Video corrections: 4:55 You can faintly see the ESCAPE WHEEL has a geared pivot underneath it that connects to the FOURTH WHEEL -- everything is connected all the way back to the MAINSPRING. I had a render error that made the gears not turn at the correct rate together, so they don't * appear * to be connected. But they are in a real watch.
Excellent representation. I have several mechanical watches and it's really nice to see the detail and get a clear explanation of the entire system. Thank you and congratulations on a lot of hard work.
Seeing the amount of detail you put into this animation is top notch. Kudos for a great job well done. Am really tempted to screenshot each of the parts to try and make a physical copy myself, if you don't mind 😁😁
The fact that hundreds of years ago someone’s mind was able to not only formulate this, but was them able to manufacture it by hand using archaic tools is absolutely mind boggling.
@@sakuraisp6974 Nah, it took hundreds of years to get to this point. Generations upon generations of artisans whose life was building clocks and other mechanisms.
in your mind there is a common bias in people, that our ancestors where dumb, they were not, thay had the same ingenuity since at least 200 thousand years
FINALLY someone explaining it with animations. Most Channels show expensive Shots of watches from the outside and start talking. Like it would help at all :/
i would argue that this will still leave people confused about how mainspring is releasing power... there is older video where its explained WAY better.... th-cam.com/video/rL0_vOw6eCc/w-d-xo.html
@@Zoltan1251 I watched that old video to learn it too! It's great. I think where I shine is actually building real, working models of things. Educational models and visual metaphors (like the water hose example from that vid) are great teaching tools. But I've almost never seen educational videos that rebuild the real thing, outside of limited teaching mockups. We think sound waves are flat, squiggly lines and atoms are floating balls, where in reality they look quite different from the drawings used to teach them. My focus is education, yes, but I assume the viewer is smart and would enjoy seeing the real thing, which is something we rarely get to see.
@@animagraffs Your video creation is amazing! I can't even begin to conceive how much work and time you must have put into it! What I liked most (from the educational pov) is that the video really let's you understand and see the beauty, the art and the engineering genius that goes into watchmaking.
@@animagraffs dont get me wrong... video is amazing... i just watched many videos and i never understood how power is trasnferred from main spring... i dont see it in this video either, so just for people to understand it better its always good to use education models... nobody will learn basic accounting from financial statement of megacorporation
Well the average quartz clock is more precise than the average mechanical, but I guess it is possible to make very, very precise mechanicals also - possibly beating common quartz clocks.
@@endreszatmari2302 Nope, not a correct guess. As said in the video, mechanical watches swing at about 6 times per second, give or take, but Quartz are measured in MHz (millions of oscillations per second), so a 5 dollar quarts watch is literally 1000000x more accurate than an average mechanic watch. Now how much more accurate can a “very precise” (and expensive) mechanical gear be? 100x better than the one shown in this video? I doubt it, but even then it’d still be 10000x worse than quartz.
in case anyone's wondering, this is a Unitas 6497 handwind movement. this movement was originally designed for pocket watches. so it's quite big. it only fits into big watches (at least 43mm in diametre). that also means it's one of the easiest to take apart and study since the components are also proportionally big. and it's also one of the simplist in terms of complications. most watches nowadays have at least a winding rotor (an asymmetrical weighted rotor that winds the watch using the momentum of your wrist movement) and a date function (an additional 24-hour counter with 31 clicks per rotation). not to mention some of the more complex functions like chronograph (stopwatch), minute repeater (chimes the precise time to the minute) and tourbillon (a revolving escapement) etc. some more complicated watches can easily have 3 to 5 times more parts than the watch shown in this video. now imagine doing all those purely mechanically within the space of a wrist watch. then imagine these technologies existing 200 years ago. yes they did.
Hello Stan, I enjoyed quite much your explanation. I am an wristwatch enthusiastic, and I´d like to know a place where I can learn online this art. If you can help, I tnahks.
A lot of the technology involving using gears to represent complex systems date back 1000 years or more. The Antikythera Mechanism from 200 BC used gears for an analog computer that showed eclipses and planet positions.
@@fallinginthed33p gears aren't what's ground breaking about watches. as you said complex geartrains existed ages ago. anotther example would be the ancient chinese inventing purely mechanical compass ("south-pointing chariot"}. that's a working differencial from 2 millennia ago. what's amazing about mechanical watches is the invention of escapment for precision timekeeping, as well as miniturisation of parts enabled by precision manufacturing.
The only video explaining how an impulse from the tip of the escapement wheel is kicking the pallet fork and thus delivering energy to the hairspring. Good job guys.
@Usharib Laeeq I agree with Commander Fadds. How it works is not complicated. Basically everything inside a basic watch can be shown and explained in a 8 minute video. How it works is not complicated, but the engineering behind it, how it was designed, and how the manufacturing process was planned is probably mutch more complicated.
Totally agree, I've never seen a video explain it so well and so good with the pictures / video. For me the restoration videos make a lot more sense as well
I am not a watchmaker of any kind but now I understand how a watch works and the job each part does in making an instrument that measures something that scientists are debating actually exists. wether time exists or not, time regulates our existence in this culture.
@@sakuraisp6974 some scientists say that time is only an illusion. other scientists say that time is the basis for reality. obviously, both can prove their point with logic but not with mathematics so no scientific proof. Very similar to a discussion between an atheist and a true believer regarding the existence of G(g)od. So does Time = God?
