Rolex's Silicon Hairspring / Resonator Arrangements

[timuS]

Hi everyone, I was searching for the patent sheets for the Parachrom Bleu hairspring (US Patent No. 6503341), but before I dug those out, this one came along.

Rolex seems to have filed a new patent for 9 different embodiments of a new silicon hairspring and balance wheel arrangement in July 2009. It got published in Feb 2010!

I don't know what they are upto, or whether this is something they were working on as an option to the Parachrom Bleu, and selected the latter because the Breguet Overcoil could be incorporated therein. But, then again the patent filing date for the Parachrom seems to be in 2003, so is this something we'll probably be seeing in Rolexes 10 -15 years form now as an upgrade from the Paracro-Microstella Balance arrangement?

I though I'd share this info....

Best Regards,

Sumit