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What would you invent to make watches more enjoyable? I would ...

1K views 21 replies 13 participants last post by  Jet Jetski 
#1 ·
Make a big ABS watch movement that had all the bits - though it wouldn't need to actually work - scaled up so that the smallest screws were about the size of a terminal 'driver. Then you could practice taking a watch to bits and putting it back together after the odd G & T. I tried a bit of fettling just now after 'just a small one' and couldn't even get the dial feet back in. I will investigate what went 'CLICK!' in the morning (at least I think it was CLICK! and not SNAP!) Anyway, just saying, that I often get the urge to tinker after a tipple (fortunately I seldom drink) and it would be safer if I had a kind of Duplo movement to play with. And I thought that would be a great invention anyway. Like learning to ride a little pony before you get on a big horse. Except the other way around.

What brainwaves have you had to make watchkeeping more fun?

OK, here's another. A breathalyser that fits to your computer, that you have to blow in to make it switch on, I think someone invented something similar for cars, but anyway, if you are over the drink-click limit, it opens a dummy e-bay site, instead of the real site (like a 'sand-box') so that you can 'buy' loads of watches and then when you wake up in the morning, it was just a lovely dream. Fortunately, I seldom drink.
 
#2 ·
I did once try and repair a watch while drinking whiskey and listening to boxing on the radio. One surprise knockout and a subsequent tool slip and the watch is fecked and now in a spares box.

I stopped tinkering and drinking then.

How about a watch selector app? Your current collection is uploaded, and you spin the roulette wheel each morning and it tells you what to wear that day?
 
#3 · (Edited by Moderator)
you spin the roulette wheel each morning and it tells you what to wear that day?
That could work but with an app you would be able to make it more interactive, and input your mood for the day, and match it for a watch with the best weightings for accuracy, style, age, legibility, WR etc. BTW, this gin is really good. Did I mention I seldom drik, fortunately?
 
#5 ·
Make a big ABS watch movement that had all the bits - though it wouldn't need to actually work - scaled up so that the smallest screws were about the size of a terminal 'driver. Then you could practice taking a watch to bits and putting it back together after the odd G & T.
This would make a good game to play after Xmas lunch or other booze fest. It all looks easy enough, except there's this one screw, if you even touch it at the wrong time, the whole mechanism springs apart and distributes cogs, screws and springs all over the room.
 
#6 ·
time travel :biggrin:

deano

oh and from 2023 I believe all new cars will be manufactured to have this very thing a EU directive .

A breathalyser that fits to your computer, that you have to blow in to make it switch on, I think someone invented something similar for cars,
 
#11 ·
Make a big ABS watch movement that had all the bits - though it wouldn't need to actually work - scaled up so that the smallest screws were about the size of a terminal 'driver. Then you could practice taking a watch to bits and putting it back together after the odd G & T. I tried a bit of fettling just now after 'just a small one' and couldn't even get the dial feet back in. I will investigate what went 'CLICK!' in the morning (at least I think it was CLICK! and not SNAP!) Anyway, just saying, that I often get the urge to tinker after a tipple (fortunately I seldom drink) and it would be safer if I had a kind of Duplo movement to play with. And I thought that would be a great invention anyway. Like learning to ride a little pony before you get on a big horse. Except the other way around.

What brainwaves have you had to make watchkeeping more fun?

OK, here's another. A breathalyser that fits to your computer, that you have to blow in to make it switch on, I think someone invented something similar for cars, but anyway, if you are over the drink-click limit, it opens a dummy e-bay site, instead of the real site (like a 'sand-box') so that you can 'buy' loads of watches and then when you wake up in the morning, it was just a lovely dream. Fortunately, I seldom drink.
We are on the same page.

I was just thinking a few days ago how cool would it be to have a normal watch built on a larger scale (say 2 feet) and being able to observe and study it. Take it apart and see how it functions, etc.

Eventually something made out of plastic and the movement plates could be transparent to make it even more fun. This can actually be made quite easily with a 3D printer. The only complicated one wold be the hairspring which is going to have to be metallic or silicone or something... If I had the time and money to invest I could actually do it. I'd just replicate an entire watch in and out. (I'd definitely go with a vintage Omega or something so that people could admire vintage time pieces)
 
#19 ·
I was just thinking a few days ago how cool would it be to have a normal watch built on a larger scale (say 2 feet) and being able to observe and study it. Take it apart and see how it functions, etc.
Dear Jet, hasn't the device you wish for in your thread-head already been invented? - I believe it's called a large clock. :laugh:
I thought about that , but you need the whole keyless works and the castle nut thingummy too. That's one of the most interesting bits.
 
#16 ·
I have a 3D printer. Well, 3 of them - I'm actually a mechanical engineer and I run a small home-based 3D printing business. This would be relatively easy at a large scale. However it won't necessarily be able to tell the time, since the weight of a scaled-up plastic balance wheel and the spring constant of a scaled-up plastic hairspring won't give an oscillation period of 3Hz as in the real thing. Also, if we're just going to scale up the movement it would have to be seen whether the fine points of the shafts on each gear will be able to take the weight - unless you use metal shafts in the plastic gears.

There are actually printable working models on thingiverse that anyone can download for free - not modeled after a real clock, but actual designed-for-3D-printing models with all the part dimensions already adjusted to work in plastic and with off-the-shelf shafts and screws. Some even have a tourbillon. Main limitation is that plastic mainsprings can only store enough energy for some 45 minutes of running time.

Here's an example: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1249221 . Printing cost for something like that would be in the region of €100-150 excluding all the metal shafts and screws.
 
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