Other Expensive movements have only been modified a bit & have a better in its finishing for a reason to be more expensive. Except spring drive movement. it is a different one and specially created to be more precise and more softer in every second.
My father was a watch mechanic since 1979 to 2021 (42 years) While my childhood i don't have clue to know about his job. After seeing this video i realized he done a superb job as a successful watch mechanic👨🔧. But the sad thing is we lost him two months before because of cardiac arrest. Miss you so much daddy. . .
I've been into watches for some time now and had a pretty good understanding of how everything worked. This animation however brought the entire story to life and I could visualise the flow of forces, the precision and mathematics of gear ratios in my mind whilst you were explaining the mechanism. You slowed the animation down just enough to see each component transferring energy to the next, always changing and converting dynamically. It made perfect sense. It's an entirely logical process and this presentation is the best that I've seen yet that truly helps you understand not only how elegant, but beautiful simple work of daring and genius we all still celebrate even after the general utility is gone. Watches are different because they represent time and the bumps, bruises and scratches on our beloved watches each have a story interwoven between the pinions and pallets. Thank you my friend for explaining it so beautifully. Peace time ⏲️
Great vid! I'm a fan of mechanical watches and this provided a lot of good info on how the inner workings all come together. The precision to do this on such a small scale is unimaginable.
I have 3 questions If I wind my watch today...than its run whole day? I mean how many times it's run if I wind 10time? 2nd questions is that....if I wind today...its properly work next day also but if I will wind agin so it's defects my watch mechanism??? 3rd is that in some video first wind antilock wise and than clockwise.. why?? Every time do first anticlockwise and than clockwise???
I wore mechanical watches throughout my 48 year career as a electric utility field engineer banging around huge turbine generators, boilers, electrical gear, and all. Wore mostly Timex, and they got the crap kicked out of them constantly, but kept on running. Amazes me that all that action was going on inside the watch on my wrist....for decades.
@@IAmTheHound Mainly Timex, but also several Hamiltons and Bulovas, most of which were automatics. When the quartz's came along, had a few but still have always preferred mechanicals.
@@santaclause2875 ah I see you mentioned Timex in your first post also. And yes, the others - all well-engineered work horses that did their job, day in day out while probably looking pretty good and all. I love these marvels of human ingenuity and skill.
This was an awesome explanation. I’ve been a mechanical watch fan and owner for years and this is the first I have understood how all the pieces work together. Great animation and narration. Thank you!
How a mechanical watch worked had always remained a mystery for me. Main spring, hair spring, escape mechanism, balance wheel etc were mysterious terms for me. Many thanks for explaining the mechanical watch with superb graphics.
I was going to ask what movement this was... thought someone else might have asked or like you given me the answer! The person who posted should put it in the blurb... The movement here is much different than my Vostok...
@@bobbye4731 yupe this was only a watch with hour, minutes and seconds. There are minute repeaters, watches with moon phases, chronographs, perpetual calendars, ones that indicate the energy left, and so on ;)
Working with 4D-Designers each and every working day I can confess that this by far is the best explanation animation of the mechanism behind a mechanical watch on YT. Thanks so much. I wonder why it took me 18 months to find your channel.
I'm a rookie watchmaker. Thank you for putting this together. It's a fantastic teaching tool and has helped me with questions about how things like the keyless works operate, without a doubt better than any book at showing how it all works.
I am very impressed at the little impulse of power @ 5:39. That part is amazing. It's like a swing set that is horizontal instead of vertical, where they use a spring to simulate gravity. That's neat. Thanks for the explanation and video
This was both outstanding to view, and astounding in execution. I've watched repair and restoration of time pieces, but this was the first time it all made perfect sense. Thank you.
Outstanding animation. Thank you for the, probably hundreds of hours put into this work. When servicing a watch, I never tire of putting the balance back and getting a heartbeat as it starts up, always makes me smile.
I really have no idea how watchmakers were able to make such precision parts for hundreds of years. I know with modern CNC mills and tech you can make super close tolerance components but to be able to do it by hand on such a tiny scale is truly mind blowing
The fact that I've found your videos through multiple disparate subjects is a real testament to how great of a job you're doing. I love your stuff and they're incredibly informative.
@@rameesrahim760 I pretty much knew anyway but this helps. I would so love to spend some time in a watchmaking workshop and have a go at taking a watch apart and then successfully rebuilding it - imagine the sense of achievement.
Watching this video is such a visual treat. I thank you for giving us, that wonder, the explanation as to how it works. If AP (anatomy & physiology) was explained this way, instead of in black and white, we'd have a better, and wider understanding of the human body. Thank you so much for this outstanding video that made me understand all the better! Awesome...!
5:23 The most ingenious part of operation and why mechanical clocks/watches don't stall! I discovered that some years ago while repairing a springer/pendulum wall clock from the early 20th century, it blew my mind.
My understanding of it is that it works the same way, but underneath the support structure, there's a metal disk weight that can freely spin around a central point which will works on the mechanism that powers the mainspring the same way that turning the crown does.
I like the background music, was bopping my head while watching. Thanks for the video, my first watch was a mechanical watch. I’ve loved them ever since.
Great video. What's amazing to me is that well before the the introduction of computers and computer aided design, they could machine these parts to the required tolerance. Watches from the early 1900's were able to have such high precision. Amazing.
