AMVOX2 DBS Transponder
The AMVOX2 DBS Transponder incorporates a miniature transmitter system serving to lock and unlock Aston Martin DBS sports car, while maintaining the functions of the now famous vertical-trigger mechanism - the pushpiece-free chronograph. As the driver nears the car, all he need do is press the OPEN position on the watch glass (between 8 and 9 o’clock) in order to activate the door opening system, whereas doing the same thing on the CLOSE position between 3 and 4 o’clock will close the vehicle.
While it is relatively easy to understand how to operate the AMVOX2 DBS Transponder, actually making it represents a daunting challenge in both technical and design terms. In a first phase, the engineers focused miniaturising each part of the transponder in order to reduce it to a size that could fit inside a watch case featuring a thickness and diameter ensuring optimal user-friendliness and comfort – while also meeting the technical and security specifications inherent to the car itself. The end result is a module weighing just a few grams and less than half the size of the same system inside the DBS key.
Developers also had to take account of a major technical constraint. A mechanical watch acts like a Faraday’s cage that protects the movements from the influences of electrical fields that may adversely affect the rating precision. Therefore, in order to endow the timepiece with the proverbial reliability of Jaeger-LeCoultre movements and to enable the transponder to operate despite the neighbouring metal oscillating weight, an innovative antenna had to be created. The solution lay in placing the antenna as far as possible from the watch mechanism and the case, and lengthy research resulted in using the sapphire crystal as a medium. Measuring exactly 128 mm in length so as to guarantee an optimal range, the antenna is metallised on the inside of the sapphire crystal in a shape following the curve of the inner bezel ring and the hour-markers between 4 and 6 o’clock, and is connected at these strategic points to the locking control contact rectangles (OPEN and CLOSE). ■
