How a Mechanical Watch Works

Mechanical watches have no battery, microchip, or circuitry. Watch parts are machined to near perfection at microscopic sizes and tolerances and can produce accuracy within two to three seconds per day.

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Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:44 Crown
1:36 Mainspring
2:14 Wheel Train
2:57 Jewel Bearings
3:11 Motion Works
4:10 Escapement & Balance Wheel
6:38 Supporting Structure

[animagraffs]

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.

[koriwest]

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.

[Ritermann]

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 :/

[Ballacha]

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.

[andersveders]

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.

[DonLee]

I know a quartz watch is so much more accurate, but the artistry and engineering behind a mechanical watch is just so beautiful

[Inferno]

Damn this is some complex engineering in such a small package on your wrist!!!

[santaclause]

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.

[dennisbaecht]

I'm a amateur watchmaker. This is the absolute best and and complete description I've ever seen.
Well done

[tgg]

This is the best explanation/animation I've seen for the mechanical watch. thank you.

[mohans]

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. . .

[stevendark]

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 ⏲️

[silience]

4:54 the escapement is synced with the music

[aam]

That's the clearest explanation I've ever seen of how the mechanism of a watch works. Beautifully simple and elegant.

[GururajBN]

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.

[BOBman]

What a highly detailed and remarkably straightforward explanation. It is amazing that resources like these are free. Thank you Animagraffs

[tedmanasa]

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!

[xswooshx]

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.

[gerryscholtz]

Wow.. I'm a Mechanical Engineer and this is an excellent walk through.. Great illustration.

[__matcha]

It always amazed me how a lot of tiny parts work in harmony.