Glenn Zorpette: Good day and welcome to Fixing the Future, an IEEE Spectrumpodcast the place we take a look at concrete options to some massive issues. I’m your host, Glenn Zorpette, Editorial Director at Spectrum. And earlier than we begin, I simply need to inform you that you could get the newest protection from a few of Spectrum‘s most essential beats – together with AI, local weather change, and robotics – by signing up for one in every of our free newsletters. Simply go to spectrum.ieee.org/newsletters to subscribe.
Digital quartz watches arrived on the scene round 1970, and even in the present day, they’ve benefits over their smartwatch brethren with batteries that final years, not days. However the motor that drives the hour and minute arms of the watch hasn’t actually modified since then. Now, French firm SilMach is utilizing a brand new wristwatch to exhibit its superior silicon MEMS know-how with a brand new watch motion that’s so environment friendly you would possibly solely want to vary the battery about as soon as a decade. Right here to speak about that watch and the know-how behind it’s SilMach’s co-CEO and Chief Gross sales Officer, Pierre-Francois Louvigne, and in addition Jean-Baptiste Carnet, the co-CEO and Chief Monetary Officer. Pierre Francois and Jean-Baptiste, welcome to the present.
Pierre-Francois Louvigne: Welcome.
Jean-Baptiste Carnet: Thanks for having us.
Louvigne: Thanks.
Zorpette: Glad to have you ever right here. So my first query, the query that popped into my thoughts after I first examine your exceptional new watch motor is, why make a tiny electrical motor now, at the moment, for an analog watch? Aren’t smartwatches taking up the wristwatch market now, the Apple Watch, and so forth? Aren’t these the factor everybody appears to be shopping for?
Louvigne: Yeah. Thanks for inviting us on this discuss. Thanks very a lot. What we will say is that within the quartz watch, there’s this know-how title Lavet motor since greater than 50 years. And should you open a basic quartz watch, you will note that there’s a motor that’s outdated know-how, electromagnetic know-how. And we invented at SilMach a brand new motor based mostly on essentially the most superior know-how and that’s absolutely suitable with electronics.
Zorpette: So you might have a specific technique or a type of watch in thoughts that you simply suppose will develop sooner or later?
Louvigne: The purpose is that this know-how is clearly devoted first to the smartwatch market as a result of this market is able to use these micromotors.
Zorpette: So that you don’t imply the smartwatch that most individuals consider, which is the Apple Watch, which has no arms in any respect. I imply, no bodily arms. It’s only a show display screen. You appear to be referring to what’s generally referred to as the hybrid smartwatch or the hybrid-connected wristwatch. Is that right?
Louvigne: Sure, it’s right. Sure. The target is to make it possible to any watchmaker, together with related watchmakers, that it’s doable now to make use of a motor to drive arms on a PCB, on the digital board. And providing this chance, we expect that these makers can design new watches.
Zorpette: So who’re a number of the firms that make these hybrid smartwatches?
Louvigne: I believe essentially the most superior firm is Withings.
Zorpette: Withings.
Louvigne: Withings. It’s a French model. And the market that they’re focusing on with the watch is the well being market. And we imagine that on this market, the individuals are prepared to have like a basic watch; they’ll say additionally classic look. And if you wish to try this, then you definitely want motor to drive the arms.
Zorpette: Bodily arms.
Louvigne: Bodily arms, sure, right.
Zorpette: So Withings is a giant title on this class, however there are others which are within the class, right?
Louvigne: Yeah, there’s Garmin. Everyone is aware of Garmin. Fossil additionally, that could be a massive participant. They’re all searching for part of the market. Garmin is extra for sport exercise. Fossil is extra on vogue design. And Withings is for well being.
Zorpette: So for listeners who may not be conversant in it, this can be a wristwatch. And while you take a look at it, it appears to be like like an old-school, a traditional analog wristwatch. Nevertheless, they usually have small digital screens that present info. And in reality, the watch may also usually hook up with your smartphone, so it could possibly collect knowledge out of your smartphone. These watches usually have accelerometers or blood strain displays and so forth in them. So that they usually have lots of electronics, as a result of not solely have they got these sensors, however they’ve acquired to have the motors. And if I perceive you accurately, your motor is extra compact and environment friendly, which provides you benefits on this house.
