Update from the workshop

 

This week we had a flurry of activity in our Brookvale workshop. Our Kern Micro HD had it's first field-service upgrade. It's difficult to describe how complex and engineered this milling machine is, but I'll give it a shot. The Micro HD has at least 7 discrete, but interconnected systems. The control/software, kinematic structure, pneumatics, hydraulics, tool changer, cooling circuit and measurement systems. Each of these systems operate in harmony with each other. They talk to each other, give feedback to each other, influence how and when they need to be switched on, off or change. The easiest analogy is the human body. Just like a person, the Micro HD has a skeleton, nerves, a brain, muscles, a digestive system and so on. This week, we did some major work on updating most of these systems, and introducing new features. This happens very rarely for machines in the field. The higher the complexity of these systems, the greater the risk that an update or upgrade could degrade the stability of the system. So, for most machines in the world, they never receive "upgrades". They leave the factory in a stable condition, and you hope that nothing changes in the life of the machine. Because of this risk, we had to get the top guy at Kern to come and install these options. Enter Alex Stauder, the Head of Applications at Kern. With 23 years of experience (Kern is his first and only job!), he has worked in nearly every department. From actually building the machines, to building the software, to tweaking processes for customers. Alex flew in from Germany to install and upgrade our machine, and there was no better person to handle the task!

Our upgrade wasn't mechanical, in fact not one screw on the machine had to change. Our upgrade was deeply rooted in the software of the machine. It's really difficult to describe what the upgrade was in words- the best way is to show you: Here is a video of what our milling machine can now do. https://www.instagram.com/p/C2gQ7soPz6g/ Our 5 axis machine became a 6 axis machine. The rotating tool you see in the video, with the yellow tape attached to it, usually spins at 42 thousand revolutions a minute. This is amazing for using tools that are meant to rotate, but it's binary. Either the spindle is spinning, or it's not. With this upgrade, we now have complete control of the direction that the spindle is facing at all times. So, instead of rotating super super fast while moving, we can now rotate incredibly precisely while moving!

The big benefit for us is yet to come. A lot of testing and trials are coming soon, but if you let your imagination roam, I'm sure you can see in which direction we are heading! Josh

Happy 18th!

 

The other day we were delighted to receive a very special watch. This customer bought a Rebelde K-Pilot in October 2014. He bought the watch for his grandson’s 18th birthday. The only catch, the grandson was still in primary school, a mere 8 years of age. So the watch - still in its original plastic, still with an unopened envelope containing the receipt and warranty details - was put away safely, in preparation for the birthday. Talk about prepared! The customer gave us a call about a week before coming in; ‘This is my story, should I have the watch overhauled before I give it to him?’ To which we answered, yes, absolutely. I know some of you may be asking, why would you have a watch serviced that has literally never been worn? The answer is actually quite simple. Evaporation. Pretty much any oil may be subject to evaporation, and this certainly includes watch lubrication. There is actually a test to determine exactly how much oil is being lost to evaporation called the Noack volatility test. However the amount of lubrication inside a watch on the best of days is of miniscule quantity. An easier way, is to wait for a customer to bring in a watch that has not been worn for 10 years or thereabouts. Then, you can take these photos.

Above, we can see what the third wheel upper pivot-in-jewel looked like upon receiving the watch. Note the length of the steel pivot protruding from the ruby bearing. Below we can see what it looks like now and, more importantly, what it would have looked like when it was first assembled and sold. No, it hasn't sunk into the jewel, the lubricant coincidentally is red. But you can clearly see how much lubricant is present. Around half way up the 'dish' of the jewel and almost at the rounded tip of the pivot.

Of course, the watch would have worked perfectly fine if he just gave it to his grandson. Likely for a year or two. But the frictional wear within the movement is exponential once the lubricant disappears. Every 5-6 years for a service is a good guess based on different kinds of wear and conditions the watch may be subject to. But that number is really from the last service. Not from when you got sick and tired of your MoonSwatch and decided to put back on your real-deal birth year 90s Tritium dial Moonwatch after it’s been sitting in the sock drawer for a few years. Lack of wear certainly extends the timer, but not by much. After 7 years you’re hurting your watch. Come in before it hurts you back (financially that is…).

