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Notwithstanding the current fad for huge oversize
watches,
mechanical watch movements are generally designed to
be
as compact as possible.
A mechanical watch movement is basically a spring-
driven
set of gears, with one gear (the escape wheel) regulated
by the oscillation of the balance-wheel.
Typically, the
gears are laid out in a sort of spiral pattern, with each
gear overlapping the next and the whole thing wrapped
around on itself. It's further compacted
by having the hour, minute and second gears mounted
coaxially.
I think it would be pretty (if pretty impractical) to have
the gear-train laid out linearly, from beginning to end.
The resulting watch would be long (maybe 2 inches) and
narrow (half an inch or less), and would have the hours,
minutes and seconds (and day, date) pointers arranged
consecutively instead of coaxially. It would have to be
worn along the arm, perhaps with the second and minute
pointers at the wrist-end for ready visibility.
Such an arrangement would lend itself well to the other
current fad for "open heart" watches in which part of the
movement is visible through the dial (and through a
transparent display-back).
Sort of like this
http://i923.photobu...ear/Linearwatch.jpg
only not quite. [MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 23 2011]
Here's the hight tech version of the Buchanan/Lurch design
http://www.100percentdesign.net/node/574
[doctorremulac3, Aug 24 2011]
Another version
http://elitechoice....ar-watch-is-opus-9/
Needs to be more steampunky though. [doctorremulac3, Aug 24 2011]
[link]
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If you were to go with the 'visual gubbinz' look, it would
really cool to have the hands be chain-driven, running
along tiny tracks. |
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I think you'd run into friction issues, but that would
be pretty. An alternative would be to have a pointer
engraved on the surface of the relevant gears, rather
than a distinct pointer. |
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You could have little diamond-shaped worm-gear-driven indicators that run up & down the track, reversing at each end (that's a fairly simple & common little mechanical trick). Then have the scale flip over at each reversal, so the hours start at midnight on a white-on-black AM scale, flip over at noon and run back the other way for 12 hours on the black-on-white PM scale. Hours and minutes likewise - I'm remembering the little pointers on the sickbay monitors from the original Star Trek. |
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[+] There's much to be said for the compact design of the modern wristwatch... but layed out like that would certainly look good; quite steampunk too. |
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//little diamond-shaped worm-gear-driven
indicators// |
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Ooh! I like that. But I can't draw it. The illustrated
version uses rubies on the hour, minute and second
wheels. |
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I didn't envision the chain moving any faster than the
hand(s), but if that's a problem, a little bit of graphite
goes a long, long way. |
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Even a very small load on the second hand will stop
it, so you'd have to be very frictionlessy. |
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Teflon in the tracks, no sharp edges or corners, nano-scale
dry lubricant, precision
micro-machining to ensure nothing moves the slightest bit
out of alignment. That's my best shot. |
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You can't really get away with not having a coaxially fixed large&small gear for each hand since a direct 60:1 diameter ratio isn't feasible. |
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Unless you wanted to add more gears in between, the circles would overlap (like the Audi or Olympic logos). Though the concept of a chaindrive is hard to put aside. |
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Wound either by pulling a loose metal chain, or autowound with a (comparatively) large "pendulum" thing that, if you remain quite still, will slowly move horizontally back and forth powered by the mainspring purely to catch people's motion sensor attention, but if you move your wrist around it swings back and forth winding the mainspring. Maybe even wound by the second hand instead of a separate pendulum though that would require it to be rather heavy. |
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The mechanism would have to be quite robust of course, to survive shirtcuffs and the like, but there's room to make them so, given no thickness constraints as in an enclosed multilevel thin wristwatch. |
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The mounting frame is hidden on the inside of the wristband; only the axles poke through (with the gears etc. on top of course). |
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//You can't really get away with not having a
coaxially fixed large&small gear for each hand// |
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Yes you can. In a regular watch, the minute wheel
is geared to the hour wheel through a little
intermediate wheel - it's only for compactness
that the minute and hour wheels are coaxial. In
fact, coaxiality is a nuisance, because you have
extra friction between the axle of the minute
wheel and the cannon-pinion (which is the gear
that carries the hour hand, and sits like a collar
over the minute wheel). |
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Also, many older watches have a small-seconds,
which means that the seconds hand is in a small
sub-dial of its own, not coaxial with the other
hands. |
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That's what I meant, though I messed up the intermediate gears bit. An Ouroboros layout (a circle with decreasing gear size) might look fetching as well the linear. |
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If the minute and hour wheels aren't coaxial, you
could do away with the intermediate gear - the ratio
is only 12:1 (the minute hand goes around 12 times
as the hour hand goes once; unless you have a 24hr
watch). In fact you'd be better off because the
whole cannon-pinion business is a clunky solution. |
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Ha - you can eat my Pasta Clock! |
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Big bun for the linear lurch version of this. |
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I do like the styling of the second link, but it's not
mechanical, and also I note that the time is
displayed digitally as well so that you can actually
read it. |
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The third link is mechanically brilliant but as uggerly
as sin. |
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Yea, true that. South end of a north bound moose ugly. |
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I'll take the one in the second link though if somebody wants to buy if for me to stimulate the economy or whatever. |
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