Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Date: April 4, 1997
Remember the time! We write the end of the year 1996 and retrograde indications were just about getting popular and generally used in watch movements. I was working on the very first retrograde second indication available on the market in those days - the Caliber 15!
Paul Gerber’s philosophy «you don’t need to invent the wheel twice» or «you simply bend your head to the side and see what is coming out» accompanied my throughout the years and showed me that indeed everything yet needed to be invented...
The base movement Peseux 7001 was surrounded by a movement ring bearing the mechanism for the retrograde indication. 3 main components were needed to build such a mechanism; a snail disc, a rack (a pivoting toothed sector) and a pinion with a hairspring.
Forged with such work I finally found my own «Leitsatz»:
«Simplicity is the challenge!» or «In der Einfachheit liegt die Herausforderung!»
Making complicated mechanisms even more complicate seems to be feasible, but challenging the mechanism to become complicated in simplifying the construction is the real challenge!
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