A Mechanical Watch Movement that Never Stops

Nov 27, 2023,22:19 PM
 

and I don't mean not just an Automatic movement which requires the wrist movement to get the rotor to rewind it.


A watch movement where even if the watch is stationary and not on a watch winder or a wrist keeps on ticking and not stopping.

I am not an engineer or watch maker but I still think it is possible to make such a movement, 

A time only watch with multiple barrels where one barrel is there is provide power to push a rotor to oscillate and help rewind the mainspring perpetually without the watch ever running out of power reserve and hence keeps on running even without any external movement of the wrist or watch winder.

 A Pipe Dream or is it possible?

More Learned and knowledgeable movement experts please do give me your opinion and correct me if you feel it is not possible.

S

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From Wikipedia

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 27th, 2023-22:41
" Atmos is the brand name of a mechanical torsion pendulum clock manufactured by Jaeger-LeCoultre in Switzerland which does not need to be wound manually. It gets the energy it needs to run from temperature and atmospheric pressure changes in the environm... 

You would always need an external source of energy…

 
 By: Carlos22 : November 27th, 2023-23:05
Due to the friction inherent in a mechanical movement. The energy stored in the mainspring is used up when moving the gears and the hands. In order to re-wind the mainspring you need an external force to compress the spring. This constant of energy in a c... 

I agree

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 27th, 2023-23:10
it does need a source of energy to push the rotor to help rewind the mainsprings in a three barrel movement where the third barrel is used to store energy to help push the rotor so that the movement never runs out of power reserve and since it is a time o... 

So you are proposing a perpetual motion machine then?

 
 By: BigFatPauli : November 28th, 2023-01:43
I wish you all the luck in the work with that.

No Sir

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 28th, 2023-01:58
proposing an automatic movement where the winding of two barrels that store energy to run the movement of a time only watch while it winds down and a third barrel that stores energy to give a push to a rotor that with its weight rotates and recharges the ... 

The problem with this scenario is that you are assuming an efficiency of over 100%.

 
 By: Carlos22 : November 28th, 2023-03:16

When the two barrels wind down, some energy is lost moving the gears and the hands. Yet more energy is lost moving a rotor to feed these two barrels. That rotor would have to be over 100% efficient to generate the same amount of energy back into the two ... 

thank you for your great reply, yes you make perfect sense, that is why I was proposing a three barrel system to compensate for those losses and a rotor that has the purpose

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 28th, 2023-07:45
of winding up the barrels up again. Where the 2 barrels are solely for the time only movement, no other complications and the third barrel to compensate for any losses of energy and giving the rotor just a push, nothing more.

So it's a watch that runs forever?

 
 By: BigFatPauli : November 28th, 2023-10:48

Steven Phillips and the Budapest Watch Company

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 28th, 2023-10:54
We both had the same idea, but he had the skill and know how to make it happen from dated December 12, 2002 " The world’s first self-powered mechanical watch movement has been invented by American master watchmaker Steven Phillips. The mechanism, which h... 

Ah. So basically this runs on temperature differential. Yes. I remember a post about this on another forum back in 2002 or so...

 
 By: BigFatPauli : November 28th, 2023-15:59
What you were saying, however is very inaccurate. Specifically. ""in a three barrel movement where the third barrel is used to store energy to help push the rotor so that the movement never runs out of power reserve". The movement uses a bi-metallic strip... 

I am sure what I am saying is inaccurate hahaha I am not an engineer or watchmaker, so welcome any feedback to correct my idea so it might work, regarding Steven Phillips...

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 28th, 2023-16:34
my understanding is the patent had been filed and he was working on the movement but passed away, not sure how many were made or was it completed contact Steven Phillips at the Budapest Watch Co., 1250 Boston Post Road #10, Guilford, Conn. 06437. (877) 49... 

I remembered that and...

 
 By: Ronald Held : November 28th, 2023-20:37
Wanted that watch badly. Too bad nothing ever came of it. Where did the prototype go?

I believe that is true..

 
 By: Ronald Held : November 28th, 2023-21:13
Too bad no watches survived his death.

here is one of them

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 28th, 2023-23:25
www.watchprosite.com S

A Challenge worth pursuing I feel, there are enough talented and genius watchmakers out there to take it up and make it happen

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 27th, 2023-23:35
my bet is on Andreas Stehler or Paul Gerber to be able to take on the challenge

Hi Sir, did you know of Steven Phillips and the Budapest Watch Company?

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 28th, 2023-15:03
here is a very interesting link from our past www.watchprosite.com S

If the watch is stationary and in vacuum - impossible.

 
 By: als1678 : November 28th, 2023-00:26
Sorry for being lazy but will just quote Wikipedia Perpetual motion is the motion of bodies that continues forever in an unperturbed system. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work infinitely without an external energy source... 

yes it is an automatic movement with three barrels for a time only movement, two barrels to have enough power reserve to keep the movement running and

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 28th, 2023-00:41
the third one to basically push the rotor to revolve using its own weight to help recharge the 3 barrels

This isn't physically possible

 
 By: donatello2468 : November 28th, 2023-00:26
What you're describing is a perpetual motion machine () at the scale of a wristwatch, which isn't possible due to physics/thermodynamic laws. The closest we have in this case is as Nico pointed out, the JLC Atmos which although seems like it's running per... 

