Glenn Zorpette: Good day and welcome to Fixing the Future, an IEEE Spectrumpodcast the place we have a look at concrete options to some huge issues. I’m your host, Glenn Zorpette, Editorial Director at Spectrum. And earlier than we begin, I simply wish to let you know which you could get the newest protection from a few of Spectrum‘s most necessary 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 at the moment, they’ve benefits over their smartwatch brethren with batteries that final years, not days. However the motor that drives the hour and minute fingers 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 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 are able to say is that within the quartz watch, there’s this know-how identify Lavet motor since greater than 50 years. And in case you open a basic quartz watch, you will notice that there’s a motor that’s outdated know-how, electromagnetic know-how.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 totally suitable with electronics.
Zorpette: So you might have 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 fingers in any respect. I imply, no bodily fingers. It’s only a show display. 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 related watchmakers, that it’s potential now to make use of a motor to drive fingers on a PCB, on the digital board. And providing this chance, we predict that these makers can design new watches.
Zorpette: So who’re among the firms that make these hybrid smartwatches?
Louvigne: I feel 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 will say additionally classic look. And if you wish to do this, then you definitely want motor to drive the fingers.
Zorpette: Bodily fingers.
Louvigne: Bodily fingers, sure, appropriate.
Zorpette: So Withings is an enormous identify on this class, however there are others which might be within the class, appropriate?
Louvigne: Yeah, there’s Garmin. Everyone is aware of Garmin. Fossil additionally, that could be a huge participant. They’re all on the lookout for part of the market. Garmin is extra for sport exercise. Fossil is extra on trend design. And Withings is for well being.
Zorpette: So for listeners who won’t be aware of it, it is a wristwatch. And while you have a look at it, it appears like an old-school, a standard analog wristwatch. Nevertheless, they usually have small digital screens that present info. And in reality, the watch may also sometimes connect with your smartphone, so it might probably collect knowledge out of your smartphone. These watches usually have accelerometers or blood strain screens and so forth in them. So that they sometimes have loads of electronics, as a result of not solely have they got these sensors, however they’ve obtained to have the motors. And if I perceive you accurately, your motor is extra compact and environment friendly, which supplies you benefits on this house.
Louvigne: Sure, proper. One of many huge benefits of the motor is that it is vitally compact. Roughly, you acquire 50 % in quantity. Could possibly 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 might have 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 little bit bit about your wristwatch motor. I consider you name it the MEMS field is the way you discuss with 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 huge change in comparison with the present know-how, the Lavet one, is that the MEMS box–
Zorpette: So the prevailing motor known as 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 at the moment, multiple billion of quartz watch. So this know-how is the one one you should utilize to this point, okay? However the motor is just not coming from the electronics. So it’s electromagnetic. It’s like a cumbersome micromotors, and you must 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 another digital element. You may deal with it and remedy it on the PCB as one other one.
Zorpette: So Jean-Baptiste, what are among the benefits now with this motor? What are among 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 nearly half of the house contained in the watch is definitely devoted simply to the micromotor as it’s at the moment. And the little sensors, all of the know-how, all of the know-how of the manufacturers which might be developed at the moment, they’ve to regulate round half of the house already being taken by the micromotor. So it’s by far the largest half inside the watch, and making it way more compact, about 50 %, a lot thinner, both permits for brand new designs of watches the place you may make a lot smaller watches. For instance, we all know that the Garmin watches are fairly cumbersome. Or you may hold the identical design as at the moment, however implement extra know-how inside 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 an enormous level. The SMT compatibility can also be very attention-grabbing as a result of as you do away with the labor-intensive facet of assembling a watch, you’re now free to assemble it wherever you need. You don’t must possibly go to a rustic the place labor is extra inexpensive. You may think about assembling it in Europe, assembling it within the US, which is at present not potential. Additionally, the motor is anti-magnetic, which is attention-grabbing as a result of the sensor interactivity can derail the present motor a little bit bit, or the interplay with magnets inside the lady’s purse, for instance. Watchmakers informed us, “Oh, that’s a really attention-grabbing characteristic as a result of it’s an issue we have now proper now.”
Zorpette: How in regards to the vitality utilization and the precision of the tick marks because it goes across the face of the watch?
Carnet: Yeah. That’s additionally one facet of it’s, first, the motor is consuming much less vitality additionally than present know-how. So you’ll be able to think about having an extended battery life as effectively. That’s why the watch we’re launching with the know-how can provide greater than 10 years of battery on a daily battery which you could purchase wherever. And likewise, 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 fanatics 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 fanatics. In order that’s issues that grow to be potential 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. Once I was a younger man and I did loads of scuba diving, I really had a watch that had tiny tritium fuel markings, so it glowed on a regular basis. It didn’t have to be charged with a vibrant mild. And I beloved this watch as a result of I may learn it clearly underwater. Even at night time, it was vibrant sufficient. And likewise, at night time after I was sleeping, if I awoke in the course of the night time 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 useless after 5 – 6 or seven years as a result of the tritium half-life, they’re too dim to learn. However I’ve at all times puzzled if it could be potential utilizing maybe some ultra-efficient light-emitting diode or different know-how to recreate that in some way. When you had sufficient house for a battery and different energy provides, in case you had sufficient room within the case, in case you may create these watches, which had been standard at one time. When 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, apart from the truth that it went useless. However is that extra potential now, technologically, with a really tiny and environment friendly motor?
Louvigne: Yeah, clearly it’s potential. I don’t know if you realize among 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 midnight, totally darkish. So sure, it’s potential to mix the know-how with different ones offering such a end result. 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 had been on the lookout for the progress we made on the know-how. So we have now been involved with them for greater than 15 years. So sure, it’s achieved. The actual partnership we have now 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. Prior to now, there was an enormous exercise in watchmaking business. So we’re within the good area for that. And there’s one necessary associate we have now 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 typical 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 may use it of their watch. However no, it’s open to the market broadly.
Zorpette: So I suppose one other query that could 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 methods 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 any different firm and even college that made this growth, okay? That is very distinctive as a result of, in truth, we’re combining the MEMS know-how that could be very superior. It’s a must 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? It’s a must 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 we have now invented the motor, however we have now additionally invented the know-how for the meeting. That is utterly new. And we have now patents in each sectors. So yeah, you want loads of time for creating all these steps of the method.
Zorpette: Properly, 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 rather a lot 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.
