Bulova Spaceview Accutron 2020 - How it really works

Wonderful urban legends are circulating in Italy about the functioning of the new Accutron Spaceview 2020. Among them is the one about the transmission of electrostatic energy from the wrist to the watch... by induction (!).
Together with colleague Diego Tamone (Corriere della Sera, @now_no_ordinary_watches) we therefore decided to clarify.
Let's make a premise. The Accutron Spaceview 2020 recalls the graphics of the Spaceview of 1960, the first electronic watch with a tuning fork oscillator, but is equipped with a new calibre patented by Bulova: the first watch movement powered by electrostatic generators and driven by an electrostatic motor.

 

The energy is created by the movements of the wrist, thanks to a central rotor identical to that found in mechanical self-winding movements (visible in the exploded view of the movement in the photo), although in this case it is an electronic quartz watch.
The rotations of the oscillating mass, thus caused by the movements of the wrist, move two 'turbines', which are nothing more than two electrostatic generators. The latter, instead of using the force of magnetic attraction and repulsion, use the force between (equal or opposite) electrostatic charges to generate electrical energy. The energy developed by the two generators is stored in an accumulator (probably capacitors), in the form of a potential difference that powers two motors: a normal electromagnetic motor - whose stator and coil are visible on the dial as in the old Accutron - for the hour and minute hands, and an electrostatic motor for the seconds hand, which moves in continuous motion.
Both the generators and the electrostatic motor can be seen on the dial: the two small 'turbines' of the generators, at the bottom, rotate quickly, while the large electrostatic motor moves with a much slower rotation.
The motion of the hour and minute hands and the seconds hand are synchronised, although powered by 2 different motors, by the integrated circuit in which the quartz oscillator is embedded. The result is a watch that offers an accuracy of +/- 5 seconds per month and is the second in the world with a seconds hand that moves in continuous motion, after - of course - Seiko's Springdrive.