[Ego]

Обзор калибра 3135:

Сообщение от Ego

Basic technical info for the 3135

Diameter = 28.5mm
Casing diameter = 28.1mm
Height = 6mm – note that the non-date Cal. 3130 is the same height
Jewels = 31
Power Reserve = Approximately 50 hours


A closer look at the movement

(pic#1) Overview of the completely disassembled movement. Cleaned and ready for assembly. Movement screws on the top right hand side and dial screws on the top left next to the mainspring.

(pic#2) A close up of the barrel, mainspring and barrel arbor. Like the ETA 2892, and most modern movements today, Rolex also use the micro-gear toothing throughout the movement, including the barrel and both the movement and dial trains.

(pic#3) A comparison of the shorter ETA 2892 mainspring compared to the much longer one of the 3135. This longer mainspring enables Rolex to squeeze a 50 hour power reserve out of the latter. Although the 2892 mainspring is both lower in height and shorter, it is marginally thicker – i.e. slightly stronger.

(pic#4) A size comparison between the rhodium plated 2892 barrel and the plain uncoated brass barrel of the 3135.

(pic#5) The mainspring fitted into the barrel, ready to be lubricated and then closed up with the cover.

(pic#6) The 3 glucydur train wheels, plus the escape wheel and pallet fork. Note that although the teeth and pinion leaves of the wheels are different sizes in order to facilitate the power reduction from the barrel to the escapement, the diameter for the various wheels, excluding the escape wheel, are almost identical.

(pic#7) The movement side of the rhodium plated stamped brass main plate. IWC nickel plate theirs. Other manufacturers, like Lange & Söhne, who use nickel silver instead of brass, don’t plate their main plates at all. Note the beryllium bronze bushing in the center for the canon pinion, and the two brass nuts near the top. The latter two facilitate quick minor adjustment of the end shake of the balance wheel.

(pic#8) The canon pinion placed in position.

(pic#9) And fitted with its own separate bridge. The jewel in the center of this bridge supports the second wheel and not the canon pinion, as the latter is supported by beryllium bronze bushings both at the top and bottom. It’s interesting to note that like the JLC 889, the canon pinion is driven directly by the barrel. This arrangement provides maximum torque in order to drive the dial and calendar train wheels, but is not part of the drive train.

(pic#10) A clear view of the layout of the drive train wheels without the bridge in place. Fitted adjacent to the stem and crown are the crown wheel, stop lever and crown wheel bridge. This system is unusual in that the not only is the crown wheel under the bridge (a practice usually implemented in very thin watches), but it also has its own separate bridge.

(pic#11) And with the bridge in place.

(pic#12) The complete movement minus the balance wheel. The winding and wig-wag wheels on the right hand side of the brass ratchet winding wheel facilitate hand winding. The wig-wag swings easily out of the way when the automatic winding system is engaged.

(pic#13) And with the balance wheel installed. Its diameter is approximately 10mm, about the same size as that of the 7750.

(pic#14) The dial side of the movement with stem and winding system installed, but prior to the installation of the barrel and balance wheel.

(pic#15) The upper half of the canon pinion, which is friction fitted to the lower half, has been installed together with the two set wheels. Setting of the hands is accomplished via the latter two wheels and the sliding pinion.

(pic#16) A clear view of the layout of the dial wheels prior to the installation of the calendar plate. The latter supports the calendar disc as well as keeping all of these wheels in place. On the left hand side you can see the brass date driving wheel with its steel cam riveted to it. The spring, lever and jewel resting up against it provide the tension and torque necessary to effect the instantaneous date change. The shape of this cam has been carefully calculated (together with the thickness of the spring) in order to limit both the force applied and the amount of travel, so that the date always jumps exactly one day. The small pin near the 12 ‘O clock position on the cam drives the date jumper which fits on top of it.

(pic#17) And here with both the calendar plate and date jumper in place. At the 10’O clock position one can see the finger on the date jumper. The latter strikes the date indicator and moves it ahead one day every 24 hours. The three domed shaped jewels equidistant in the center of the calendar plate cut out, support the calendar disc. Doing it this way reduces friction to a minimum and helps ensure an instantaneous date change at midnight.

(pic#18) For comparisons sake here’s the dial side of a caliber 3130 – i.e. no date. Here one can clearly see the jewel inside the top part of the canon pinion tube. As far as I know, Rolex is the only one to use a jewel to support the upper part of the second wheel pinion like this. The advantage of this is that it’s supported more accurately and with less friction too. Caliber 3035 originally used a Teflon washer, but Rolex discovered that a jewel was much better in the long term because the Teflon eventually deformed and lost its smoothness, and this extra friction greatly reduced the amplitude of the balance wheel.

(pic#19) With the calendar disc installed, the dial side of the movement is now complete and ready to be fitted with the dial and hands. The date finger is between the 18 and the 19 a few minutes after the date has jumped. Near the 3 and 4 of the date indicator disc is the quick set date corrector wheel.

(pic#20) A close up of the small brass post that the set wheel sits on. The second set wheel sits on a metal post as can be clearly seen in pic 15.

(pic#21) A side view of this post shows how severely it can be damaged if the movement is not serviced regularly. This is most likely to happen if moisture gets into the watch, which was the case in this particular instance, due to the fact that the heavier moisture displaces the lighter lubricants.

(pic#22) To put things in perspective for you, I photographed the 3035 and 3135 set wheels side by side. The latter is on the left, and the much larger and more robust 3035 on the right.

(pic#23) And a side view highlighting the differences in thickness.

(pic#24) Overview of the automatic winding system prior to assembly. The large wheels and simple design result in the most efficient automatic winding system that I’m aware of. The red reversing wheels are Teflon coated in order to reduce friction and don’t require any lubrication. Only the posts of these wheels require a small amount of lubrication because they are steel, as are the inner wheels that pivot on them. The small wheel below the brass ratchet driving wheel is the winding pinion. This fits onto the rotor axel and is driven by it. The clip at the bottom holds the rotor in place and has a small hole on the left of it for sharp tweezers (preferably brass), so that it can be easily unclipped in order to remove the rotor from the automatic winding unit.

(pic#25) The underside view of the fully assembled automatic winding unit and rotor.

(pic#26) And installed on the movement sans the rotor. Note the crescent shaped bridge by the balance wheel. In case of a hard perpendicular blow to the watch, this bridge prevents the edge of the rotor from hitting the rim of the balance wheel.

(pic#27) The complete movement, carefully cleaned and lubricated, ready to be installed in the watch case. This Swiss mechanical marvel of precision micro engineering is once again ready to offer years of accurate and trouble free time keeping.