Ricoh 54722

Description

The Ricoh 54722, a Japanese-made automatic movement for men’s watches, is a piece that, at least in terms of the number of jewels used, ranks as a high-end movement from the 1960s.

The base of this well-crafted movement is the Takano caliber 544, a technically unremarkable, classically designed manual-wind movement.

Takano was a Japanese manufacturer that entered the market in the late 1950s but ran into such severe financial difficulties, so that after just a few years that it was acquired by Ricoh.

The classic construction is evident, among other things, in the central minute wheel, which is driven directly by the mainspring barrel.

Note that both the minute wheel and the mainspring barrel are jeweled!

As was common at the time, the Ricoh 54722 features a relatively tall gear train with a directly driven center seconds hand.

All pivots (except for the seconds wheel on the dial side) are fitted with cap jewels, with the movement-side cap jewels seated in Girocap combined settings. This represents a high-end solution, both technically and aesthetically.

The balance assembly of this swiss pallet lever movement is executed in a somewhat less spectacular fashion:
It employs a two-arm, monometallic, gold-colored ring balance, a choice that is technically perfectly adequate but feels completely out of place in a movement that is otherwise so superbly equipped. That said, it is mounted using a pair of KIF-Flector shock absorbers, a feature that could certainly be described as high-end.

Operating at 18,000 alternations per hour, it runs at a pace typical of the era; regulation can only be performed directly via the regulator arm, an area definitely open to improvement. Nevertheless, after 60 years (admittedly in NOS condition), the Ricoh 54722 performs within chronometer standards!

The entire automatic mechanism, which requires five bearings, is mounted on the gear train bridge.

It consists of two change gears, an additional change gear mounted on a lever, and a two-stage reduction gear.

The lever-mounted idler gear engages with the rotor and, depending on the rotor’s direction of rotation, drives one of the two idler gears. We are therefore dealing with a mechanical rectifier.

The second reversing wheel is mounted in a semi-floating arrangement beneath the automatic bridge, as a click mechanism (concealed) prevents it from rotating in the wrong direction.

Unfortunately, the automatic mechanism is not disengaged during manual winding (other movements use a friction clutch for this purpose, for example), resulting in unnecessarily high wear. Even a fully jeweled automatic winding system (with the exception of the wheel on the lever) offers only limited mitigation for this issue.

On the positive side, however, the Ricoh 54722 uses a ball bearing for the oscillating weight.

And this ball bearing is quite something: it consists of no fewer than twelve ruby ​​balls, all of which naturally contribute to the movement’s total jewel count, allowing it to draw attention with the, almost absurdly high and certainly highly marketable, figure of “45 Jewels.”

The dial side is rather unspectacular; naturally, there is a sliding pinion winding mechanism, and the KIF Flector bearing of the balance staff is clearly visible.

Technically superfluous, though it does boost the jewel count, is the cap jewel for the dry-mounted pallet arbor.

The rather simple date mechanism advances the date slowly and allows for semi-fast correction by turning the time back and forth between approximately 8 p.m. and midnight.

One final minor oddity of this movement is that the date ring itself is not supported vertically; consequently, it relies on the dial being mounted with minimal clearance so that the dial can provide the necessary vertical support for the ring. It is a somewhat makeshift solution for a movement that is otherwise rather over-engineered.

In the lab

Timegrapher result

Absolutely impressive! Even after more than 60 years, this very well made movement runs full within the chronometer specs!

Technical data

Usage gallery