Your productions are amazingly good. I just obtained an automatic watch, and in my search to get a visualization of how it winds itself inside, I found this video, which isn’t exactly what I was looking for but was fascinating nonetheless. Please keep up the great work.
As a professional watchmaker, I'd like to say you did a fine job displaying and explaining how a simple timepiece operates. A couple of things I would have liked to see added, that weren't mentioned, is the fact all mechanical timepieces like this, require maintenance at a maximum of 5 year intervals. Vintage watches require maintenance every two years. You discussed the "synthetic jewels", but not their true function. And BTW, in vintage and antique watches, the jewels were genuine rubies. The jewels are designed to hold oil and work maintaining lubrication of pinions due to capillary action. This has been the case for hundreds of years. A typical watch like this normally runs at a beat rate of 18,000 bph which is much more common than the 21,600 bph you said is "standard. In the watches jewels, they're designed to carry oil and a watch like this requires 5 different types of lubricants to run properly. Great care must be taken in cleaning a watch, and applying fresh lubricants when its serviced. Watchmaking is a very in-depth technical field, which requires a lifetime of learning and skills to master. There's an almost uncountable number of variables not mentioned here, that directly affect the watches ability to keep proper time. From standard issues like isochronism, which is the variable power in the watch at different times, but yet the watch must always function at the same rate to be accurate, as if the power from the mainspring is a constant steady source of power, which it's not. A fully wound watch mainspring, applies much more power than a mainspring that's unwound near its end. Yet, we must ensure the watch keeps a steady rate in all varying power conditions. Lastly, "regulating" a watch, is MUCH more than adjusting the hairspring length. Full movement if the adjuster, only changes the rate by a minute or two per day. Proper "Regulating" is done in numerous areas of the watch, adjustment of balance wheel jewels, endshakes, etc.. A quality watch is regulated in 5 different positions, because due to the weight if the balance wheel, a watch runs at different rates, depending upon its position. ie. Crown up, crown down, dial up, dial down etc.. For a person wearing on the left arm, the crown down position is predominantly the position the watch will be in when worn. All of these factors are taken into consideration when "regulating" a watch. What might also be interesting, is to do this same animation but showing a complex watch, such as an autowinding chronograph. Most of which have upwards of several hundred parts, all which must be hand serviced individually to ensure proper time keeping. When people see the detail involved, then they understand why servicing a complex watch costs as much as it does. Thanks for your great presentation! Even seeing how a very basic mechanical watch works, helps people to understand the bigger picture if caring for their cherished timepieces. 🙂👍
Ok this is incredible. What a beautiful mechanism. I was trying to find out how a balance wheel maintained a consistent velocity with such a fragile spring and strange movement and this video explains it perfectly. That little kickback from the pallet fork is ingenious. Thanks for this perfectly concise explanation!
What an amazing explanation! I'm impressed by the quality of the content in this channel. I would really enjoy if you make an animation of how some mechanical calculators work, especially the automatic ones like the Olivetti Divisumma 24. There are already a very good channel called Mechanical Computing, in which it's explained how many calculators work, including a 10 key machine. But I've never seen how an automatic dividing machine works, and how it knows how to subtract from the dividend and register how many times it has subtracted. Again, this is a breathtaking explanation, and I really hope this channel keeps showing such high quality content. The animation is simply beautiful.
You are amazing man, we are so excited to see your next video, i didn’t have a time to say how amazing you are! Keep going and i think this is a 5M channel ❤️
Thank you! Excellent not only on graphics but very well explained. I own several mechanical watches and trying to learn more. I want to do restoration some day. THIS video is a must. I’m sharing this with lots of people.
I don't understand how the spring on the balance wheel is kept in motion. What does the mechanism look like that attaches it to the mainspring? Does that energy transfer to the balance wheel through the minute hand gears, or are there other gears that linked everything together?
Hi. I'm not a watchmaker or anything, but it looks like it might be elastic potential energy. Elastic potential energy is "stored" energy that results from a material being deformed out of its original shape. In this case, the spring metal wants to be straight, but he winding force deforms it into a tighter coil until the escapement releases some of it.
Thx Mark for helping out here ... it also has to do with the power exchange I describe, where escape wheel teeth give the pallet fork a tiny push from the mainspring, which sort of "winds up" the hairspring for another half-swing each time. I've shown every part of this watch movement, there's no other significant hidden parts or otherwise.
@@animagraffs Perfect! Thanks for clearing that up. Makes sense why that part is so delicate now. Amazing work I'll add, I love all your content on your website. Is there any way for me to support what you do?
I'm a little way in to my watchmaking journey and what amazes me as I'm working on a small movement is the fact that the tiniest screw, pivot, jewel, etc that I'm rather clumsily manipulating with my tweezers was made by someone else. Mind-blowing really.
@@pradeep2662 : Indians invented zero and first decimal number system. Also, oldest medical system, oldest steel making process and so much more. Hope you had read history.
Kudos on this video! Ive recently gotten into horology and seing a mechanical movement boiled down like this is very cool. Knowing humans have designed and machined *most* of the parts shown here in the same way for nearly 300 years blows my mind.
from english Wikipedia>Mainspring>Modern: "the outer end of the spring is coiled in the reverse direction", "The semi-reverse and reverse types provide extra force at the end of the running period, when the spring is almost out of energy, in order to keep the timepiece running at a constant rate to the end." Also, the spring only unwinds a bit. also see History>Constant force from a spring
Good question. To my understanding it doesn't. As it unwinds the main spring's transfer of energy is reduced. To achieve what you're saying a constant force mechanism is required.
