Fully Functional 3D Printed Tourbillon Pocket Watch Created By Cristoph Laimer (video)

An awesome 3D printer Tourbillon watch has been created by Cristoph Laimer using the Autodesk Fusion 360 software to build the design and an awesome Ultimaker 2 3D printer to create the small parts required to build the working mechanical mechanism.

Now the watch has been created the deviation is less than 0.5 seconds per minute which is amain for something that has been 3D printed in plastic with no metal parts. Check out the video below to see the assembly process and learn more about the amazing creation.

David Sher from the 3DPI website explain more about a Tourbillon :

A “Tourbillon” is an addition to the mechanics of a watch escapement developed around 1795 and patented by the French-Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet to counter the effects of gravity. It does so by mounting the escapement and balance wheel in a rotating cage. By continuously rotating the entire balance wheel/escapement assembly at a slow rate (typically about one revolution per minute), positional errors are averaged out.

The creator Cristoph Laimer explains more about the amazing Tourbillon pocket watch over on the Thingiverse website :

This is a mechanical watch with tourbillon and going barrel. The watch has a Swiss lever escapement, embedded in the tourbillon. It is driven by a 3d-printed spring, and runs 35 Minutes (a wire retraction spring made from steel would perform better). My watch is running with less than 0.5 Seconds deviation within one Minute.

The project demonstrates that the 3D-printing technology is developing. Compared with earlier generations of 3d-printers, the process works more reliable and more accurately. Only the Pawl Unlock Key needs to be printed with support. Hairspring, Anchor, Escapement Wheel, and some gears were printed with high resolution (0.06mm layer, 0.8mm shell). All other parts are printed with normal resolution (0.1mm layer, 0.8mm shell).