The short answer is no.

 
 By: Spangles - Dr. Tabby : November 28th, 2023-00:51
But, it would be nice!

If you can make energy out of thin air...

 
 By: Gregineugene : November 28th, 2023-01:30
...you would solve all of the energy problems in the world. But you might raise the ire of global energy consortiums and of course they would have to eliminate you. You're gonna need a good exit strategy.

Hahaha

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 28th, 2023-01:56
well the movement will be wound up initially so not out of thin air to store energy in three barrels of which two unwind to help run the time only movement and the third barrel is just there to push the automatic rotor so that it can rotate under its own ... 

Yep exactly that's why it's impossible

 
 By: donatello2468 : November 28th, 2023-05:19
You're expecting a rotor rotated by one barrel's energy to further produce enough energy to recharge three barrels, which is basically making energy out of thin air

Thermodynamics is inevitable

 
 By: piccolochimico (aka dsgalaxy1) : November 28th, 2023-06:57

I think the late Steven Phillips came closest with his Eternal Winding System.

 
 By: gadalex : November 28th, 2023-09:19
This was essentially a reduced size Atmos clock. Here's the patent. worldwide.espacenet.com Regards, Baruch

Thank you for sharing this, WoW, here is what the patent says

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 28th, 2023-10:31
"This invention comprises the provision of a temperature sensitive element within a timepiece which includes a casing, movement, mainspring and a bi-directional rotation to unidirectional rotation converting mechanism for winding the mainspring where the ... 

Impossible.

 
 By: andrea~ : November 28th, 2023-09:39
Such movement would violate the laws of thermodynamics, since what you are talking about is a perpetual motion machine. If we could make a watch that functions in that way then we would also be able to produce infinite energy. The conservation of energy w... 

I am not proposing a perpetual motion machine.....

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 28th, 2023-10:26
there are movements with 2 to 4 barrels which are used for multiple complications which exist today. My proposal is that instead of having multiple complications we can create an automatic movement with 3 barrels of which 2 are used to power the watch mov... 

You would still need to provide energy to the third barrel

 
 By: andrea~ : November 28th, 2023-18:29
If you do that you are just subtracting energy from the rest of the movement, since you are creating more friction by increasing the number of interacting parts. All of the energy employed with the intent of making the power reserve be longer would actual... 

I think that the third barrel would be the "complication" in this case

 
 By: andrea~ : November 28th, 2023-21:13
This has been a problem in horology for a long time: fighting against friction. Unfortunately we will never beat it, but we can try to minimize it.

It sounds interesting

 
 By: andrea~ : November 28th, 2023-23:24
I will have a look at it

thanks!

 
 By: andrea~ : November 29th, 2023-17:33

there is a watch like this, if I understand you correctly

 
 By: jaspermccrea : November 28th, 2023-12:46
where the mainspring charges a smaller spring that drives the escapement. The small spring is kept at the same tension, only charging from the mainspring when needed, so the watch theoretically keeps better time. One of the smaller high end manufacturers ... 

Gronefeld 8 second rementoir

 
 By: jaspermccrea : December 3rd, 2023-17:24

One of Steven Phillips Creations

 
 By: SALMANPK : November 28th, 2023-15:42
and a post by the owner " Bought this years ago, not exactly sure why, but I thought that the watch was "interesting". After some deeper research today, this piece becomes a whole lot more interesting. I have included some photos, and some links below to ...  

Maybe there's something to be learned...

 
 By: Gregineugene : November 29th, 2023-01:34
...from this little guy. Evaporative cooling is critical here... ...  

if what you propose could actually be done, there are a lot bigger problems to apply it to.

 
 By: xto : December 4th, 2023-00:06
In effect, you'd be solving climate change in one fell swoop. I would suggest studying the difference between stored (potential) energy (think mainspring) and kinetic energy (think balance wheel motion and hand movement). You're suggesting an infinite amo... 

I know logically and factually you are right,,, but between your logic and my crazy idea I think there could be a way to make something work

 
 By: SALMANPK : December 4th, 2023-01:07
the current power reserves we have on watches is not enough, need to push it further and to the limit

Guardian I watch for sale

 
 By: orenbitman69 : January 8th, 2024-19:18
Hello, All If any one is interested in Stephen Phillips Guardian I watch so i have one for sale.

that is great

 
 By: SALMANPK : January 8th, 2024-23:46
please post an ad for sale with pictures in the Collectors Market www.watchprosite.com #fs:0 Thank You Sir, S

 
 By: orenbitman69 : January 9th, 2024-00:54
So i did. photos didn't come so good so i will try to edit it. Thanks you

Update Dominique Renaud and Julien Tixier watch

 
 By: SALMANPK : April 29th, 2024-15:17
In Jocke's recent amazing post he shared a very interesting watch In Jocke's words " This movement is loaded with unique things like the micro rotor have a auxiliary mechanism that stores energy and releases it like a catapult. So it wind the movement ev...  

Don't you still...

 
 By: Ronald Held : April 29th, 2024-16:20
Have to move some, or the watch stops?