Pendulette tourbillon Sky Watcher

Excellent quality of all parts: They fit perfectly and everything is very stable. You will profit from a small hammer, though. Bee wax is essential for getting the clock to work automatically.

I have never done something similar before but the manual is a very good guidance almost everywhere. I only made two small mistakes and found one imprecise picture which rendered the transmission to the minutes and hours wheels unworkable. The image I uploaded gives you some hints. But I even enjoyed partly disassembling the clock to somewhere in the middle - and the process worked fine also backwards ;-).

I always played around with the larger assemblies for quite some time (like when you have just mounted the minutes wheel, the hours wheel, or the tourbillon) not just to distribute the wax on the gears but also to check whether the mechanism makes sense and works correctly, e.g., wheels turn in the right directions, or lining up the impulse pin and escape fork thru the two levers managing the balance spring. You will need the latter many times when setting the clock mechanism in motion :)

The last action might be really difficult if you have no idea how a mechanical clock works internally so you might want to check out some YouTube videos on how the escape wheel and all the other parts of the escapement interact.

As I did not put any time pressure on my work, it was an extremely enjoyable experience with a great reward in the end when the clock worked automatically (for a few minutes b/c the transmission of power from the watch's mainspring barrel to the escapement was too weak in my case).

Now I contemplate fixing the last minor detail during the next longer vacation period...!

Finally I've got this excellent and beautiful model to work. After carefully building the clock it used to work always for some minutes then the escape fork hit the escape wheel from above, causing the whole thing to get stuck. I don't know if this was caused by my build, but I knew, I would have to fix it.

Some research taught me that the impulse pin would not provide enough energy to the escape fork, which then was too slow compared to the movement of the escape wheel.

I had to rework the inner and outer mount of the balance spring. On the inside the spring was mounted in an incorrect angle, causing the spring to touch the inner mount, so I bent it to a proper position. On the outside the spring was several centimetres too long, so I shortened it just by letting it stick out on the back side of the mount. To avoid interference, I had to place the inner mount closer to the balance wheel.

Then I removed some vertical play on the metal axle and the escape fork mount using washers and also placed washers below some gears to reduce friction.

This whole process took me longer than the initial build, I rebuilt the tourbillon about 20 times, but it was great fun and worth every minute. Now the clock runs without any problems, it runs for about three hours before I have to wind it up again and keeps time very well.

I can recommend this model, but be aware this thing is an advanced build.

Definitely anadvanced build (not for the faint of heart)! This is my first Ugears project after doing six of a competitor brand. I find that the instructions weren't as detailed BUT the parts are much more sturdy. Actually thepanels are at least twice as thick.
I have it completed but I have a couple of gears jamming and Ihaven't found out whichones they are so it won't operate (annoying) but I will figure it out.
One other thing I discovered is that the "lock" is just a hair too long making catch on the drive gear!
Try it if you dare and want a challenge!

John

Fun project
Now if I can just get it to work. LoL

An excellent puzzle! A challenge to build and impressive to show off. Adequate instructions, easy to follow. Not for beginners though! And extreme care must be taken - this is very intricate puzzle, and demands full attention at all times. (I made one minor mistake: I installed the UGEARS logo backwards on the top part.) They point out that you need to seat the top tourbillon part. However, once it is completed, there is a breaking-in period: The first time it only ran a few seconds, but I kept restarting it and now it runs continuously.

Amazing build, intricate and a true look into the way complex mechanical clocks work. Problem is, it doesnt work. After completion the only way i got the escapement mechanism to move at all was by physically rotating the mainspring housing with my hand, and it stopped seconds after i let off pressure. After trying to fix it it now doesnt work at all, the escapement mechanism binds after a single rotation.

Beatiful, impressive, but i feel it may have been under tested in production. I dont have the time to tinker with it back and forth after i already spent so long building it to get it to work.

👍👍

Amazing, but you have to work extremely precise

The lenquige needs to bein nl to

Wow! This is a piece of art and I’m so grateful for this company and the fun we had putting this together. Such a work of craftsmanship!!