Fidget spinners are everywhere these days, but if you’re looking for ultimate performance, there is nothing like the Saturn Spinner, a marvel of engineering that can spin continuously longer than any other fidget spinner on the market – over 12 minutes.
Dubbed the “Rolls Royce of fidget spinners”, the Saturn Spinner was developed by a subsidiary of NSK, a Japanese precision machining company that specializes in ball bearings for satellites and computer drives. It is designed to resemble a ship’s wheel, with added weights on the outer ring and a light aluminium ball bearing in the center, to increase centrifugal force. It was designed to spin continuously for at least 12 minutes, so each manufactured toy is tested for performance, with those that fail to pass the 12-minute threshold being dismantled, cleaned, reassembled and retested until they can be certified as “compliant”.
Photo: NSK Micro Precision
There is no room for error when making the ultimate fidget spinner. Everything has to be calculated to the tiniest detail and even a few dust particles can affect the toy’s spinning ability. So workers at the pristine factory in Fujisawa have to wear special clothing, gloves and medical masks, as well as pass through air showers that blow off even the tiniest dust particles, before entering the work space.
“We’re confident that ours is the longest spinner around,” said Toshikazu Ishii, president of NSK Micro Precision. He claims that the Saturn Spinner relies on a special type of ball bearing, similar to those used in certain hard drives. It has the most fluid rotation of all the ball-bearings made by the Japanese company.
Photo: NSK Micro Precision
So why would a ball bearing company go through the trouble of creating the ultimate fidget spinner? Well, Toshikazu Ishii hopes that their newest product will get people interested in ball bearings, ubiquitous but often overlooked mechanical components.
“Hundreds of bearings are found in products all around us, but most people don’t see them or pay much attention to them,” the Japanese executive said.
Photo: NSK Micro Precision
AFP got a chance to test the Saturn Spinner, and even though it took three tries to pass the 12 minute spinning threshold, the agency reports that the toy whirled for 13 minutes and 35 seconds. On the previous two tries it stopped at about 10 minutes, which is still impressive, considering most fidget spinners can only rotate for a couple of minutes or less. Takahiko Hasegawa, a former yo-yo world champion and fan of the Saturn Spinner, claims that the best fidget spinners on the market, can only spin for 8 minutes.
As you can imagine, the Rolls Royce of fidget spinners is not cheap. While the average price of a fidget spinner is $12, the Saturn Spinner costs a whopping 17,280 yen ($157). It’s not the world’s most expensive fidget spinner, though. That title probably belongs to this solid gold toy sold by Russian luxury goods company, Caviar, for $17,000.
Photo: NSK Micro Precision
You can by the Saturn Spinner at SpinGear.jp, but it’s currently out of stock.
