Formula 1 Grand Prix: High-beat watches that feed your need for speed

The most direct method of improving chronometry is to increase the frequency of the balance wheel, so brands have risen the bar from 3 or 4 hertz to 5, 8 and even 10 hertz One especially intrepid watchmaker has even gone up to the breakneck speed of 50 hertz - that's 360,000 vibrations per hour As one of the few companies able to rival Zenith in producing high frequency self-winding chronographs, Grand Seiko consistently produces new variations of the Hi-Beat 36000 year after year.

Cased in ceramic with a ceramic bezel, it has a 5-hertz movement Calibre F385 with silicon hairspring - not many diving watches are equipped with technical features as outstanding as these AUDEMARS PIGUET JULES AUDEMARS CHRONOMETER WITH AP ESCAPEMENT Nicknamed the ChronAP, this watch is the first commercially available model by the manufacture featuring Audemars Piguet's proprietary escapement, which runs at an unusual frequency of 6 hertz or 43,200 vibrations per hour.

Trust Breguet to shatter watchmaking conventions with a movement oscillating at a frequency that's not just high but crazy-high The Defy Lab replaces the balance wheel, hairspring and escapement with a silicon wafer-thin disc that flexes at a very high frequency, 15 hertz, which translates to 108,000 vibrations per hour. . Source