Louvigne: Sure, proper. One of many massive benefits of the motor is that it is extremely compact. Roughly, you acquire 50 % in quantity. Could possibly be footprint, could possibly be top, about 50 %. So it’s [crosstalk].
Zorpette: 50 % extra room contained in the watch case.
Louvigne: Sure, sure, sure. And as you stated, successfully in such a watch, you might have lots of very superior know-how. And now the motor is as superior as the opposite perform within the watch. That’s the massive distinction now.
Zorpette: So inform us slightly bit about your wristwatch motor. I imagine you name it the MEMS field is the way you seek advice from it. What are the benefits that your watch motor has if you’ll combine it with different electronics on a tiny circuit board that goes inside a wristwatch?
Louvigne: The very massive change in comparison with the present know-how, the Lavet one, is that the MEMS box–
Zorpette: So the prevailing motor is named the Lavet motor—
Louvigne: Yeah, the Lavet motor.
Zorpette: —as you talked about.
Louvigne: From the title of the inventor, Marius Lavet. He was a French man within the ‘30s, 1936, precisely. And he invented this know-how that’s in every of quartz watch in the present day, a couple of billion of quartz watch. So this know-how is the one one you need to use up to now, okay? However the motor isn’t coming from the electronics. So it’s electromagnetic. It’s like a cumbersome micromotors, and it’s important to screw the motor on the PCB. Screw it. So that you think about the price of screwing a motor on a PCB. In our case, the MEMS field is designed to be SMT-compatible.
Zorpette: So that you simply use floor mount soldering know-how to mount it proper to the circuit board?
Louvigne: Sure, right. It’s like another digital part. You may deal with it and clear up it on the PCB as one other one.
Zorpette: So Jean-Baptiste, what are a number of the benefits now with this motor? What are a number of the issues that you simply now have in your watch that you simply couldn’t have with the old-style Lavet motor?
Carnet: Sure. As Pierre-Francois talked about, it’s extra compact. It’s a lot thinner. And contained in the hybrid smartwatch, individuals should think about that nearly half of the house contained in the watch is definitely devoted simply to the micromotor as it’s in the present day. And the little sensors, all of the know-how, all of the know-how of the manufacturers which are developed in the present day, they’ve to regulate round half of the house already being taken by the micromotor. So it’s by far the largest half within the watch, and making it far more compact, about 50 %, a lot thinner, both permits for brand spanking new designs of watches the place you could possibly make a lot smaller watches. For instance, we all know that the Garmin watches are fairly cumbersome. Or you could possibly maintain the identical design as in the present day, however implement extra know-how within it as a result of you might have extra space, or make it last more with an even bigger battery, for instance, since you freeze numerous house. In order that’s a giant level. The SMT compatibility can be very attention-grabbing as a result of as you do away with the labor-intensive side of assembling a watch, you’re now free to assemble it wherever you need. You don’t have to possibly go to a rustic the place labor is extra reasonably priced. You may think about assembling it in Europe, assembling it within the US, which is presently not doable. Additionally, the motor is anti-magnetic, which is attention-grabbing as a result of the sensor interactivity can derail the present motor slightly bit, or the interplay with magnets inside the lady’s purse, for instance. Watchmakers instructed us, “Oh, that’s a really attention-grabbing characteristic as a result of it’s an issue now we have proper now.”
Zorpette: How in regards to the power utilization and the precision of the tick marks because it goes across the face of the watch?
Carnet: Yeah. That’s additionally one side of it’s, first, the motor is consuming much less power additionally than present know-how. So you’ll be able to think about having an extended battery life as nicely. That’s why the watch we’re launching with the know-how can supply greater than 10 years of battery on a daily battery that you could purchase wherever. And in addition, as you stated, the liberty of motion is a vital characteristic as a result of the motor is just about electronics. You may program it, pilot it nevertheless you need. You may have it go ahead, backward, sooner, slower. And what watch fans have an interest about is you’ll be able to both have it tick, for instance, the seconds like a standard quartz watch, or you’ll be able to have it make a way more fluid motion, which is considerably of a holy grail for watch fans. In order that’s issues that develop into doable with our know-how that was not with conventional ones. And that’s what watch designers since we unveiled the know-how a pair weeks in the past, and we’ll carry on doing it at CES Engineering.
