Heuer 02 - The 80h power reserve

Lugduno
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Greetings my fellow members,

Today I was thinking a bit of the Heuer 02 movement since I realised it's getting close to the one year anniversary for the Autavia in my possession.

As we all know, the Heuer 02 has an 80h power reserve, something that is quite convenient, especially for the people that usually switch between watches. This is not the case for me, but if I have ever left my watch on the desk for some days it still runs as good as always because of the high power reserve.

80h is quite a bit, and I was curious on the technology behind it. The Omega 8900 movements has two barrels, something that keeps the power reserve high and also ensures a stable transmission of the power from the spring to the rest of the movement. I was curious how TAG Heuer has acheived the power reserve for the Heuer 02. As far as I know, the movement only uses one barrel, which supposedly would keep the reserve somewhat limited. Has TH just used a longer spring to make sure that the power reserve can be 80h, or an extra large barrel? How is this possible?

(As we all know, everything becomes much funnier with some pictures馃槈)
IMG_0161.jpg IMG_2870.jpg
 
absolutemustard
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Nice pics! Yes, longer spring and larger barrel gives the longer power reserve.

Tag Heuer built the 02 to be as efficient as possible from a manufacturing standpoint. So the less parts, the better, and thus only one barrel

The main benefit to two barrels isn't a longer power reserve. Most companies that use two barrels do so to cut down on the isochronism. This is just a fancy word for the power delivery being different from a full wind to empty. A long mainspring has relatively small changes over time, but the difference between the beginning and the end is large. A two barrel system will cut down on those end points being different because there are two shorter springs rather than one big one. Car guys would equate this to having two smaller twin turbos instead of one big turbo...both scenarios would give you the same power if tuned correctly, but the smaller twin turbos spool up faster and have less turbo lag.

IWC used to have one large barrel in their 7 day movement, but they have since switched to two

CALIBRE%20HEUER%2002_ECLATE_VERTICAL%202017%20Kopie.jpg
 
OttoWilliam
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One thing i notice about Tag Heuer in house movement is how well it recharge itself (with our movement, of course). So responsive.
 
Lugduno
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absolutemustard absolutemustard
Nice pics! Yes, longer spring and larger barrel gives the longer power reserve.

Tag Heuer built the 02 to be as efficient as possible from a manufacturing standpoint. So the less parts, the better, and thus only one barrel

The main benefit to two barrels isn't a longer power reserve. Most companies that use two barrels do so to cut down on the isochronism. This is just a fancy word for the power delivery being different from a full wind to empty. A long mainspring has relatively small changes over time, but the difference between the beginning and the end is large. A two barrel system will cut down on those end points being different because there are two shorter springs rather than one big one. Car guys would equate this to having two smaller twin turbos instead of one big turbo...both scenarios would give you the same power if tuned correctly, but the smaller twin turbos spool up faster and have less turbo lag.

IWC used to have one large barrel in their 7 day movement, but they have since switched to two

CALIBRE%20HEUER%2002_ECLATE_VERTICAL%202017%20Kopie.jpg
OttoWilliam OttoWilliam
One thing i notice about Tag Heuer in house movement is how well it recharge itself (with our movement, of course). So responsive.
Thank you for the information and very tech nerdy insights! After reading up a bit more on the Heuer 02 I'm even more impressed of what TH has produced and it will be interesting to see how this evolves!

OttoWilliam OttoWilliam
One thing i notice about Tag Heuer in house movement is how well it recharge itself (with our movement, of course). So responsive.
In my experience, it's a great movement and it has not caused any headache besides having some problems with the date setting mechanism (as I previously described on the forum). But after sent the watch away to the mothership I have not faced any problems what so ever with it!
 
Aquagraph
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OttoWilliam OttoWilliam
One thing i notice about Tag Heuer in house movement is how well it recharge itself (with our movement, of course). So responsive.
Funnily enough, when I was at the factory the other day, Paul (the Museum guide) took his Autavia off and the rotor was spinning like crazy... so maybe that's not surprising!
 
OttoWilliam
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Wow, you must have been talking quite a lot with the museum guide being a fellow enthusiast as well
 
Aquagraph
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OttoWilliam OttoWilliam
Wow, you must have been talking quite a lot with the museum guide being a fellow enthusiast as well
Well Paul was with us the whole time, it wasn't like a free roam around the museum... he's a very nice guy, very friendly - a lot younger than I expected though.
 
Lugduno
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Aquagraph Aquagraph
Funnily enough, when I was at the factory the other day, Paul (the Museum guide) took his Autavia off and the rotor was spinning like crazy... so maybe that's not surprising!
If I'm not misstaken, the Heuer 02 winds the movement in one direction only? If that is correct, the insane spinning (which also happens on mine, nice little feature) would happen when the rotor turns in the "wrong" direction.

Just as a minor little question, what reference was Paul wearing? The JH or Rindt?
 
Aquagraph
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Lugduno Lugduno
If I'm not misstaken, the Heuer 02 winds the movement in one direction only? If that is correct, the insane spinning (which also happens on mine, nice little feature) would happen when the rotor turns in the "wrong" direction.

Just as a minor little question, what reference was Paul wearing? The JH or Rindt?

It was the Rindt (a 'loaner' as he called it).
 
Lugduno
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Aquagraph Aquagraph
It was the Rindt (a 'loaner' as he called it).
Rindt! The old classic, but the best of them I've seen in the metal, although I would love to try the new Watches of Switzerland exclusive! (Never been a big fan of white dials though, that's why both the Siffert and JH85 was not really my cup of tea).
 
OttoWilliam
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I dont think the rotor is one directional. Maybe the bezel. But for sure it's not rotor.
 
Lugduno
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OttoWilliam OttoWilliam
I dont think the rotor is one directional. Maybe the bezel. But for sure it's not rotor.
If that is the case then the Heuer 02 is even more impressive!
 
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