Note:  The Thingiverse page should answer more specific question regarding components and troubleshooting. 

Files and more:  https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2751917

I attempted to create the simplest tourbillon mechanism that I could in the smallest form factor using the least amount of plastic (my attention span cannot handle long print times), and this is the result.  It took about 7H of print time and 40g of plastic.

One unusual aspect of this tourbillon is the annular gear that drives the escape wheel pinion.  Most tourbillons have a fixed spur gear as the fourth wheel, so my escape wheel ticks in the opposite direction of a typical tourbillon watch (not to say that tourbillon watches are in any way typical).  I designed it this way so that I could make the mechanism smaller and simplify the frame design to eliminate supports for those parts (printing still requires support for the pallet lever and base).

Ratios are as follows:

2Hz balance wheel/spring (requires grub screws in the rim to adjust timing)

12T escape wheel that completes a revolution every six seconds

6T escape wheel pinion

60T fixed ring gear

The upshot is a one minute tourbillon (which is typical of watches as it can double as a second hand).  It functions with either filament strip shafts or metal shafts.

Once printed, the design goes together quickly.

  Once the escapement parts are mounted (and they spin with ease on their shafts), the frame sandwiches together.

Exploded views.

NB:  The roller jewel piece (the rightmost blue piece in the bottom exploded view is depicted upside down.  I apologize for the confusion.


Model 4:  The Dual Ulysse

Here's another tourbillon model this time incorporating Ludwig Oeschlin's rather amazing Dual Ulysse escapement based off of Breuget's natural escapement. It uses a unique tooth profile so that the escape wheel teeth act as impulse and locking pallets in addition to powering each other. The disadvantages of this design are that it requires additional energy to overcome the inertia of two escape wheels and that it requires greater precision than comparable Swiss levers. This escapement may be found in the Freak series by Ulysse Nardin. I decided to throw together this design because I do not have $100,000 to spend on my mechanical toys.


Assembly is essentially the same as the above design.  Files may be found here:  https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2657571

Here is another view of this type of escapement:


It's operation is a little confusing, so step by step:

1) The "wings" of the pallet piece ( the locking pallets) lock one of the escape wheels.

2) As the balance wheel returns, the roller jewel impacts the fork causing the locking pallet to unlock

3) This releases the escape wheels. The one that was just locked spins the other wheel which impacts the impulse pallet (the nub at the bottom of the pallet piece.

4) The pallet piece transmits this energy through the fork to the roller applying power to the balance wheel for the next cycle

5) The wheel that just gave the impulse now locks as its locking pallet descends catching the next tooth.

6) Process repeats as long as there's power provided

It's a fun and compact design, but requires exceptionally tight tolerances.


Model 5 (My favorite):  Daniels Double Independent Wheel Remontoire Flying Tourbillon One-Minute Escapement.

The title of this design (almost long enough to be a Lina Wertmuller film) pretty much says everything one needs to know. It uses an independent wheel (the rotation of the escape wheels is decoupled) escapement originally designed by George Daniels.  Each one has a remontoire to distribute torque as the wheels rotate through different angles each tick. It is a tourbillon since the whole carriage spins to (in theory) average out gravitational errors on the balance spring. And it is geared so that (if adjusted to 14400 bph)...

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