As I begun recently to watch quite a lot of videos about restoration of watch, this video helped me a lot to understand how watches work. Many thanks !
I have allways been fascinated by mechanical watches, but only when I realized those watches are a tiny, tiny mechanical machine that runs only on a spring you wind up manually or have an automatic winding mechanism by moving the watch, I fell in love with mechanical watches. There are hundreds of years of watch making and tny improvements to get those extremely complicated tiny machines to work without a battery. And I love my manual winding watch the most, because I sit on the bed and wind up my watch like my father did and his father and his father did. It is a 30 second ritual every morning where you take care of your watch and realize what an amazing mechanical wonder it is.
Video corrections:
4:55 You can faintly see the ESCAPE WHEEL has a geared pivot underneath it that connects to the FOURTH WHEEL -- everything is connected all the way back to the MAINSPRING. I had a render error that made the gears not turn at the correct rate together, so they don't * appear * to be connected. But they are in a real watch.
Excellent representation. I have several mechanical watches and it's really nice to see the detail and get a clear explanation of the entire system. Thank you and congratulations on a lot of hard work.
Seeing the amount of detail you put into this animation is top notch. Kudos for a great job well done.
Am really tempted to screenshot each of the parts to try and make a physical copy myself, if you don't mind 😁😁
whoever CAD'd this, is a champion. Thank you so much.
Do you have a video for an automatic watch? Mine has a weight to wind the main spring and I'm curious how that part works as it's not in this video.
R,,,f,t.
The fact that hundreds of years ago someone’s mind was able to not only formulate this, but was them able to manufacture it by hand using archaic tools is absolutely mind boggling.
Must be special genius person
@@sakuraisp6974 Nah, it took hundreds of years to get to this point. Generations upon generations of artisans whose life was building clocks and other mechanisms.
in your mind there is a common bias in people, that our ancestors where dumb, they were not, thay had the same ingenuity since at least 200 thousand years
@@TheEdudoSeems weird to make assumptions about a strangers mind on the internet
@@CADClicker in general it is not
FINALLY someone explaining it with animations. Most Channels show expensive Shots of watches from the outside and start talking. Like it would help at all :/
i would argue that this will still leave people confused about how mainspring is releasing power... there is older video where its explained WAY better.... th-cam.com/video/rL0_vOw6eCc/w-d-xo.html
@@Zoltan1251 I watched that old video to learn it too! It's great. I think where I shine is actually building real, working models of things. Educational models and visual metaphors (like the water hose example from that vid) are great teaching tools. But I've almost never seen educational videos that rebuild the real thing, outside of limited teaching mockups. We think sound waves are flat, squiggly lines and atoms are floating balls, where in reality they look quite different from the drawings used to teach them. My focus is education, yes, but I assume the viewer is smart and would enjoy seeing the real thing, which is something we rarely get to see.
@@animagraffs Your video creation is amazing! I can't even begin to conceive how much work and time you must have put into it! What I liked most (from the educational pov) is that the video really let's you understand and see the beauty, the art and the engineering genius that goes into watchmaking.
@@animagraffs dont get me wrong... video is amazing... i just watched many videos and i never understood how power is trasnferred from main spring...
i dont see it in this video either, so just for people to understand it better its always good to use education models... nobody will learn basic accounting from financial statement of megacorporation
@@Zoltan1251 Wow, that old video was amazing! Many thanks!
I know a quartz watch is so much more accurate, but the artistry and engineering behind a mechanical watch is just so beautiful
Well the average quartz clock is more precise than the average mechanical, but I guess it is possible to make very, very precise mechanicals also - possibly beating common quartz clocks.
@@endreszatmari2302 only grand seiko's spring drive movement can get close to quartz accuracy
@@endreszatmari2302 Nope, not a correct guess. As said in the video, mechanical watches swing at about 6 times per second, give or take, but Quartz are measured in MHz (millions of oscillations per second), so a 5 dollar quarts watch is literally 1000000x more accurate than an average mechanic watch. Now how much more accurate can a “very precise” (and expensive) mechanical gear be? 100x better than the one shown in this video? I doubt it, but even then it’d still be 10000x worse than quartz.
@@Ahmetmhr Yeah it's basically a mechanical watch regulated by quartz
@@1c72 3-6 seconds off a day is what he said
in case anyone's wondering, this is a Unitas 6497 handwind movement. this movement was originally designed for pocket watches. so it's quite big. it only fits into big watches (at least 43mm in diametre). that also means it's one of the easiest to take apart and study since the components are also proportionally big. and it's also one of the simplist in terms of complications. most watches nowadays have at least a winding rotor (an asymmetrical weighted rotor that winds the watch using the momentum of your wrist movement) and a date function (an additional 24-hour counter with 31 clicks per rotation). not to mention some of the more complex functions like chronograph (stopwatch), minute repeater (chimes the precise time to the minute) and tourbillon (a revolving escapement) etc. some more complicated watches can easily have 3 to 5 times more parts than the watch shown in this video. now imagine doing all those purely mechanically within the space of a wrist watch. then imagine these technologies existing 200 years ago. yes they did.
