Behind the Academy Christophe Colomb by Zenith
View the video report below:
In this video report, we are coming back on one of those very impressive timepiece seen over the last few years, because we just wanted to understand better how it works.
This gyroscopic escapement module is simply fascinating to look at, as it remains flat whatever your movement of your wrist. In a certain way, it uses the same idea of the gimbal seen on marine chronometers, but here it's not the entire watch that moves, but only this very original and magical escapement module.
So how do they transfer energy from the classic part of the movement to this module? Well, this is what you will find out in the video report.
Actual chronometric performance of the Academy Christophe Colomb is very high and superior to COSC standards, but they don’t communicate too much about it because the way to measure this performance is by sound analysis of the escapement. In this case and because of the complex mechanic, there are quite a bit of parasite sounds that prevents normal instruments to correctly capture what is happening and this is the reason why Zenith use their own laser tests to assess this performance.
In terms of overall performance, it’s very similar to the famous El Primero movement of the brand: the escapement beats at 36’000 beats per hour and has the same power reserve of more than 50 hours.
This video report was shot in Le Locle: