What ‘High Beat’ Means In Watchmaking – And Some Modern Favorites

Watches are many different things to many different people, but the basic job of any watch is to tell the time. The accuracy of the watch has been improving steadily ever since the first watches developed from small clocks, around the beginning of the 16th century, and one of the most important changes that’s happened, is a gradual increase in how fast the watch ticks.

This rate is determined by the frequency of the balance. There are three ways to express this:

• Beats, or vibrations, per hour: One swing of the balance in one direction
• Oscillations per hour: Two full swings of the balance, in both directions
• Hertz (Hz): the number of oscillations per second

Beats per hour, or vibrations per hour, or hertz, are by far the two most commonly used. Almost all modern watches have a rate of 28,800 vph, which means if you had the patience and did nothing but count the ticks for a full 60 minutes, you’d count 28,800 of them. This breaks down to 480 ticks per minute, or 8 ticks per second, which works out to 4Hz

(For some reason, “hertz” is not capitalized but Hz is, despite the fact that it’s a guy’s name: Heinrich Hertz, a German physicist who was the first to prove the existence of radio waves. When he was asked what applications there were for his discovery, he replied, “None, I guess.”)

How A High Beat Watch Works

The current widely used rate of 4hz/28,800 vph isn’t the only option, though – some manufacturers make watches with a higher frequency, of 36,000 vph, which works out to 5Hz.

A higher frequency means that the rate of the watch is not as easily disturbed (by things like changes in position, temperature changes, and physical shocks). The reason is that increasing the speed of oscillation, increases energy in the balance. (Technically, this is an increase in angular momentum, which is just momentum, but rotating rather than traveling in a straight line).

There are just two ways to increase angular momentum: you can run the balance faster, or you can make it heavier. Watchmakers usually prefer a higher frequency, since a heavier balance is usually a larger diameter, and takes up more room in the movement.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.

A high beat, or high frequency, watch, is less disturbed by external forces, and more compact. They tend to produce more wear, and a lower power reserve, however.

A slow beat (18,000 vph/5Hz or less) can be very accurate as well. However, it takes longer to return to the right rate when disturbed.

In many cases, the modern standard of 28,800 vph is the best middle ground. However, some brands, for technical and historical reasons, make high beat watches as well. A high beat watch is any one with a frequency of 36,000 vph or higher.

The other place where a higher beat is an advantage, is in a chronograph. A faster beat means that the beats per second are higher as well, and that means you can measure elapsed time more precisely (a 28,800 vph chronograph’s second hand moves every 9th of a second; a 36,000 vph chrono second hand moves every tenth of a second.

The difference between a slow beat, massive balance, and a lighter, smaller diameter balance, is like the difference between a bullet and a freight train. Both are very difficult to disturb from their path, but in one case it is due to high velocity and low mass; in the other, it’s thanks to high mass combined with low velocity – and standing in front of either one is a terrible idea.

High beat watches offer slightly different visuals as well. Since the watch ticks faster, the seconds hand appears to sweep more smoothly across the dial.

History, And High Beat Watches Today

High beat watches are not a new idea – the oldest one anyone seems to know about was a 36,000 vph pocket watch, made by Josiah Emory in London, in the late 1700s (which is pretty wild; the watch seems to have been a prototype and not meant for sale). In wristwatches, they were not introduced in series produced watches, as far as I know, until the 1960s – two of the most famous were the Girard Perregaux Gyromatic Chronometer HF, which was guaranteed to run within a minute a month or the brand would adjust it for free; the other was the Zenith El Primero chronograph movement.

A couple of other brands also made high beat movements in that era, and along with Zenith, they all continue to make high beat watches today; they are Longines, and Grand Seiko.

The Ultra-Chron was originally sold by Longines starting in 1967.

The Ultra-Chron went out of production in 1974, but Ultra-Chron returned in 2022 with a new Ultra-Chron diver, and there are now two models with the Longines caliber L.836, in 36mm or 40mm, and sold on either a strap or bracelet. The Ultra-Chron is also a certified chronometer, with the testing done at TIMELAB in Geneva – unlike the COSC certification, which tests movements, TIMELAB tests the entire watch. At 37mm, it’s an absolute classic and a direct connection to Longine’s long history of precision timekeeping. See it here. 

The Zenith El Primero launched in 1969, and it nearly didn’t make it into the post-quartz era.

The Zenith El Primero was one of a group of three movements introduced within a few months of each other, in 1969. These were the first three selfwinding chronographs ever made; the El Primero is the only one still in production, and it was the only one of the three which had a high frequency movement. Famously, during the quartz crisis all the tools and machinery necessary to make the EP caliber were ordered destroyed, But Zenith watchmaker Charles Vermot disobeyed the bosses, hid the tooling in the factory attic, and eventually, Zenith was able to restart production.

It’s still one of the most advanced chronograph movements today, and the one you see above is a personal favorite: the A380 Revival, based on a model from the year the movement was first introduced. An absolute milestone in watchmaking, and a survivor too. See the Chronomaster Collection here. 

The modern Grand Seiko Hi-Beat is a technically advanced modern Hi-Beat, continuing a tradition which began in 1967.

Interestingly enough, the first Hi-Beat Seiko was not a Grand Seiko; instead, it was a watch in the long-discontinued Seiko Lord Marvel collection, in 1967. Grand Seiko Hi-Beat watches were launched just a year later, in 1968. These were amazing technical achievements at the time; the Girard Perregaux Gyromatic HF, the world’s first commercially successful high frequency watch, came out in 1966. Grand Seiko reintroduced Hi-Beat, 36,000 vph movements in 2020, along with a new dual impulse escapement, and now this high precision technology is used in a number of Grand Seiko watches.

Above is one of the most popular: the Grand Seiko Hi-Beat GMT, with “Shosho” dial. The word “shosho” refers to the season of high summer in the traditional Japanese calendar, and enthusiasts love it for the overall incredible quality in the finishing of the case, bracelet, dial, and hands – the 24 hour home-time hands are individually heat-blued over an open flame.See it here.

Other Modern High Beat Watches

While these three brands – Grand Seiko, Zenith, and Longines – all have longer histories of using high beat or high frequency movements, there are other brands which produce them, although in more complicated watches and in very small numbers. Among them are Breguet, and De Bethune.

Breguet launched, for its 250th anniversary, an exotic tourbillon which runs at an astounding 72,000 vph, and which has a first-ever escapement which uses tiny but powerful magnets. The Expérimentale 1 has a precision of ±1 second per day.

De Bethune is also one of the very few companies making high beat tourbillons. The DB28xs Sea Tourbillon, recently released, features a tourbillon which rotates once every thirty seconds (most tourbillons rotate once per minute) and a balance beating at 36,000 vph.

Three Things To Know

Are high beat watches always more accurate? Not necessarily. Actual precision in use may vary depending on the owner’s wearing habits, external environmental factors, and other mechanical characteristics of the watch. However, increasing balance frequency is a major strategy for improving precision in modern watchmaking.

Do high beat watches are so advantageous, why doesn’t every watchmaker use them? In many instances, the modern frequency most commonly found – 28,800 vph – offers an attractive combination of precision, combined with a good power reserve, and well understood performance characteristics. High beat watches are used by manufacturers to explore the upper limits of production watch engineering – and, in many cases, to connect to their own history of precision watchmaking as well.

Do high beat watches need to be service more often? We always recommend following the manufacturer’s suggested service interval, to ensure the watch is always running in good condition and that seals and gaskets maintain their integrity. At one time, high beat watches were a challenge to keep running for service intervals appropriate for slower beat watches but modern materials and high performance synthetic lubricants have largely closed the gap.