Update from the workshop

 

If you thought temperature was a problem in our Brookvale workshop… As many of you know, our workshop in Brookvale has been manufacturing parts for what we call “parallel precision industries”. The medical, scientific, semi conductor, quantum computing, optics/photonics and space sectors. This year we plan on opening the doors on even more projects that we’ve been working on. Last week we talked about how temperature is a leading influence in precision, and how controlling and measuring it’s effects is critical. Today we pivot and talk about outer space, and it’s complex relationship with temperature. In space applications, temperature has an entirely different way of working than what we are used to. Here on earth, temperature moves from hot to cold mainly through means of convection. In very simple terms, the air around hot things sucks heat away, the air molecules heat up, move around, and dump their heat into cooler things. The air molecules around us are actually doing the hard work in transferring energy from hot places to cold places. Energy (or heat) can also be transmitted in other ways. Radiation/emission is another way that heat moves. Instead of air molecules moving the heat around, Infrared radiation is emitted from hot things outwards. A good example of that is how even on a cold windy day, you can still “feel” the heat off of a glowing furnace when you open the door. Or even how stage lighting can make performers sweat on stage! In space there is no air. Space is a near-vacuum, there is no atmosphere like there is down here, and for our temperature problem, this causes issues. Bizarrely, because space is so empty, it’s also (generally) really really cold. In “outer space” beyond our solar system and in the middle of nowhere, temperatures can plummet down to -270degrees, that’s just a few degrees above “absolute zero”. In more practical scenarios, like in low earth orbit, temperatures can fluctuate a lot. On one hand you have the intense vacuum of space pulling temperatures down to -150 degrees, and in direct sunlight, facing the sun, temperatures can soar above 150 degrees! The reason behind these extremes is tied to what we mentioned earlier about convection, and air molecules transferring heat. Because energy doesn’t have any medium to move through in outer space, the only way available for heat to transfer from one place to another is through radiation, or emission. The sun is constantly radiating it’s energy outwards, and objects in it’s direct line of sight feel the full force of this emission. However, objects that are in the “shadow” cast by planets, or clouds of gas, or meteor belts are exposed to… Nothing. This makes heat an incredibly challenging thing to manage in space. Imagine you have a heat source, something like a computer chip on a satellite. You can’t just put a PC fan next to it, like you would with a normal computer, there is nothing for the fan to push! Instead, to manage the heat generated by the chip, you have to construct very elaborate heat sinks that draw the heat away from one area, and “emit” it outwards to another area. Emission from a source is a complex thing to figure out, the material properties, the surface finish, the surface area, all contribute to an efficiency number - but generally you can expect that less than 5% of the heat is transferred via emission compared to convection in atmosphere. Suddenly, your computer chip that you can pump 100’s of watts of power into, and extract all the waste heat with a PC cooling fan, burns up in a fraction of a second in space, where the heat has nearly nowhere to go. But why is any of this relevant? Well, in the last few years, we have been manufacturing countless parts for these systems in satellites that are currently orbiting over us! The parts are usually very tightly toleranced, need careful attention for surface finish (mirrors are the best!) and are made in tricky materials like copper. The example of a computer chip in space is an easy one to follow, but is also a legitimate use-case. Often satellites have to beam their data down to earth for it to be processed. Low earth orbit satellites only have a few hours per day where they can beam down their information, as they pass over their ground stations, which means that often they are sitting in orbit just waiting, rather than doing useful work. Local, Sydney-based company Spiral Blue, manufacture extremely specialised computers that manage this issue of heat so that these satellites can process their data, either images, or data from sensors while in orbit! This greatly increases the efficiency and reduces the cost of operating a satellite. Our small claim to fame is that we help Spiral Blue manufacture their heat-management system - a challenge, but nothing a small group of horologists on the Northern beaches couldn’t take on.

Copper machined to mirror finish, NH Micro (c). Josh Link to Spiral Blue: https://www.spiralblue.space/

All New Seiko 5 Field GMT

The Seiko 5 Sports Field collection was created with an ‘in the field’ military design – taking inspiration from a style originally called ‘trench watch,’ created to be robust and reliable in tough conditions. This Seiko 5 Sports ‘Deception’ field watch takes the design to the next level, featuring blacked out seconds, and GMT hand, as well as the bezel and case. This model comes on a calf leather strap. Both watches feature a GMT function that allows you to track a second time zone, and much like the Seiko 5 GMT, the GMT hand itself is directly adjustable. The base design and size remain the same as the original field watches, ensuring that the design style is timeless whilst the calibre evolves. 39.4mm case size. Automatic movement - calibre 4R34. Hardlex glass. Water resistance to 10 bar.  Two models available today, one all steel with a comfortable metal bracelet which retails for $675 and the other all black fitted on a leather NATO strap, retail $630. Two of each in stock. Take your pick.  SSK023K SSK025K 'Deception'

