Surprisingly, in the eighteenth century, horologists were already using air friction to regulate the speed of minute repeaters.

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Once dominant, these New Economy locomotives could run with negative friction, always picking up speed like some superconducting profit phenomenon.

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Taking this traditional idea of using air friction and refining it to control the speed of automatic winding, Urwerk has replaced the traditional rotating mechanisms of the past with miniature twin turbines that can be seen spinning on the back of the watch and are connected to the rotor.

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With little inertia, friction or drag, the wheel can be spun up to speed in a trice, and then made to dump its rotational energy back into the car's transmission in seconds.

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That lack of friction, combined with extraordinary sideways grip, means an iceboat can sail six times the speed of the wind.

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