This 3D-printed tourbillon was modeled after Jacob & Co’s Twin Turbo Furious watch

It seems like everyone who has a substantial net worth carries around a few luxury watches, but none are perhaps as mechanically enthralling as the Twin Turbo Furious watch from Jacob & Co., which houses a pair of spinning orbs called tourbillons that increase the watch’s accuracy. However, they’re quite small and intricate, so seeing exactly how they work is difficult. This is why mcmaven on Instructables wanted to create a huge 3D-printed version that shows every detailed component. 

At the heart is the balance wheel and spring which tick along and keep the time. Further up, the escape wheel works in a ratchet mechanism to slowly load and release the spring as the tourbillon spins. These core components are then placed into the two halves of the body that spins around on the base. 

To produce movement, a single 28BYJ-48 stepper motor turns a gear underneath the base to spin the tourbillon. One nice feature of this project is the assembly’s ability to keep a consistent speed through the use of a rotary encoder, as the previous speed is stored within EEPROM and loaded upon boot. A single Arduino Nano is responsible for controlling the entire system, and as seen in the video, it looks incredible.

More details on the tourbillon can be found in its write-up.