Update from the workshop:

 

It’s well known that things move. Buses move people, you move the objects you interact with, and you move yourself around. Being in control of what, when and how things move is a superpower. Controlling the bus timetable allows you to improve, or diminish the productivity of Sydney… controlling how quickly you raise your coffee cup to your mouth can make the difference between a gentle wakeup, or a miserable morning cleaning your shirt… The list goes on. In manufacturing, the more you control, the better your results become. The easiest way to visualise that is that manufacturing parts is like having a chain. The more demanding the parts, the stronger the chain needs to be, and the chain is only as strong as the weakest link. Controlling each link in the chain is the first step to identifying the weakest link and improving the strength of the chain. Practically, this involves purchasing high quality equipment, software and measuring tools. It also extends into monitoring your workshop environment, your vibrations, your temperature and secondary things like humidity, cleanliness/dust control. Temperature is one part of that chain that is a deep deep rabbit hole. Just like a scheduler can move buses around, or how you can move your coffee cup, temperature moves everything. Shifts in temperature cause materials to grow or shrink. This is what engineers call the “coefficient of thermal expansion”, or CTE. It’s measured in microns per metre per degree. Most steels have a CTE of around 11 microns per metre per degree. This means that if you had a 1 metre long rod at 20 degrees Celsius, left it our in the sun so it was around 40 degrees Celsius, it would expand and be 220 microns longer! That’s 0.2mm, or about the thickness of two sheets of paper. For some more perspective the height of the Sydney Harbour Bridge can move more than 100mm on a hot day, as all the steel expands! Every material has it’s own CTE. Teflon, for example moves 100 or so microns per metre per degree, so if my rod was made from teflon, and I left it out in the sun, it would end up being 2 whole millimetres longer at 40 degrees C! This has always been a problem in horology. The moment of inertia of an oscillator, such as the pendulum of a clock, is strongly tied to the distance that the mass is from the pivot point. The moment of inertia in a clock directly dictates the time keeping accuracy. So, maintaining a stable moment of inertia, and therefore a stable pendulum length is critical. Once horologists knew this, they started the hunt to identify materials that had very low CTE’s. Bizarrely, wood has a fantastic CTE if you measure it’s expansion along it’s grain. About 3 microns per metre, per degree, or about 3x better than steel. Unfortunately, humidity changes have disastrous effects for wood’s expansion, so it was quickly ruled out for most applications. Glass was then explored, with fantastic environmental stability, and relatively good CTE (around 6um). Glass was improved on as a pendulum rod material by using fused silica, or quartz, which has a CTE of just 0.55um! This technical exploration was then transferred to watchmaking, where companies have been using very special materials, such as invar, silicon, and even diamond to improve the chronometric accuracy of their timepieces. In the summer of 2023 and 2024, NHW has a different problem with temperature… As Sydney warms up, our workshop goes through very large temperature shifts. We do a few things to combat this, insulation, air-conditioning, and the most extreme, limiting machine usage. The machines in our workshop all consume electricity, and generate heat. That heat is then extracted either passively by our air-conditioning, or actively by chilling units and refrigerators. Our Kern Pyramid Nano, the first milling machine we purchased, has an active temperature management system that cools the machine down to a stability of +-0.5 degrees. The newly purchased Kern Micro HD also has a similar system, but it’s 10x as powerful, cooling the machine down to a stability of +-0.05 degrees! Both of these systems consume a very large amount of energy, and even more energy when they have to fight against 35 degree days… It’s a vicious cycle. As the outside temperature increases, the machines need to use more energy to cool down, which generates more ambient heat, which our air-conditioning systems need to fight against, which uses more energy… The limit is our available current draw to our industrial property. At one point, our distribution board taps out and we can no longer effectively run the workshop. The only choice? To turn off the machines and do other tasks. Cleaning, organisation, manual work, decoration of components, etc. But there is a clincher… and it’s a particularly nasty one. Our newest milling machine, the aforementioned Kern Micro HD. The Micro HD is the most accurate 5 axis milling machine in the world, and we have the only one in all of Asia. It’s a fantastic achievement, but this machine was designed to be run in a very specific, very controlled way. This is to a drill press as what a chicken is to a velociraptor. One of main differences between this machine and a machine in a lower price bracket is it’s fundamental construction. The machine is made from a mixture of aluminium, granite and iron. The moving components, such as the X,Y and Z axes are made from aluminium, but those aluminium parts are actuated with powerful magnets made from iron (linear motors). This effectively creates a bimetallic strip. One side is iron, one side is aluminium. Iron has a CTE of around 11um, and Aluminium has a CTE of around 22um. The baseline temp for the machine is 20deg- When the machine is “on” it is being actively cooled down to 20 deg within 0.05deg. But when the machine is off, it normalises to whatever the room temperature is. This can cause some serious issues… If the ambient temperature rises to above 28 degrees while the machine is not being actively cooled (off) then the iron-aluminium construction of the machine bends to a point where it causes permanent damage to the machine frame. The ultra-technical explanation is that as the machine is warming up, the frame bends in a predictable way, but as it cools down, the friction forces between the iron and aluminium mean that it deforms in an unpredictable way. The bottom line? If the machine reaches 28degrees or higher, it needs to be completely recalibrated by the manufacturer. A cool 30 thousand dollars in airfares, travel time, and recalibration costs. To make a long story even longer, the obvious solution: keep the machine on all the time, doesn’t really work… It costs approximately 40 dollars in electricity and consumables per hour to keep the Micro HD on in a “idle” state. We work an average of about 50 hours per week, which leaves 118 hours per week of idle time, which is 4720 hours per year, which is about 250k a year running cost to keep the machine “idle”. Turning the machine off, doing manual work and allowing our poor little factory to breathe unburdened during a hot day is the lesser of two evils… In our precision chain, some things are easier to control than others. As we continue down this path of manufacturing in Australia and go deeper down the rabbit holes, we are slowly realising that the things you thought were the least conspicuous (temperature!) cause the biggest problems. If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. I don’t expect all of you to listen to technical rambles like this, but if you have, I hope you appreciate another little peak behind the curtain of what it takes to make watches in Australia. All this makes your decision easy… why would you buy a watch made anywhere else? Josh

