January 2, 2005
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A Modern-Day Fairy Tale
Excerpt from THE MOONWATCH STORY
by William GalisonI have always been fascinated by the phases of the moon. In my own private mythology the Moon has been my ever changing but ultimately constant ally in the heavens, but everyone has their own deeply personal associations with the moon and its cycle. In fact, in every culture, from the dawn of human awareness, people have seen a reflection of their emotional and physical states in the phases of the moon, and have ordered their lives accordingly. I have often thought that the various crescents the moon shows us must be genetically imprinted in our brains, as they have been gazed at and interpreted since our ancestors were swinging from trees. Pondering these thoughts one moonlit night, it struck me that since the moon is round and the face of a watch is round- couldn't there be a way of representing the phase of the moon on the entire face of a watch? This simple notion set me on an eight year adventure that has culminated in the production of the MoonWatch.
For the first several months I drew complicated sketches of mechanical approaches to this challenge- interlocking discs, springs, fluids. I'm sure I was attempting what countless minds far better than mine had tried before- and I didn't get far. When I mentioned the problem to a friend one day, his immediate reaction was "how about an LCD (Liquid Crystal) display?" This seemed like an excellent (and obvious) approach- but the aesthetics of LCD were a concern. I thought of the ugly gray-green displays on my calculator and digital watch. Although they had improved quite a bit over the previous decade this technology didn't seem worthy of representing the glorious moon. LCD is still basically a polarizing technology, meaning that it will generally absorb at least 50% the incoming light, hence the dark background and low contrast (a white piece of paper, on the other hand, reflects up to 94% of incoming light). LCD screens on computers and TV's are sufficiently bright because they are transmissive (illuminated from behind), This approach is not practical on a wristwatch display because the backlight would drain the battery within days. Nevertheless, I spent the next several months examining LCDs on every watch, cell phone and calculator I could find- hoping to see some quantum improvement in the contrast and color of the display- but to no avail. At this point that I had no experience with either electronics or watchmaking- though I've always loved watches. I am a musician by profession, but once I get my mind on a challenge I tend to dwell on it endlessly- and this had me hooked. . . .
. . . For the display, I asked Tim to exaggerate- to indulge my imagination. "Make it blue and white" I said- "maybe some day they'll make an LCD like that- And paint only the subtlest lines between the segments- maybe they'll be able to do that someday too."
Tim's illustration was the second event that really inspired me to go forward. It was a gorgeous rendering of the watch as I imagined it. Had he painted a "realistic" gray LCD display, I probably would have given it up right then. But being a real artist, Tim painted the MoonWatch looming huge over the sea like a rising moon, its bright white crescent reflected in the waves. In the foreground, in silhouette, sits a solitary figure on a craggy rock beneath an ancient tree. Now there was no turning back.
Around this time, a friend introduced me to Ken Hollandsworth, a mysterious fellow who had worked at several watch companies, including as a VP at Hamilton for several years. He was said to be an encyclopedia of watch knowledge and an occasional patron of young entrepreneurs such as myself. After carefully explaining my project to Ken, I proudly unveiled my beautiful painting, drawing it slowly from its blue velvet covering. He looked at the picture carefully and raised an eyebrow. "That's not LCD" he said, "LCD doesn't look anything like that". My heart sank. I had fooled myself with the pretty picture, but nobody else would believe it. "I know," I said sadly. He continued "That's electrochromics!" I had never heard the term. "Electro-what?" "Electrochromics..." he went on, " was an early rival to LCD technology- a few experimental watches were made in the late 70's, but they didn't catch on. EC displays didn't have the switching speed needed to count seconds, and they're difficult and expensive to make- but they're beautiful, and blue and white, exactly like your moon display". I was elated! Electrochromics was the answer! Unfortunately, I soon found out that electrochromic display technology was virtually a lost art. . . .
. . . To make an exceedingly long and painful story relatively short, I spent the next five years trying to develop a viable Electrochromic display. After a few months of searching, I tracked down one of the scientists who had invented the EC display over twenty years ago. While working for American Cyanimidin the 1970's, Gottfried Haake had developed an EC digital watch display for Seiko and Ebauches S.A in Switzerland. Fewer than two thousand pieces had been made before LCD displays- much cheaper to produce- wiped out the EC R&D programs, and the EC display was virtually forgotten. When I asked Dr. Haake what became of the few EC watches produced in the 70's he rolled up his sleeve and showed me the watch he'd been wearing for 20 years. "I've worn it every day" he stated proudly, "it keeps perfect time". I must admit that this was not a masterpiece of design. It had that boxy, technical look of a '77 Chrysler. But the display, hallelujah! was blue on white, just as promised. The blue was a bit lighter than I wanted, but Haake explained that this represented a compromise between depth of color and switching speed. A digital watch segment must change every minute if not second, whereas each MoonWatch segment changes once every 15 days, and could have a much deeper color. . . .
From an article that appeared in issue #40 of International Wristwatch Magazine.
The full story can be found at
http://www.moonwatch.com/article.html
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