Glenn Zorpette: Hey 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 let you know that you may get the newest protection from a few of Spectrum‘s most vital beats – together with AI, local weather change, and robotics – by signing up for considered one of our free newsletters. Simply go to spectrum.ieee.org/newsletters to subscribe.
Digital quartz watches arrived on the scene round 1970, and even right this moment, they’ve benefits over their smartwatch brethren with batteries that final years, not days. However the motor that drives the hour and minute palms of the watch hasn’t actually modified since then. Now, French firm SilMach is utilizing a brand new wristwatch to reveal its superior silicon MEMS know-how with a brand new watch motion that’s so environment friendly you would possibly solely want to alter 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 likewise 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, right now, for an analog watch? Aren’t smartwatches taking on 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 speak. Thanks very a lot. What we are able to say is that within the quartz watch, there’s this know-how identify Lavet motor since greater than 50 years. And when you open a basic quartz watch, you will notice that there’s a motor that’s previous know-how, electromagnetic know-how. And we invented at SilMach a brand new motor primarily based on probably the most superior know-how and that’s absolutely appropriate with electronics.
Zorpette: So you’ve gotten a specific technique or a sort of watch in thoughts that you just 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 palms in any respect. I imply, no bodily palms. It’s only a show display screen. You appear to be referring to what’s typically known as the hybrid smartwatch or the hybrid-connected wristwatch. Is that appropriate?
Louvigne: Sure, it’s appropriate. Sure. The target is to give the chance to any watchmaker, together with linked watchmakers, that it’s attainable now to make use of a motor to drive palms on a PCB, on the digital board. And providing this chance, we predict that these makers can design new watches.
Zorpette: So who’re a few of the firms that make these hybrid smartwatches?
Louvigne: I believe probably 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 consider that on this market, the persons are prepared to have like a basic watch; they’ll say additionally classic look. And if you wish to try this, then you definately want motor to drive the palms.
Zorpette: Bodily palms.
Louvigne: Bodily palms, sure, appropriate.
Zorpette: So Withings is a giant identify on this class, however there are others which can be within the class, appropriate?
Louvigne: Yeah, there’s Garmin. Everyone is aware of Garmin. Fossil additionally, that could be a massive participant. They’re all in search of 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 aware of it, this can be a wristwatch. And once you take a look at it, it seems to be like an old-school, a traditional analog wristwatch. Nonetheless, they typically have small digital screens that present info. And actually, the watch also can usually connect with your smartphone, so it might collect information out of your smartphone. These watches typically have accelerometers or blood strain displays and so forth in them. So that they usually have loads 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 appropriately, your motor is extra compact and environment friendly, which supplies you benefits on this area.
Louvigne: Sure, proper. One of many massive benefits of the motor is that it is vitally compact. Roughly, you achieve 50 % in quantity. Might be footprint, might be peak, 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 this kind of watch, you’ve gotten loads of very superior know-how. And now the motor is as superior as the opposite perform within the watch. That’s the large distinction now.
Zorpette: So inform us a bit bit about your wristwatch motor. I consider you name it the MEMS field is the way you consult with it. What are the benefits that your watch motor has if you will 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 identify 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 right this moment, multiple 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, appropriate. It’s like some other digital element. You possibly can deal with it and resolve it on the PCB as one other one.
Zorpette: So Jean-Baptiste, what are a few of the benefits now with this motor? What are a few of the issues that you just now have in your watch that you just 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, folks should think about that just about half of the area contained in the watch is definitely devoted simply to the micromotor as it’s right this moment. And the little sensors, all of the know-how, all of the know-how of the manufacturers which can be developed right this moment, they’ve to regulate round half of the area already being taken by the micromotor. So it’s by far the most important half within the watch, and making it far more compact, about 50 %, a lot thinner, both permits for brand new designs of watches the place you possibly can make a lot smaller watches. For instance, we all know that the Garmin watches are fairly cumbersome. Or you possibly can preserve the identical design as right this moment, however implement extra know-how within it as a result of you’ve gotten extra space, or make it last more with an even bigger battery, for instance, since you freeze various area. In order that’s a giant level. The SMT compatibility can also be very fascinating as a result of as you eliminate the labor-intensive side of assembling a watch, you’re now free to assemble it anyplace you need. You don’t have to possibly go to a rustic the place labor is extra inexpensive. You possibly can think about assembling it in Europe, assembling it within the US, which is at the moment not attainable. Additionally, the motor is anti-magnetic, which is fascinating as a result of the sensor interactivity can derail the present motor a bit bit, or the interplay with magnets inside the girl’s purse, for instance. Watchmakers advised us, “Oh, that’s a really fascinating characteristic as a result of it’s an issue we’ve proper now.”