The most important horological message of 2024

Here is an important message I need to share with you. Actually, it is probably the most important message of the year: there is a fairly high chance that this year one of your watches will stop keeping time. Or worse, it could be subject to severe shock or water damage, and so it will stop altogether, refusing to kick back in action. At best, it might become magnetised, get scratched, or simply end up being inaccurate, all for no apparent reason, and at no fault of yours. At worst, it might suffer severe damage to a delicate internal component­, or multiple components, or break into pieces. To mechanical machines, things simply happen. High grade watches are no exception. If your watch stops ticking, for whatever reason, here is a short list of things that can help you return your watch to good, working order. 1. Watches need regular servicing. If there is no obvious external damage, your watch has most likely failed because it needs a regular overhaul. That may require replacement of some components, but your watchmaker or authorised service centre should be able to help you. Definitely not the end of the world! 2. Severely damaged watches are still repairable. Yes the repair cost will be high, but so are the chances of full and successful restoration. It's only money (and time). 3. It could be a simple matter. A battery replacement, some fine tuning, a lose screw, or demagnetisation. These are all jobs that your watchmaker can handle with ease. In some cases, even while you wait! 4. It's never your watchmakers fault. Let me state the obvious: watchmakers fix watches, they are not in the business of breaking watches. It could be tempting to blame a watchmaker for your troubles, but blaming a watchmaker will get you nowhere. Watchmakers are technically minded people, so keep all correspondence technical and devoid of emotion. If you can't trust a watchmaker, take it elsewhere. It's as simple as that. 5. Ask for a repair estimate before committing to a repair. A ballpark figure at least. If you leave a watch with the instruction to “just fix it”, then you may be in for a surprise. Likewise, don't insult your watchmaker with a nonchalant "do I owe you anything for this?". Yes, you do. 6. Allow your watchmaker to work at his own pace. Watchmakers are not lazy. On the contrary,  they are highly efficient professionals who want to see the job completed properly and in timely manner. However they depend on spare parts suppliers who are unfortunately few and far between. Parts are hard to source, especially for older and vintage watches. Please be patient. Numerous “is it ready yet?” calls are unnecessary and highly annoying. 7. We are here to serve you. We are on your side. But life is short and at the end of the day, a watch is just a watch.