Hello Stan, I enjoyed quite much your explanation. I am an wristwatch enthusiastic, and I´d like to know a place where I can learn online this art. If you can help, I tnahks.
@@ruitrigo6273 you found your guy. Did he try to reach you?
A lot of the technology involving using gears to represent complex systems date back 1000 years or more. The Antikythera Mechanism from 200 BC used gears for an analog computer that showed eclipses and planet positions.
@@fallinginthed33p gears aren't what's ground breaking about watches. as you said complex geartrains existed ages ago. anotther example would be the ancient chinese inventing purely mechanical compass ("south-pointing chariot"}. that's a working differencial from 2 millennia ago.
what's amazing about mechanical watches is the invention of escapment for precision timekeeping, as well as miniturisation of parts enabled by precision manufacturing.
Totally agreed. 👍🏻😍
The only video explaining how an impulse from the tip of the escapement wheel is kicking the pallet fork and thus delivering energy to the hairspring. Good job guys.
Damn this is some complex engineering in such a small package on your wrist!!!
I can understand how this would appear complex to a simpleton.
@Usharib Laeeq I agree with Commander Fadds. How it works is not complicated. Basically everything inside a basic watch can be shown and explained in a 8 minute video. How it works is not complicated, but the engineering behind it, how it was designed, and how the manufacturing process was planned is probably mutch more complicated.
@@johnfadds6089 You've finished designing the spaceship to get us to Mars then?
@@johnfadds6089 Calm down, buddy. No one enjoys the company of an elitist.
Commander Fadds pretty sure pulling down statues is more complex, and finding a way to stay another year in mommas basement is mind boggling
This is the best explanation/animation I've seen for the mechanical watch. thank you.
Here's one to challenge that:
th-cam.com/video/rL0_vOw6eCc/w-d-xo.html
Totally agree, I've never seen a video explain it so well and so good with the pictures / video. For me the restoration videos make a lot more sense as well
I concur.
I’ve edited my comment 3 times, I’m that shocked by the clarity of this video.
I pray / wish our college demonstrators and lecturers were as lucid and simple as this demo.
I'm a amateur watchmaker. This is the absolute best and and complete description I've ever seen.
Well done
I am not a watchmaker of any kind but now I understand how a watch works and the job each part does in making an instrument that measures something that scientists are debating actually exists. wether time exists or not, time regulates our existence in this culture.
Any prove?
@@sakuraisp6974 some scientists say that time is only an illusion. other scientists say that time is the basis for reality. obviously, both can prove their point with logic but not with mathematics so no scientific proof. Very similar to a discussion between an atheist and a true believer regarding the existence of G(g)od. So does Time = God?
Other Expensive movements have only been modified a bit & have a better in its finishing for a reason to be more expensive. Except spring drive movement. it is a different one and specially created to be more precise and more softer in every second.
My father was a watch mechanic since 1979 to 2021 (42 years)
While my childhood i don't have clue to know about his job. After seeing this video i realized he done a superb job as a successful watch mechanic👨🔧.
But the sad thing is we lost him two months before because of cardiac arrest.
Miss you so much daddy. . .
May he rest in piece
I’m sorry for your loss, he must’ve be an superb watchmaker
Keep those feelings about your Dad very close to your heart, Beautiful feelings and pass them on to you kids. Excellent
His heartbeat will be in harmony forever with the tick of his watches. When you take one of his watches you must feel him.
The correct terminology is Watchmaker
I've been into watches for some time now and had a pretty good understanding of how everything worked. This animation however brought the entire story to life and I could visualise the flow of forces, the precision and mathematics of gear ratios in my mind whilst you were explaining the mechanism. You slowed the animation down just enough to see each component transferring energy to the next, always changing and converting dynamically. It made perfect sense.
It's an entirely logical process and this presentation is the best that I've seen yet that truly helps you understand not only how elegant, but beautiful simple work of daring and genius we all still celebrate even after the general utility is gone. Watches are different because they represent time and the bumps, bruises and scratches on our beloved watches each have a story interwoven between the pinions and pallets.
Thank you my friend for explaining it so beautifully. Peace time ⏲️
Sou torneiro mecânico adoro a micro mecânica entendi a cinemática gostaria de ver o vídeo e m português.
Great vid! I'm a fan of mechanical watches and this provided a lot of good info on how the inner workings all come together. The precision to do this on such a small scale is unimaginable.
Precisely accurate.. this is what should be called smart watch or smart device.. it’s non electrical in any way, yet ticking like heart beats.
I have 3 questions
If I wind my watch today...than its run whole day? I mean how many times it's run if I wind 10time?
2nd questions is that....if I wind today...its properly work next day also but if I will wind agin so it's defects my watch mechanism???
3rd is that in some video first wind antilock wise and than clockwise.. why?? Every time do first anticlockwise and than clockwise???
That's the clearest explanation I've ever seen of how the mechanism of a watch works. Beautifully simple and elegant.
I wore mechanical watches throughout my 48 year career as a electric utility field engineer banging around huge turbine generators, boilers, electrical gear, and all. Wore mostly Timex, and they got the crap kicked out of them constantly, but kept on running. Amazes me that all that action was going on inside the watch on my wrist....for decades.
Very cool! What makes and models of watches did you wear doing your job?
@@IAmTheHound Mainly Timex, but also several Hamiltons and Bulovas, most of which were automatics. When the quartz's came along, had a few but still have always preferred mechanicals.
