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Men's Watches-Automatic
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Since the 1960's I have always used a gent's -Seiko wrist watch and always been totally happy with them The 2-3 watch's I've had during that period were known as a Automatic type. Is that now what they call Kinetic type. Thanks for any help. Any other automatic type of a different brand recommended would be welcome.
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.There are no batteries in true kinetic watches. They have oscillating weights that are turned by constant movement from the wrist. The constant movement turns into a magnetic charge in the watch and then into electricity. There are no batteries needed, and the wearer should not have to wind the watch to keep it going.
'The heart of the Kinetic system is the rotor. A tiny thing, just 2.66 mm in diameter and 0.4 mm thick, the rotor (technically, a samarium cobalt microrotor) spins at astonishing speed - 10,000 to 100,000 revolutions per minute, five times faster than a racing car engine.
The wearer's arm movement causes an oscillating weight to rotate. Gear trains transfer this movement to the rotor, whose spinning generates voltage across a coil block. That's electricity. The electrical current is stored in a tiny component called the ESU ('electrical storage unit') and is released when needed to power the watch.
Electricity stored in the ESU powers the watch even when it is not worn.'
I suppose you could call the ESu a battery but, techically, you'd be wrong.
The wearer's arm movement causes an oscillating weight to rotate. Gear trains transfer this movement to the rotor, whose spinning generates voltage across a coil block. That's electricity. The electrical current is stored in a tiny component called the ESU ('electrical storage unit') and is released when needed to power the watch.
Electricity stored in the ESU powers the watch even when it is not worn.'
I suppose you could call the ESu a battery but, techically, you'd be wrong.
Some confusing responses, a mechanical watch which is wound by an oscillating weight is known as an automatic, the weight simply winds the mainspring. Seiko introduced a brand called Kinetic where the weight essentially turned a tiny generator to charge a capacitor to run a quartz watch, modern ones now have a lithium ion battery instead of the capacitor but the battery should never need changing, other manufacturers have similar models. Seiko still sell very well priced automatic watches alongside their quartz offerings, look for their '5' range, but to be honest any decent quartz watch will outperform a mechanical for accuracy and I say that as the owner of many mechanical watches.
zacs
/I suppose you could call the ESu a battery but, techically, you'd be wrong./
How specifically would that be wrong?
'electrical storage unit' looks to me to be invented marketing jargon; to make a small battery seem like something less mundane and more high tech for the assumed gullible consumer.
unless you can link to a technical description of what the difference is between an 'electrical storage unit' and a 'battery'?
/I suppose you could call the ESu a battery but, techically, you'd be wrong./
How specifically would that be wrong?
'electrical storage unit' looks to me to be invented marketing jargon; to make a small battery seem like something less mundane and more high tech for the assumed gullible consumer.
unless you can link to a technical description of what the difference is between an 'electrical storage unit' and a 'battery'?
Taken from a respected watch forum discussing Seiko changing from capacitor to Li-Ion
"Going with Seiko’s long-running and expensive "battery-less watch" marketing campaign, the company prefers not to use the term "battery" when referring to the LiOn cell. I presume after the millions the company had spent on promoting the Kinetic as a watch that required no batteries, they probably didn’t want the public to get confused.
Probably someone in marketing came up with a brilliant idea and thus the technical sounding name Kinetic Electricity Storage Unit (or Kinetic E.S.U. for short) was born. Kinetic E.S.U. can refer to the old style capacitor or the newer LiOn rechargeable cell." :-)
"Going with Seiko’s long-running and expensive "battery-less watch" marketing campaign, the company prefers not to use the term "battery" when referring to the LiOn cell. I presume after the millions the company had spent on promoting the Kinetic as a watch that required no batteries, they probably didn’t want the public to get confused.
Probably someone in marketing came up with a brilliant idea and thus the technical sounding name Kinetic Electricity Storage Unit (or Kinetic E.S.U. for short) was born. Kinetic E.S.U. can refer to the old style capacitor or the newer LiOn rechargeable cell." :-)
zacs
here we go - from 'HowStuff Works'
Apparently batteries and Capacitors are 'a little like each other'
But you're right, they are technically different
///In a way, a capacitor is a little like a battery. Although they work in completely different ways, capacitors and batteries both store electrical energy. If you have read How Batteries Work, then you know that a battery has two terminals. Inside the battery, chemical reactions produce electrons on one terminal and absorb electrons on the other terminal. A capacitor is much simpler than a battery, as it can't produce new electrons -- it only stores them.///
here we go - from 'HowStuff Works'
Apparently batteries and Capacitors are 'a little like each other'
But you're right, they are technically different
///In a way, a capacitor is a little like a battery. Although they work in completely different ways, capacitors and batteries both store electrical energy. If you have read How Batteries Work, then you know that a battery has two terminals. Inside the battery, chemical reactions produce electrons on one terminal and absorb electrons on the other terminal. A capacitor is much simpler than a battery, as it can't produce new electrons -- it only stores them.///
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