The METAS watt balance Mark II experiment: Progress report

In the context of the future definition of the mass unit, a promising approach is to link the kilogram to the Planck constant using, for example a watt balance. The Federal Institute of Metrology METAS is pursuing this route and is currently setting up a second version of the experiment. This METAS watt balance Mark II experiment is now assembled and ready for the first experimental tests. The design and the operation are described in this paper, and the first results should be available at the time of the conference.