@@santaclause2875 ah I see you mentioned Timex in your first post also. And yes, the others - all well-engineered work horses that did their job, day in day out while probably looking pretty good and all. I love these marvels of human ingenuity and skill.
@@IAmTheHound Amazing, tiny engineering marvels for sure!!
Wow.. I'm a Mechanical Engineer and this is an excellent walk through.. Great illustration.
What a highly detailed and remarkably straightforward explanation. It is amazing that resources like these are free. Thank you Animagraffs
Nothing is ever free
This was an awesome explanation. I’ve been a mechanical watch fan and owner for years and this is the first I have understood how all the pieces work together. Great animation and narration. Thank you!
The amount of work that went into making this video is mind boggling.
This explanation makes me fall in love more and more with mechanical watches every second I watched it, repeatedly, beautifully detailed
I've taken 3 watchmaking classes and this is the best
Amazing! You’ve done such a service to the whole watch loving community by creating this 🤩 thanks so mich for undertaking the project and sharing
Exactly right.
4:54 the escapement is synced with the music
music ruined the video
So are the arrows at 0:48 :D
@@enguePlug are u an idiot
@@jaylovestesla1099 It did, if it was a slow watch
0:15 so is the Mainspring
This is simply one the best videos I ve seen anywhere outstanding job in all respects.
best video ever
@@trocchiettoski It deserves much more views for the sheer amount of work and complexity put in.
How a mechanical watch worked had always remained a mystery for me. Main spring, hair spring, escape mechanism, balance wheel etc were mysterious terms for me. Many thanks for explaining the mechanical watch with superb graphics.
Same goes with how HDD works.
Hands down the best TH-cam video on how mechanical watch works. Thank you so much. What a treasure!
This is a great animation of the ETA 6497. Perfect for demonstrating how a basic mechanical watch works. Thank you.
I was going to ask what movement this was... thought someone else might have asked or like you given me the answer! The person who posted should put it in the blurb... The movement here is much different than my Vostok...
This is basic? 😭
@@bobbye4731 one of the most basic
@@jordanjtbraun I have an Amphibia 710379 move about a lot with it in different positions and it keeps good time
@@bobbye4731 yupe this was only a watch with hour, minutes and seconds. There are minute repeaters, watches with moon phases, chronographs, perpetual calendars, ones that indicate the energy left, and so on ;)
It always amazed me how a lot of tiny parts work in harmony.
Working with 4D-Designers each and every working day I can confess that this by far is the best explanation animation of the mechanism behind a mechanical watch on YT. Thanks so much. I wonder why it took me 18 months to find your channel.
I'm a rookie watchmaker. Thank you for putting this together. It's a fantastic teaching tool and has helped me with questions about how things like the keyless works operate, without a doubt better than any book at showing how it all works.
I am very impressed at the little impulse of power @ 5:39. That part is amazing. It's like a swing set that is horizontal instead of vertical, where they use a spring to simulate gravity. That's neat. Thanks for the explanation and video
Engineering marvel that dates back centuries, has stood the test of time.
Literally!
Watch is a piece of art, and it will last for generations, unlike smartwatches
This was both outstanding to view, and astounding in execution. I've watched repair and restoration of time pieces, but this was the first time it all made perfect sense. Thank you.
it is so cool how the whole thing is powered by a single spring, no batery, nothing complex, just a spring
Outstanding animation. Thank you for the, probably hundreds of hours put into this work.
When servicing a watch, I never tire of putting the balance back and getting a heartbeat as it starts up, always makes me smile.
I've seen a few watch animations, but this is the best I've seen.
I really have no idea how watchmakers were able to make such precision parts for hundreds of years. I know with modern CNC mills and tech you can make super close tolerance components but to be able to do it by hand on such a tiny scale is truly mind blowing
Makes me appreciate my automatic watches so much more now....
The fact that I've found your videos through multiple disparate subjects is a real testament to how great of a job you're doing. I love your stuff and they're incredibly informative.
So making or repairing a watch is definitely an art. Very satisfying.
Everyone: wow this was a really great explanation!
Random person: so now you know how a watch works?
Everyone: nope
Hahaaa thats so true 😂😂👌👌
@@rameesrahim760 I pretty much knew anyway but this helps. I would so love to spend some time in a watchmaking workshop and have a go at taking a watch apart and then successfully rebuilding it - imagine the sense of achievement.
True, but it starts to click watching it multiple times.
me: witchcraft
😂 😂 😂
Watching this video is such a visual treat. I thank you for giving us, that wonder, the explanation as to how it works. If AP (anatomy & physiology) was explained this way, instead of in black and white, we'd have a better, and wider understanding of the human body. Thank you so much for this outstanding video that made me understand all the better! Awesome...!
Most detailed and most beautifully executed animation of a watch mechanism. Thank you for creating this! Subscribed!
Amazing and accurate description
5:23 The most ingenious part of operation and why mechanical clocks/watches don't stall! I discovered that some years ago while repairing a springer/pendulum wall clock from the early 20th century, it blew my mind.
You need to create more “how stuff work” videos! Thank you!
The wristwatch is one of homo sapiens greatest mechanical achievment. The fact that it was invented so early makes it even more impressive.
Great comment
Invented so early?
@@rubbish9231 early in our history
@@bobsmithinson2050 this can not be any Accident invention. There might be right time and we have internet and phone is also a right time.
