Such a thing as plans for a mechanical watch?

bmikkalson · Jul 4, 2015

Googled around a little and not finding much. Such a thing as plans for constructing a mechanical wrist watch?

SIP6A · Jul 4, 2015

The only thing I have found is a three volume set of books in French titled;
Fabrication Mécanique de la Montre by W. Favre-Bulle 1915

There is another one titled; Tourbillon our my passion by Steffen Pahlow
This one you can get here http://www.s1p.de/b/b/be.html

Forrest Addy · Jul 4, 2015

I found a set of watch plans years ago. Read the scale wrong: inches for millimeters and 1 to 4 instead of 4 to 1 scale. Before I knew it I had a watch 7 feet across and no strap big enough. Hell of a piece of horology if I do say so.

I donated it to the City where they put it in a tower they built special for it at city hall. It gleams to this day looking out over Fourth Street which was converted into a long skinny park.

But there was a problem: no-one who could fit in the tower was strong enough to wind it with the stem. OTH it was a self-winder so the only time it ran was just after an earthquake.

Ralph_P · Jul 4, 2015

B.S. Addy couldn't build a damn sun dial and make it work right. Notice he's posting in the middle of the night. He don't have a clue what time it is.

apt403 · Jul 4, 2015

I'd start here:

Watchmaking: George Daniels: 9780856677045: Amazon.com: Books

Then move on to his other books. That one is apparently the bible for mechanical watch making, however.

Here's an article about George Daniels, and his successor, Roger Smith:

Roger Smith Hand-Made Watches - A Visit To The Isle Of Man | aBlogtoWatch

I guess Roger Smith approached Daniels about become his apprentice - Daniels turned him down and pointed him towards that book. Two years later, Roger Smith comes back to Daniels with a watch he made. Daniels rejects it. Five years after that, Roger Smith comes back AGAIN and this time Daniel's takes him on as an apprentice. Takes something like 10 months to make on of those watches.

Might also want to study the work of Abraham-Louis Breguet. Widely regarded as a very important figure in the design of horological devices. Lived in the 1700-1800s.

Forrest Addy · Jul 4, 2015

Ralph_P said:
B.S. Addy couldn't build a damn sun dial and make it work right. Notice he's posting in the middle of the night. He don't have a clue what time it is.

Gimme a break! That was before I found out sundials work better outdoors.

Hazzert · Jul 4, 2015

Forrest Addy said:
That was before I found out sundials work better outdoors.

And during the day.

apt403 · Jul 4, 2015

Forrest Addy said:
Gimme a break! That was before I found out sundials work better outdoors.

I've got some great plans for a flashlight that'll work if you have time to calibrate the position. Trouble is, I can't remember if the drawings are 10:1 or 1:10...

Mechanola · Jul 4, 2015

I can’t understand the fascination of watches. Honestly, clocks and watches are the stupidest and vainest mechanical devices: they only tick away. What can you do with a watch? Nothing. You can’t shave yourself with one, you can’t grate cheese with one, not even help you pull a chip out your finger.

Nevertheless have I applied for a job as mechanic to rose engines. Guillochage, already the sound of that word is higher mechanics!

gwilson · Jul 4, 2015

We actually built an accurate copy of a 1715 sundial that had been out in a church yard for centuries. They finally decided to get a repro,and bring the real one into a show case(which I also built),before someone stole it. It was only held to a marble plinth(?)by some very loose brass pins.

According to the angle of the nomen(sp?)it actually had come from around here originally. Got taken North somehow,ending up in a church yard. My co-worker Jon found an 18th. C. sundial in a dumpster later on! Jon was always finding good stuff in the museum's dumpster. He found original 18th. C. prints,still framed,that careless clean up crews had dumped when emptying out offices. The Sundial was found in another county,though.

They (the gunsmith shop) also found the stock for a WHEEL LOCK rifle that had been dumped!! It was given back after a tussle with the curators.

Mcgyver · Jul 4, 2015

bmikkalson said:
Googled around a little and not finding much. Such a thing as plans for constructing a mechanical wrist watch?

There's a guy on the net somewhere who's done that, very nice job as well.

You may have to start from scratch.

There are some here who know a lot more than I, but my understanding is this: What is commonly called a watchmaker, is more accurately described as a watch repairman. The actual manufacturer of a watch brings together dozens of different trades; so unless you're the overall designer of the movement, there isn't really one person (historically) who had responsibility for the, or made, entire watch so there's a general shortage of retired guys who'd be capable of A-Z making a watch, therefor there's not a lot of how-to's or drawing sets. You're proposing to do something not many do or know how to do.

