B.R.M Innovation — 2014
Six springs. One free-floating movement. No limits.
The observation
This is horological dogma. The vibrations from a steering wheel, a racquet, an aerobatic manoeuvre saturate a mechanical calibre in mere minutes — misalign pivots, fatigue the balance, and destroy precision.
B.R.M Chronographes has rejected this dogma. Shock Absorbers technology at last makes it possible to wear an automatic watch where, until now, only quartz survived.
The principle
Rather than anchoring the calibre in the case, we allow it to float. Six helical steel springs — three on the dial side, three on the case-back side — surround the movement and mechanically isolate it from the case middle.
When a shock strikes the case, the energy is absorbed by the springs before reaching the calibre. The movement, meanwhile, remains in its own world: protected, stable, free to continue its tick-tock.
The Shock Absorbers system and the models that carry it are registered with the INPI .
Top view — 120° distribution
The three springs are distributed symmetrically around the movement: absorption is the same regardless of the direction of impact.
Cross-section view — the vertical sandwich
Three springs on the front, three on the back. The movement is literally suspended between two layers of shock absorbers, with no rigid contact with the case.
Demonstration
The calibre is screwed to the case middle: every vibration reaches it unaltered.
The case moves just as much; the springs absorb, and the calibre stays where it is.
Track record
Innovation introduced by B.R.M Chronographes in 2014. Today, thousands of timepieces equipped with Shock Absorbers technology are worn on the wrists of racing drivers, golfers, tennis players and aerobatic pilots — all over the world.
For which uses
GT driving, endurance, single-seater. Steering wheel vibrations, lateral acceleration, kerb strikes.
Forehands, serves, backhands. Each ball-string impact is a micro-shock transmitted to the wrist.
The swing concentrates a brutal acceleration followed by a sharp impact. Lethal for a standard movement.
Barrel rolls, spins, +9G / −6G. Pressure on the calibre becomes extreme — the springs absorb it.
On the wrist
The three front springs are not hidden. They traverse the dial — visual signature of the innovation, and mechanical proof before the eye.
Fitted with Shock Absorbers
44 mm
The V6 in its Shock Absorbers version. A 44 mm case, the six-cylinder spirit and the freedom to wear it anywhere — from the paddock to centre court.
View the V6-44 SA46 mm
The V12 sublimated by shock absorbers. 46 mm of presence, twelve cylinders in tribute, and the guarantee to withstand pressure where energy is at its peak.
View the V12-46 SA38 mm
The most measured format of the house. Thirty-eight millimetres, the wrist free at the moment of the swing — and the same springs to absorb the impact.
View the GF744 mm
Forty-four millimetres for the course. The swing concentrates a brutal acceleration followed by a sharp impact: precisely what the shock absorbers are there to absorb.
View the GF6And on all the others
The V6-44 SA, the V12-46 SA and the two Golf models — GF7 and GF6 — carry the complete system: six springs, three of which traverse the dial and are visible.
But all other B.R.M watches have at least three, on the case back, hidden within the case. The movement ring rests upon them: the calibre is never screwed directly to the case middle, on any of our models. Every watch from the house therefore carries part of this system — the SA are those that double it and display it before the eye.
It is this promise — to wear haute horlogerie without relinquishing intensity — that has defined B.R.M Chronographes since its birth in the paddocks.
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