I found your channel because of the sewing machine video and now I cannot wait to see more stuff!
Good job, Jacob.
Thanks for another excellent video, explaining these things to us.
Hello dear 👋 am warren please Do you mind sharing your opinion about this music to me ?
Very good explaining👌👍
Even having an above average knowledge on mechanical watches, this video was extremely helpful and entertaining. Well done!
Would be an interesting side show to know how the "shake to wind" mechanism works too. Great video!
My understanding of it is that it works the same way, but underneath the support structure, there's a metal disk weight that can freely spin around a central point which will works on the mechanism that powers the mainspring the same way that turning the crown does.
@@gnomeam And while that disk weight can turn both ways, it only winds the main spring one way.
I like the background music, was bopping my head while watching. Thanks for the video, my first watch was a mechanical watch. I’ve loved them ever since.
I've watched a few watch restoration videos, but now I finally understand what all the parts do. Great video, thank you.
As 30 years of my life as a watch technician hre in the Phillipines,this is a very clear animation and clear explanation👍
Great video. What's amazing to me is that well before the the introduction of computers and computer aided design, they could machine these parts to the required tolerance. Watches from the early 1900's were able to have such high precision. Amazing.
Thank you for sharing this. I’m a little smarter today than I was yesterday thanks to your channel.
Your productions are amazingly good.
I just obtained an automatic watch, and in my search to get a visualization of how it winds itself inside, I found this video, which isn’t exactly what I was looking for but was fascinating nonetheless. Please keep up the great work.
What a spirit ! That's just wonderful.
Not sure what’s more impressive: the mechanics of such a watch or the granularity of this 3D Visualization.
Great thanks for your effort, this is really the best video I've ever seen about mechanical movement at all,
Mind blowing animations! Great production quality, keep em coming!
Why isn't this video trending???
It's so damn good!!
As a professional watchmaker, I'd like to say you did a fine job displaying and explaining how a simple timepiece operates.
A couple of things I would have liked to see added, that weren't mentioned, is the fact all mechanical timepieces like this, require maintenance at a maximum of 5 year intervals. Vintage watches require maintenance every two years. You discussed the "synthetic jewels", but not their true function. And BTW, in vintage and antique watches, the jewels were genuine rubies. The jewels are designed to hold oil and work maintaining lubrication of pinions due to capillary action. This has been the case for hundreds of years. A typical watch like this normally runs at a beat rate of 18,000 bph which is much more common than the 21,600 bph you said is "standard. In the watches jewels, they're designed to carry oil and a watch like this requires 5 different types of lubricants to run properly. Great care must be taken in cleaning a watch, and applying fresh lubricants when its serviced.
Watchmaking is a very in-depth technical field, which requires a lifetime of learning and skills to master. There's an almost uncountable number of variables not mentioned here, that directly affect the watches ability to keep proper time. From standard issues like isochronism, which is the variable power in the watch at different times, but yet the watch must always function at the same rate to be accurate, as if the power from the mainspring is a constant steady source of power, which it's not. A fully wound watch mainspring, applies much more power than a mainspring that's unwound near its end. Yet, we must ensure the watch keeps a steady rate in all varying power conditions.
Lastly, "regulating" a watch, is MUCH more than adjusting the hairspring length. Full movement if the adjuster, only changes the rate by a minute or two per day. Proper "Regulating" is done in numerous areas of the watch, adjustment of balance wheel jewels, endshakes, etc.. A quality watch is regulated in 5 different positions, because due to the weight if the balance wheel, a watch runs at different rates, depending upon its position. ie. Crown up, crown down, dial up, dial down etc.. For a person wearing on the left arm, the crown down position is predominantly the position the watch will be in when worn. All of these factors are taken into consideration when "regulating" a watch.
What might also be interesting, is to do this same animation but showing a complex watch, such as an autowinding chronograph. Most of which have upwards of several hundred parts, all which must be hand serviced individually to ensure proper time keeping.
When people see the detail involved, then they understand why servicing a complex watch costs as much as it does.
Thanks for your great presentation! Even seeing how a very basic mechanical watch works, helps people to understand the bigger picture if caring for their cherished timepieces. 🙂👍
This is probably the best explanation of how a mechanical watch works I've found on this platform. Thank you for uploading.
This is excellent! It's going to be my go to video to show friends why I love mechanical watches!
These animations are stunning. I’m just curious about how long it takes to produce one of these videos?
I am a freelancing 3D animator and I predict this kind of animation would take 2 weeks at the fastest to be completely done. Excluding the revisions.
@@atrudokht What are the apps he probably used in this animation?
@@atrudokht yeah and with high dedication and experience, it can be completed within 3-4 days.
The men who invented, then refined, then reinvented the clocks, to pocket watches, to mechanical wrist watches were geniuses...
Thank you for such an great video, the gems are there for a reason and you explained it well.
Ok this is incredible. What a beautiful mechanism. I was trying to find out how a balance wheel maintained a consistent velocity with such a fragile spring and strange movement and this video explains it perfectly. That little kickback from the pallet fork is ingenious. Thanks for this perfectly concise explanation!
What an amazing explanation! I'm impressed by the quality of the content in this channel.
