Yes! But you are not likely to go for a 5K run Posted By: Doug Sprott Date: 1/17/08 22:06 GMT

In Response To: A rotor operates on inertia, not gravity, so... (Chicagoland Chuck Maddox)

Yes But you are not likely to go for a 5K run on a space station

Frankly, I'm not likely to go for a 5k run here on earth.

-2001 movie aside-. I've had clients that were elderly, very much the armchair astronauts and sedentary, that have said their automatics did not work . But after a day of wear on my wrist and moving around ,fighting gravity, everything worked well.I would bet the bag of M&Ms the power reserve would be less than on earth and the winder boxes would not work . Gravity holds the rotor in place as the watch moves around . The rotor's inertia would have to overcome the friction of the bearing and winding spring . I guess you can always tell the NASA automatic guys , they are the ones violently shaking their wrists.That and the digital quartz Seiko on the other wrist like with H. Furrer.

Ok, I have a test for you. You'll need an full-rotor automatic watch with a display back or take the back off of a steel backed full-rotor automatic watch.

Put the watch in a dial/crystal down position. Now, move the watch away from you and then back. Or to the left and right while keeping the watch flat and in parallel to the ground.

Does the rotor move back and forth? The Earth's gravity is operating equally on all parts of the watch and is perpendicular to the plane of the rotor. Since the rotor moves, it must be the watch's inertia which is moving the rotor.

Now I will grant you that gravity will probably enhance the rotor's function, but inertia alone will move the rotor and wind the watch.

-- Chuck

Chuck Maddox

Chronographs, like most finer things in life, only improve with time...

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