AS 1717

Description

The AS 1717, which debuted around 1963, was one of the most flat selfwinding movements of its time. When a height of only 4mm, it was perfect for being used in the ultra-modern ultra flat gold watches of the sixties.

Such a small height was possible, since the whole selfwinding mechanismus was integrated as a module into the movement and not put as an additional plate onto it.

The selfwinding module used here is a simple construction: The rotor drives a gear (not shown here), which drives the ratchet wheel. This wheel guarantees, in addition with a click spring, that the rotor only winds in one direction and is decoupled when the movement is hand wound.

The selfwinding module can be removed by releasing only two srews and uses a whole of seven jewels wherever possible.

AS experimented in the sixties with different selfwinding systems and wanted to find out whether a bidirectional winding rotor was superios to an unidirectional winding rotor.

Since all later AS selfwinding movements were unidirectional winding ones, it seems, as if this combination was not only cheaper and more reliable, but as more or at least as effective as a bidirectional winding system.

The rest of the movement also was very modern for its time - it already uses a decentral minute wheel which indirectly drives the center minute hand and is beared in two synthetic rubies.

This construction allowed the usage of a very large balance and of a very large mainspring barrel - both guarantee (together with the Glucydur balance and the blue Nivarox hairspring of the specimen shown here) best precision results.

The center second hand is directly driven and the hairspring stud is moveable. The effective length of the hairspring is regulated by a short regulator arm.

The AS 1717 uses an instantly switching date indication which can be corrected semi-fast by turning the hands back and forth.

The date mechanism, as common on AS movements, is very elaborate:
The date wheel at “6” drives a hammer mechanism at “7” and creates tension there. At midnight, the tension is released immideatly and advances the date ring.

Technical data

Usage gallery

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