I would really enjoy if you make an animation of how some mechanical calculators work, especially the automatic ones like the Olivetti Divisumma 24. There are already a very good channel called Mechanical Computing, in which it's explained how many calculators work, including a 10 key machine. But I've never seen how an automatic dividing machine works, and how it knows how to subtract from the dividend and register how many times it has subtracted.
Again, this is a breathtaking explanation, and I really hope this channel keeps showing such high quality content. The animation is simply beautiful.
You are amazing man, we are so excited to see your next video, i didn’t have a time to say how amazing you are!
Keep going and i think this is a 5M channel ❤️
What a great video. The best explanation since the old Hamilton film. Well done! I’m off to watch that again 👌👏
0:37 - Excellent description, so the mainspring is what first causes the time arms to tell time while the an escapement controls speed.
Thank you! Excellent not only on graphics but very well explained. I own several mechanical watches and trying to learn more. I want to do restoration some day. THIS video is a must. I’m sharing this with lots of people.
And this, my friends, is why we still appreciate and wear mechanical watches. No "smart" watches for me!
Ok boomer
ok boomer
I'm gonna use a galaxy watch until I can afford a Rolex
We have some real masters of comedy in here
@@Yallan ah yes the classic comedy of "ok boomer"
I don't understand how the spring on the balance wheel is kept in motion. What does the mechanism look like that attaches it to the mainspring? Does that energy transfer to the balance wheel through the minute hand gears, or are there other gears that linked everything together?
Hi. I'm not a watchmaker or anything, but it looks like it might be elastic potential energy. Elastic potential energy is "stored" energy that results from a material being deformed out of its original shape. In this case, the spring metal wants to be straight, but he winding force deforms it into a tighter coil until the escapement releases some of it.
Thx Mark for helping out here ... it also has to do with the power exchange I describe, where escape wheel teeth give the pallet fork a tiny push from the mainspring, which sort of "winds up" the hairspring for another half-swing each time. I've shown every part of this watch movement, there's no other significant hidden parts or otherwise.
@@animagraffs Perfect! Thanks for clearing that up. Makes sense why that part is so delicate now. Amazing work I'll add, I love all your content on your website. Is there any way for me to support what you do?
WOW ! I own an Omega Speedmaster and never realized how all these mechanisms worked. Thank you so much !
a new subscriber :-)
I'm a little way in to my watchmaking journey and what amazes me as I'm working on a small movement is the fact that the tiniest screw, pivot, jewel, etc that I'm rather clumsily manipulating with my tweezers was made by someone else. Mind-blowing really.
This was the best explanation I’ve seen
I had never been impressed with TH-cam videos, until now!
This is beautiful, the best I've seen so far. Liked, subbed, and belled.
I had no idea how these things worked. thanks for the video and sharing it with us at Facebook's Blender's Group. :D
This is the one of the best videos on TH-cam ever so far. Thanks for this.
"Inside mechanical watch" has always been a "Tech-Boy's Paradise"!!
Dang bro this video is high quality for someone with less than 5k subs.
This was simply amazing. How do people give this a thumbs down?
I came for the info, I stayed for the Disco
do you know the music name ?
Superb video for a beginner watch enthusiast! Thank you so much.
Thx for the upload, bought my first mechanical watch a Tag Heuer, makes me understand what a wonderful piece of art I have on my wrist
Great video,I am a watch collector and do some hobby repair.
What's the background music?
Nice explanation btw
🤔 who is that genius who invented the Nitty Gritty system
Definitely not a half knowledged Indian.
@@pradeep2662 : Indians invented zero and first decimal number system. Also, oldest medical system, oldest steel making process and so much more. Hope you had read history.
@@phabove7 that is a great story :)
French dude in 1700s. Invented the whirlwind - turbillion
Many dudes, the French, the British, the Germans and lastly perfected by the swiss
Kudos on this video! Ive recently gotten into horology and seing a mechanical movement boiled down like this is very cool.
Knowing humans have designed and machined *most* of the parts shown here in the same way for nearly 300 years blows my mind.
Your videos are hands down the best quality educational stuff I've seen in years.
Noice m8. Just fokin noice. You've got my subscription
Now imagine the complication inside of the Rolex sky dweller~~
Q: How does the escapement keep the steady pace when the main spring torque (I would think) slowly goes down?
@@WindingDreams Sounds good to me…
afaik the main spring is built in a way that the torque is almost constant
from english Wikipedia>Mainspring>Modern:
"the outer end of the spring is coiled in the reverse direction", "The semi-reverse and reverse types provide extra force at the end of the running period, when the spring is almost out of energy, in order to keep the timepiece running at a constant rate to the end." Also, the spring only unwinds a bit.
also see History>Constant force from a spring
Good question. To my understanding it doesn't. As it unwinds the main spring's transfer of energy is reduced. To achieve what you're saying a constant force mechanism is required.
As I begun recently to watch quite a lot of videos about restoration of watch,
this video helped me a lot to understand how watches work.
Many thanks !
I have allways been fascinated by mechanical watches, but only when I realized those watches are a tiny, tiny mechanical machine that runs only on a spring you wind up manually or have an automatic winding mechanism by moving the watch, I fell in love with mechanical watches. There are hundreds of years of watch making and tny improvements to get those extremely complicated tiny machines to work without a battery. And I love my manual winding watch the most, because I sit on the bed and wind up my watch like my father did and his father and his father did. It is a 30 second ritual every morning where you take care of your watch and realize what an amazing mechanical wonder it is.