Zorpette: How concerning 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 possibly can think about having an extended battery life as effectively. 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 may purchase anyplace. And likewise, as you stated, the liberty of motion is a crucial characteristic as a result of the motor is just about electronics. You possibly can program it, pilot it nevertheless you need. You possibly can have it go ahead, backward, quicker, slower. And what watch lovers have an interest about is you possibly can both have it tick, for instance, the seconds like a conventional quartz watch, or you possibly can have it make a way more fluid motion, which is considerably of a holy grail for watch lovers. In order that’s issues that develop into attainable 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 are going to carry on doing it at CES Engineering.
Zorpette: So right here’s my very own pet peeve about watches. Once I was a younger man and I did loads of scuba diving, I truly had a watch that had tiny tritium fuel markings, so it glowed on a regular basis. It didn’t should be charged with a shiny mild. And I cherished this watch as a result of I might learn it clearly underwater. Even at night time, it was shiny sufficient. And likewise, at night time after I was sleeping, if I awoke in the midst of the night time and the watch was on my bedside desk, I might see what time it was with out having to show a light-weight on or something like that. And I do know that these watches will be tough. They go useless after 5 or 6 or seven years as a result of the tritium half-life, they’re too dim to learn. However I’ve all the time questioned if it could be attainable utilizing maybe some ultra-efficient light-emitting diode or different know-how to recreate that in some way. In the event you had sufficient area for a battery and different energy provides, when you had sufficient room within the case, when you might create these watches, which had been in style at one time. In the event you return even to World Conflict II, they made watches utilizing radium and so forth. It simply appeared such a sensible factor after I had it, apart from the truth that it went useless. However is that extra attainable now, technologically, with a really tiny and environment friendly motor?
Louvigne: Yeah, clearly it’s attainable. I don’t know if a few 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 attainable to mix the know-how with different ones offering such a outcome. Yeah.
Zorpette: So that you talked about Timex. And actually, 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 had been in search of the progress we made on the know-how. So we’ve been involved with them for greater than 15 years. So sure, it’s achieved. The actual partnership we’ve with Timex was primarily based on the truth that we’re a small firm. We’re about 30 folks 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 trade. So we’re within the good area for that. And there’s one vital companion we’ve that could be a subsidiary of Timex in France. And this firm named Fralsen is making all of the small elements 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 elements was very fascinating. After which we went to the Timex Group and we determined to construct a three way partnership, so a standard firm that’s primarily based in France, and the identify 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’ll use it of their watch. However no, it’s open to the market extensively.
Zorpette: So I assume one other query that is perhaps 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 programs 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 may be very distinctive as a result of there isn’t a different firm and even college that made this improvement, okay? That is very distinctive as a result of, actually, we’re combining the MEMS know-how that may be very superior. You need to go in clear rooms to fabricate the silicon. However as quickly as you’ll end the silicon elements, you made solely part of the journey improvement, okay? You need to mix these silicon elements with extra basic elements coming from the watchmaking trade. And that is what we do. We name this hybridization, which means that we join the silicon with basic micromechanics. And we’re the one firm that makes that on the earth. So we’ve invented the motor, however we’ve additionally invented the know-how for the meeting. That is utterly new. And we’ve patents in each sectors. So yeah, you want loads of time for creating all these steps of the approach.
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 known as the MEMS field. And we’ve heard loads concerning the promise and challenges of this watch. For IEEE Spectrum’s Fixing the Future, I’m Glenn Zorpette and I hope you’ll be part of us subsequent time.