Zorpette: So right here’s my very own pet peeve about watches. After I was a younger man and I did lots of scuba diving, I truly had a watch that had tiny tritium gasoline markings, so it glowed on a regular basis. It didn’t must be charged with a vivid gentle. And I cherished this watch as a result of I may learn it clearly underwater. Even at evening, it was vivid sufficient. And in addition, at evening after I was sleeping, if I awakened in the midst of the evening and the watch was on my bedside desk, I may see what time it was with out having to show a lightweight on or something like that. And I do know that these watches may be difficult. They go lifeless after 5 – 6 or seven years as a result of the tritium half-life, they’re too dim to learn. However I’ve all the time puzzled if it could be doable utilizing maybe some ultra-efficient light-emitting diode or different know-how to recreate that someway. In the event you had sufficient house for a battery and different energy provides, should you had sufficient room within the case, should you may create these watches, which have been fashionable at one time. In the event you return even to World Warfare II, they made watches utilizing radium and so forth. It simply appeared such a sensible factor after I had it, aside from the truth that it went lifeless. However is that extra doable now, technologically, with a really tiny and environment friendly motor?
Louvigne: Yeah, clearly it’s doable. I don’t know if you recognize a number of the watch coming from Timex. They’ve a particular patent on that. It’s like a luminescent dial that offers you the chance to see what time is it even at the hours of darkness, absolutely darkish. So sure, it’s doable to mix the know-how with different ones offering such a consequence. Yeah.
Zorpette: So that you talked about Timex. And in reality, that will get me into my subsequent query, which is, have you ever had curiosity from any main watchmakers but in your MEMS field motor?
Louvigne: Sure, we all know most of them— we all know most of them as a result of these firms, they have been searching for the progress we made on the know-how. So now we have been involved with them for greater than 15 years. So sure, it’s accomplished. The actual partnership now we have with Timex was based mostly on the truth that we’re a small firm. We’re about 30 individuals in France. We’re within the good area for watchmaking as a result of it’s the previous one. Previously, there was an enormous exercise in watchmaking business. So we’re within the good area for that. And there’s one essential companion now we have that could be a subsidiary of Timex in France. And this firm named Fralsen is making all of the small components utilized in quartz actions. So it was apparent that the— not the compatibility, however the synergy between our very new know-how and people basic components was very attention-grabbing. After which we went to the Timex Group and we determined to construct a three way partnership, so a standard firm that’s based mostly in France, and the title is TiMach. Timex, SilMach, TiMach.
Zorpette: TiMach. Okay. And so sooner or later, we could also be seeing this motor in watches from Timex or different firms.
Louvigne: Yeah. I imply, the target of the three way partnership is to promote the know-how everywhere in the world. It’s clearly not particular to Timex. They may use it of their watch. However no, it’s open to the market extensively.
Zorpette: So I assume one other query that may be on the minds of a few of our listeners is, why did it take so lengthy for somebody to harness the know-how of silicon microelectromechanical techniques or silicon MEMS? We talked about that silicon MEMS know-how has been round for many years, 20 or 30 years, so far as I do know, however yours is the primary to harness it for a wristwatch motor. Was there some challenges that delayed this use?
Louvigne: Sure. Clearly, what we’re doing could be very distinctive as a result of there isn’t a different firm and even college that made this growth, okay? That is very distinctive as a result of, in reality, we’re combining the MEMS know-how that could be very superior. You need to go in clear rooms to fabricate the silicon. However as quickly as you’ll end the silicon components, you made solely part of the journey growth, okay? You need to mix these silicon components with extra basic components coming from the watchmaking business. And that is what we do. We name this hybridization, that means that we join the silicon with basic micromechanics. And we’re the one firm that makes that on this planet. So now we have invented the motor, however now we have additionally invented the know-how for the meeting. That is fully new. And now we have patents in each sectors. So yeah, you want lots of time for growing all these steps of the method.
Zorpette: Effectively, thanks each very a lot. Once more, I’ve been speaking with Pierre-Francois Louvigne and Jean-Baptiste Carnet. They’re each with SilMach, and so they have a exceptional silicon MEMS wristwatch motor referred to as the MEMS field. And we’ve heard loads in regards to the promise and challenges of this watch. For IEEE Spectrum’s Fixing the Future, I’m Glenn Zorpette and I hope you’ll be a part of us subsequent time.