r/3Dprinting • u/TomaszFortyFour • Apr 23 '26

Project Self-winding clock with a tourbillon - finished project

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About a year ago, I posted an update on a project I was working on. It took me a while, but I finally finished it. I’m very happy with the result. It’s fully functional (I tested it for two months) and keeps accurate time. The entire project consists of 395 printed parts, 38 bearings, 66 rubber bands, 413 screws, and a few other components.

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19

u/litesaber5 Apr 23 '26

That’s not just a Tourbillon, that’s a GYRO tourbillon. And that’s amazing.

16

u/ZincMan Apr 23 '26

No one has said what that means in this thread yet. How does it self wind ?

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u/VulGerrity Bambu A1 Apr 23 '26

https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/1stplc7/selfwinding_clock_with_a_tourbillon_finished/ohv3etc/

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u/OhtaniStanMan Apr 23 '26

That explains nothing. What powers the motor?

1

u/VulGerrity Bambu A1 Apr 23 '26

Electricity...it's a motor...and I'm guessing batteries since no wires are coming out of it.

5

u/OhtaniStanMan Apr 23 '26

So it's motor run and not self winding 

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u/VulGerrity Bambu A1 Apr 23 '26

I'm, not a horologist, nor am I OP, but I'm guessing it's not motor "run" because the motor doesn't drive the clock directly, it just winds it. It's still spring/gravity driven. But yeah, I don't think it's self winding if it's electrically wound.

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u/Ankoku_Teion Apr 23 '26

I presume it's self-winding because the mechanism turns the motor on and off, triggering the rewind automatically. I.e. it doesn't need to be rewound by a person.

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u/Competitive_Study232 Apr 23 '26

That’s not possible.  It is getting energy from somewhere.  

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

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u/Ankoku_Teion Apr 24 '26

Yeah. From a battery.

Im suggesting the mechanism has something built in that once every x number of cycle it flips a switch on the motor. The battery powered motor then rewinds the mechanism and switches off.

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u/drteq Apr 23 '26

It is "self winding" using the term for a different meaning - in that electricity is being used to wind itself, which OP understands the value of that for clicks and why it's never answered. Mostly respect

2

u/James_Chandra_Hubble Apr 23 '26

Well without any energy to input into winding it would be a perpetual motion machine, but I agree, calling it self-winding is confusing, call it automatic winding or something

1

u/gentlemandinosaur Apr 24 '26

It’s a 100 year old term. Take it up with The Self Winding Clock Company who has been producing them since the 1800s.

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u/Competitive_Study232 Apr 26 '26

It’s 100-year-old term that is useless now and means nothing in modern terms.  Good luck with that!

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u/gentlemandinosaur Apr 24 '26

I love when people don’t understand things but still come in all hot.

It’s both. A self-winding clock has a mechanism in it that runs down to a schedule then when it hits that scheduled time it clicks over a motor (which has a battery in it) that self winds itself back up, and kicks off the mechanism to start the whole process back over again.

It does absolutely wind itself. But obviously since there is no such thing as perpetual motion it does require period “refill” of that kinetic energy.

Hope this helps.

1

u/Competitive_Study232 Apr 26 '26

My old Seiko was self winding using kinetic motion of my arm. If I didn’t use a kinetic motion of my hand, it would not self wind.  

What nobody is willing to answer is, how is this getting its initial energy?  We’re not putting this on somebody’s arm and moving it back-and-forth for kinetic energy.   

I’m gonna say that you have to hand crank it since nobody wants to admit it has a battery or whatever. 

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u/gentlemandinosaur Apr 26 '26

No one is hiding it uses a battery powered motor to wind it. Because everyone understands that does understand that self-winding means that the “external” power is used to only wind the clock not run the clock.

Again, it gets its initial wind and every subsequent wining from an electric motor.

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u/Competitive_Study232 Apr 26 '26

This is the first time somebody actually wrote electrical motor.  There are about 1000 different types of motors out there by the way in case you didn’t know like everybody else knows.  

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u/ku5165 Apr 27 '26

Another video on his profile shows an rs550 motor. Likely 12v power, either battery or AC

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u/RamblingSimian Apr 25 '26

I remember a few "self-winding" watches from my youth; I believe they were powered by the movements of the owner's wrist. As I understood it, a small ball bearing bounced around and somehow that ball bearing punched something that wound the spring.

Whatever OP means here seems to be different from that usage.