Beyond just exquisite workmanship and design, a key reason for George Daniels high regard is that he was one of the first to design and build watches A-Z. Perhaps as result of the dwindling industry, more will be required to make the entire watch.

If you do this it will be a heck of an accomplishment. If your watch making experience is at that level, you probably already have a lot of the required design knowledge/theory and it would be sooo much easier with 3D cad

jscpm · Jul 4, 2015

Every watchmaker considers their designs to be super duper secret.

Their wills always have instructions to have all their plans to be buried with them. As an alternative some watchmakers keep the plans in an incinerator with a dead man's switch. So, as soon as they die (or are incapacitated) and release the handle, whoosh! the plans are turned into ashes.

Generally, the only way to get a real watch plan is to buy a watch, then take it apart and reverse engineer it. Then buy a safe so you can jealously guard the plans you so painstakingly reverse engineered, and don't forget to modify your will.

SIP6A · Jul 4, 2015

jscpm said:
Every watchmaker considers their designs to be super duper secret.

Their wills always have instructions to have all their plans to be buried with them. As an alternative some watchmakers keep the plans in an incinerator with a dead man's switch. So, as soon as they die (or are incapacitated) and release the handle, whoosh! the plans are turned into ashes.

Generally, the only way to get a real watch plan is to buy a watch, then take it apart and reverse engineer it. Then buy a safe so you can jealously guard the plans you so painstakingly reverse engineered, and don't forget to modify your will.

Where did you come up with this nonsense ?

Forrest Addy · Jul 4, 2015

SIP6A said:
Where did you come up with this nonsense ?

Not far from the truth. Read up on the medieval crafts, guilds, and trades. Used to be whole bodies of knowledge were sworn secrets - for example: leather tanning, fabric dying, surgery, shoe making, smithing, ship building etc. Many of old guild practices may be found in modern fraternal organizations and political parties including heavy sanctions for divulging sensitive information.

The craft of watchmaking is comparatively recent but no less exclusive. European mechanical watchmakers served long exhaustive apprenticeships and had to work under several masters before they were certificated as journeymen. Since their lore is largely unwritten, it's not surprising few watch designs were fully documented.

DMF_TomB · Jul 4, 2015

bmikkalson said:
Googled around a little and not finding much. Such a thing as plans for constructing a mechanical wrist watch?

.
you must be looking for a hobby. you want to spend tens of thousands of hours to make a watch probably not as accurate as a $5 fake Rolex.
.
look up history of longitude watch for accurate time keeping on a ship to better determine longitude and position of a ship
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison

billzweig · Jul 4, 2015

There is no shortage of information on watch design. Hundreds of horology books show the various layout of watch parts, be it a cylinder, lever or detent escapement, or carousel or tourbillon. I am not sure you will find engineering drawings with all the dimensions, but if you want to build a mechanical watch, the interesting part is designing it. Still, there is much more to making a watch than machining the parts. Horology is a big subject. In Europe, horology students did spend 5-6 years studying before finishing the school by making this "masterpiece" - a watch that will qualify them as "master watchmaker".

gwilson · Jul 4, 2015

How can any mechanical device be a SECRET,when all you have to do to copy it is take it apart and study it? How you made the parts might have secret methodology,but not the finished watch.

janvanruth · Jul 4, 2015

stefen pawlov has some videos on youtube you might want to check out, here is one of them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL35SAwDB6U

Mcgyver · Jul 4, 2015

DMF_TomB said:
.
you must be looking for a hobby.

well yeah, did you really some might of thought it was to save the $5?

There may be a living to be had, but if someone is that guy, they're not here asking for plans. The most difficult part would be developing the cache; people spend $20,000 on a fishing reel,,,,,but not just from anybody

Zahnrad Kopf · Jul 4, 2015

I asked a similar question a while back ( maybe a year by now ) and received similar answers. The short answer is what you've already been told. No, there are no readily available "kit" plans. As you progress ( if you choose this particular rabbit hole to go down ) you will find out the "why".

First, definitely get the Daniels book. Second, possibly check out the NAWCC's forum. And third, make some contacts. I was lucky enough that a few people from this forum have offered some of their time and assistance to me and it's been a benefit. I went into this knowing full well what I wanted to do was going to take a bit of time. I figured it would likely take a year or two given that I'm doing this in my "spare time". A year or so later I can say that it will likely take 5-8 years.

I've enjoyed the Daniels book, but admit that I'm getting hung up on the escapement. Right now I'm too busy with other things in life to worry too much about it.

Such a thing as plans for a mechanical watch?

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