which sets a new precedent for a modern Rolex movement. Rolex also has 14 patents on this new movement.



Rolex beautifully shares the story below of all the engineering magic, and superlative precision that went into the developing the Calibre 3255:






Calibre 3255
NEW STANDARDS OF PERFORMANCE
AT BASELWORLD 2015, ROLEX IS INTRODUCING CALIBRE 3255,
A NEW-GENERATION MECHANICAL MOVEMENT THAT SETS NEW STANDARDS OF PERFORMANCE FOR THE CORE CHARACTERISTICS OF A WATCH MOVEMENT: PRECISION, POWER RESERVE, RELIABILITY, RESISTANCE TO SHOCKS AND MAGNETISM, AS WELL AS THE EASE AND CONVENIENCE
OF ITS ADJUSTMENT.


Calibre 3255’s criteria for precision in everyday wear are twice as exacting as those for an officially certified chronometer. Its superlative accuracy is tested by Rolex after the movement has been cased, using high-technology equipment and an exclusive methodology that simulates the conditions in which a watch is actually worn.

Its power reserve extends to three days (approximately 70 hours), representing an increase of 24 hours (or 50 per cent) compared to that of the previous generation. This means that the watch will easily continue to run over a weekend without needing to be rewound. Calibre 3255 is impervious to magnetic interferences beyond the values encountered in daily life.


The movement’s resistance to shocks and its reliability have been optimized at the level of its overall architecture as well as its individual components, and through the use of high-performance lubricants developed and synthesized in-house.

Calibre 3255 offers enhanced convenience of adjustment and winding – faster and more
efficient self-winding, distinct easy-to-sense positions on the winding stem, unrestricted calendar correction at any time and very precise time setting.


FOURTEEN PATENTS

A compelling example of avant-garde watch- making technology, this self-winding mechanical movement is entirely developed and manufactured by Rolex. It is backed by 14 patents and a number of innovative technological solutions relating not only to component design but also to processes involving new technologies that push back the limits of current production methods. 

More than 90 per cent of the movement parts have been redesigned and optimized, from those that produce and store energy (self-winding module and mainspring) to the regulating organ responsible for precision (oscillator), the gear train and the escapement. The escapement, which transmits the impulses required to maintain the oscillator’s steady beat, is enhanced by a major innovation patented by Rolex under the name Chronergy.



NEW CHRONERGY ESCAPEMENT

Rolex engineers devised and patented a new escapement that optimizes the efficiency of the Swiss lever escapement, the standard in Swiss watchmaking, but which has seen only limited technical evolution over the last 50 years. While favoured by watchmakers for its great reliability, the Swiss lever escapement has always suffered from low efficiency, relaying to the oscillator barely more than a third of the energy it receives from the mainspring via the gear train.

The result of extensive research, the geometry of the new Rolex Chronergy escapement im- proves the efficiency of this key component by 15 per cent. Almost half of the increased power reserve of calibre 3255 can be ascribed to the escapement itself. Made of nickel-phosphorus, the Chronergy escapement is, furthermore, insensitive to magnetic interferences.


EXCLUSIVE ROLEX SUPERLATIVE CHRONOMETER TESTS

With this new-generation movement, Rolex
sets a new level of chronometric precision with criteria surpassing those of COSC (the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute). Rolex has developed a new method- ology and high-technology equipment to test the precision of its Superlative Chronometers with tolerances that are twice as exacting as those for official certification, and under conditions that simulate the wearer’s real-life experience. These exclusive chronometer tests complement the official COSC certification, to which all Rolex movements continue to be submitted systematically, and are carried out not on the movements alone, but on the assembled watches after the movements have been cased.

A specific test protocol was designed by Rolex following large-scale statistical studies to determine the actual conditions of daily wear. As a result, the Rolex chronometers equipped with movements tested according to this new methodology demonstrate superlative precision on the wrist.