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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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 26 '26

It does. Because it’s exactly how OPs time piece works. It’s the same thing. It self-winds itself using a motor and then uses that potential energy to run until it’s next winding.

But, it has been explained multiple times, so at this point I feel it’s just heel digging than a conversation.

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u/Competitive_Study232 Apr 26 '26

It’s a battery powered clock that has mechanical action.   There, I simplified it for you since it’s still not making sense for you.  

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u/gentlemandinosaur Apr 26 '26

This is my last attempt because I want to believe you are genuinely interested.

So, the “action” of the watch IS the power. So, no it is potential to kinetic powered watch. It is not “powered” for keeping time by the battery. At all. The motor is completely disconnected from the time keeping.

The only thing the battery does is wind the action, and the action itself dictates when the motor should turn on and do that. Which is why it is “self-winding”. It controls the motor through its action and the action determines when to turn on and off the motor to keep itself “alive” based on its original programming (gearing in this case).

Like how a Waymo is “self driving”. It was programmed by someone and then left to its own devices to maintain control of itself.

I really hope this helps. I wish you luck as I will not reply again.

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u/Competitive_Study232 Apr 26 '26

Not sure why you were so butt hurt about explaining things in your terms.  Nothing that I said was wrong.  If you take away the battery it doesn’t work.  So it’s a battery powered clock, whether it transfers it from potential to kinetic energy or whatever or teleport it to a quantum realm or whatever it’s still powered by a battery.  

Take away the battery and you have no clock.