Visual Learning machine
Mechanical watch: a spring released a little at a time
By @elvar_official, part of Visual Learning. Gear train and escapement: how a spring’s energy is shared out.
Made with ClaudeEnglishFreeNo account
Open on its siteThe question it answers
How does a single wound spring keep a watch running all day?
The steps
- 1Flip it over
- 2Wind it
- 3The heartbeat
- 4The gear train
- 5Take it apart
- 6Put it back together
- 7A day later
The big idea: A watch is a spring released one tiny step at a time. A balance wheel swinging 4 times per second lets the gears advance 8 steps every second, 691,200 a day, and a full wind lasts about 40 hours (typical figures for a modern hand-wound movement).
The question, steps and idea are translated from the original site.
What it is
A watch you open and see inside: the movement’s parts one by one, how winding drives the whole gear train and the complete watch running.
- Visual Learning machine 18
- Step-by-step and Auto mode
- Also shared by @0x_fokki
Use it on the roadmap
- Stage 5. Complete systems
How motion is passed along a gear train.
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