BPH seem low with AP

[newbieincali]

Please smack me senseless when I ask this.... This is just a total newbie question...

I see a lot of watches showing higher BPH like 36000 by zenith and many other watches touting 28000. The APs are down in the 21000 from what I have seen...

Why are they so slow? While I would agree that faster doesnt always make it better it seems to be a modern standard and that AP is behind in terms of the general market. Can someone enlighten me on this?

The more technical explanation the better for my nerdy self...

[Tony-GB]

I think Rolex choose 28K BPM, Omega 21K. I have no idea what Patek have. Not sure it makes much if any difference in timekeeping.

[Submarino]

Here's a good article on the topic. http://people.timezone.com/library/c...omarticles0017

[ChristianN]

If you don't want to read the whole thing;

It's harder to make a low-beat be precise then it is to make a high-beat be precise.

So an accurate, slowbeating watch is kind of cooler then a highbeat one. Kind of.

I kind of prefer the smoothness of a highbeat myself, but it's not really a problem either way.

[onkyo]

Originally Posted by Submarino

Here's a good article on the topic. http://people.timezone.com/library/c...omarticles0017

Thanks for the link! Will read it later.

[newbieincali]

That timezone article is pretty good. From reading a few articles I the past days I seem to understand a bit more the challenges. It seems like the industry is at a new point where it is looking now at some advanced polymers and moving away with traditional metals... One article I found had to do with the new AP escapement and they lowered the speed to deal with friction and nonlubricated design which the new escapement is supposed to handle over a long period of time.

Is moving to polymers a good or bad thing in most peoples opinions?

[Tony-GB]

Originally Posted by newbieincali

That timezone article is pretty good. From reading a few articles I the past days I seem to understand a bit more the challenges. It seems like the industry is at a new point where it is looking now at some advanced polymers and moving away with traditional metals... One article I found had to do with the new AP escapement and they lowered the speed to deal with friction and nonlubricated design which the new escapement is supposed to handle over a long period of time.

Is moving to polymers a good or bad thing in most peoples opinions?

I think new materials are a good thing if it means more resistance to shocks and longer service intervals. I hope we'll see more of AP's Cermet. Possibly as cases and bezel's.