Yeah, this is informative and pure comedy gold. I've followed you for a while and have watched a couple of your videos, but this is converted me from a half-ass subscriber to a whole-ass subscriber.
This is my first time viewing one of your videos. I liked and subscribed, because not only did I learn a bit, I found your delivery hilarious. You have a “Tim & Eric” kind of thing going on, and it’s spot-on. I kept expecting you to yell out, “For your health!” 😄 Ya big dummy!
So this is very helpful, as I am about to remove the automatic winding components from a cheapie and wanted to familiarize myself with everything first.
It seemed two me that the main spring gear should rotate clockwise since it was driven by two gears attached to the ratchet teeth that rotate counterclockwise. No?
i recently bought an expedition 24-hr automatic watch and after a couple days of it sitting on my desk i realized it stopped working and had nO clue it needed to be wound lol i thought it was broken, im such a goofball, but im glad i realized i didnt get scammed. ive never had such a fancy watch before
This is wrong! Why would the first wheel of the reduction gear train drive the second coupling wheel, when the second coupling wheel is directly connected to the first one, thus the weight drives it directly already? Instead, both coupling pinions are connected to the first wheel of the reduction gear, and that's it. The ratchets take care of the rest. With so many views, I'm amazed no-one has noticed this. There is a guy on youtube who 3d printed the parts and made this mechanism, you can search for it. That shows how it works.
That was delightful. And sorry Luca, I know you must get this a lot, but I'm now reminded of the song by Suzanne Vega. I hope that kid in the song wasn't you.
Thank you for this wonderful and fun explanation. I have an automatic TH that does not start ticking the moment I wind it. It is until I move the watch a little that the automatic feature kicks in and it starts running, but if i dont move it the watch wont start running. Any idea why this can be?
Is there an earlier version of this concept? I had a cheap self winding watch in the 80's that sounded like it had a little BB inside. Just shake it up for a few minutes if it had been idle for a time and it would start right back up
Great question Paul, welded on to the very end of the mainspring, facing in the opposite direction of the coil, is what's called "slip spring" which acts kind of like a safety valve. This spring is always pressing against the walls of the barrel so when the mainspring reaches full wind, the slip spring shifts slightly which keeps the mainspring from being overwound
You can buy a $200-$300 Seiko or Bulova that will last you the rest of your life and are just as beautiful as a Rolex, the Rolex is certainly a good quality durable watch but not worth the thousands of dollars extra you pay for the name brand unless you plan to sell it someday in which case they do hold their value because of the name brand.
