Glenn Zorpette: Howdy 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 you could get the most recent protection from a few of Spectrum‘s most necessary 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 at this time, 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 show 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 outstanding new watch motor is, why make a tiny electrical motor now, at the moment, 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 discuss. Thanks very a lot. What we are able to say is that within the quartz watch, there may be this know-how title Lavet motor since greater than 50 years. And should you open a basic quartz watch, you will note that there’s a motor that’s outdated know-how, electromagnetic know-how.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 form of watch in thoughts that you simply 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 generally referred to as the hybrid smartwatch or the hybrid-connected wristwatch. Is that right?

Louvigne: Sure, it’s right. 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 among the corporations 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 concentrating on with the watch is the well being market. And we consider that on this market, the individuals are prepared to have like a basic watch; they’ll say additionally classic look. And if you wish to do this, then you definitely want motor to drive the palms.

Zorpette: Bodily palms.

Louvigne: Bodily palms, sure, right.

Zorpette: So Withings is a giant title on this class, however there are others which are within the class, right?

Louvigne: Yeah, there may be Garmin. All people 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 conversant in it, it is a wristwatch. And if you take a look at it, it appears like an old-school, a standard analog wristwatch. Nevertheless, they typically have small digital screens that present data. And in reality, the watch may also sometimes connect with your smartphone, so it could possibly collect knowledge out of your smartphone. These watches typically have accelerometers or blood strain screens and so forth in them. In order that they sometimes have lots 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 house.

Louvigne: Sure, proper. One of many massive benefits of the motor is that it is rather compact. Roughly, you acquire 50 % in quantity. Might be footprint, may very well be top, 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 any such watch, you might have lots of very superior know-how. And now the motor is as superior as the opposite operate within the watch. That’s the massive distinction now.

Zorpette: So inform us a bit of 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 present motor known as the Lavet motor—

Louvigne: Yeah, the Lavet motor.

Zorpette: —as you talked about.

Louvigne: From the title 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 this time, a couple of billion of quartz watch. So this know-how is the one one you need to use to this point, okay? However the motor just isn’t coming from the electronics. So it’s electromagnetic. It’s like a cumbersome micromotors, and it’s a must 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, right. It’s like another digital part. You may deal with it and resolve 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 simply now have in your watch that you simply 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, individuals must think about that just about half of the house contained in the watch is definitely devoted simply to the micromotor as it’s at this time. And the little sensors, all of the know-how, all of the know-how of the manufacturers which are developed at this time, they’ve to regulate round half of the house 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 spanking 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 maintain the identical design as at this time, however implement extra know-how within it as a result of you might have more room, or make it last more with a much bigger battery, for instance, since you freeze various house. In order that’s a giant level. The SMT compatibility can 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 wherever you need. You don’t must perhaps 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 presently 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 of bit, or the interplay with magnets inside the lady’s purse, for instance. Watchmakers instructed us, “Oh, that’s a really fascinating function as a result of it’s an issue now we have proper now.”

Zorpette: How concerning 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 side of it’s, first, the motor is consuming much less vitality 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 an everyday battery you could purchase wherever. And likewise, as you stated, the liberty of motion is a crucial function as a result of the motor is just about electronics. You may program it, pilot it nonetheless you need. You may have it go ahead, backward, quicker, slower. And what watch fans have an interest about is you possibly can both have it tick, for instance, the seconds like a standard quartz watch, or you possibly can have it make a way more fluid motion, which is considerably of a holy grail for watch fans. In order that’s issues that change 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’ll carry on doing it at CES Engineering.

Zorpette: So right here’s my very own pet peeve about watches. After I was a younger man and I did lots of scuba diving, I truly had a watch that had tiny tritium gasoline markings, so it glowed on a regular basis. It didn’t should be charged with a vibrant mild. And I cherished this watch as a result of I might learn it clearly underwater. Even at evening, it was vibrant sufficient. And likewise, at evening after I was sleeping, if I awakened in the course of the evening and the watch was on my bedside desk, I might see what time it was with out having to show a lightweight on or something like that. And I do know that these watches might 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 questioned if it could be attainable utilizing maybe some ultra-efficient light-emitting diode or different know-how to recreate that someway. When you had sufficient house for a battery and different energy provides, should you had sufficient room within the case, should you might create these watches, which had been standard at one time. When you return even to World Battle II, they made watches utilizing radium and so forth. It simply appeared such a sensible factor after I had it, aside 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 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 attainable 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 corporations, they had been in search of the progress we made on the know-how. So now we have been involved with them for greater than 15 years. So sure, it’s carried out. The actual partnership now we have with Timex was primarily based on the truth that we’re a small firm. We’re about 30 individuals in France. We’re within the good area for watchmaking as a result of it’s the previous one. Up to now, there was an enormous exercise in watchmaking trade. So we’re within the good area for that. And there may be one necessary accomplice now we have 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 typical firm that’s primarily based in France, and the title 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 corporations.

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 may 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 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 could 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, in actual fact, we’re combining the MEMS know-how that could be very superior. It’s important 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? It’s important 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 now we have invented the motor, however now we have additionally invented the know-how for the meeting. That is fully new. And now we have patents in each sectors. So yeah, you want lots 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, they usually have a outstanding silicon MEMS wristwatch motor referred to as the MEMS field. And we’ve heard rather a lot 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.