Okay, so, today I got into trying to imitate this Jaeger-LeCoultre JLC Duomètre Sphérotourbillon watch. Sounds fancy, right? It’s one of those high-end, super complicated watches that most people would never even dream of owning. I don’t know too much about it but I always want to give it a try. But let me tell you, it’s a whole other ball game to try and build one.
First off, I started by just staring at pictures of this thing online. You know, the official photos from specialty stores, close-ups, the whole shebang. I wanted to really get a feel for how it looked from every angle. What I could get is just the photos of this watch, the movement is just too complicated that I can’t find any source about it. The design is just incredible, with that tourbillon thingy spinning around. I spent a good few hours just soaking it all in, trying to understand how all the pieces fit together.
Gathering the Materials
- Trying to find the right materials was a mission in itself.
- I searched through a ton of my junk drawers, old watches, and bits of metal.
- I even visited a couple of local watch repair shops, hoping they’d have some spare parts lying around.
- No luck there, but I did manage to find some tiny screws and gears that looked like they might work.
Then came the actual building part. Or, well, the attempt at building. I started with the case, which I fashioned out of some thin metal I had lying around. It wasn’t easy, let me tell you. Bending it into the right shape, and making sure it all fit together snugly, took forever. I used my tiny pliers and a whole lot of patience to get it just right.
Next up was the face of the watch. I printed out a picture of the Duomètre Sphérotourbillon’s dial and carefully cut it out. I know, it’s not the same as the real deal, but it’s the best I could do. I glued it onto a thin piece of cardboard and tried to make it look as neat as possible.
The hands were another challenge. I found some old, thin pieces of metal and cut them into the shape of watch hands. This part was super fiddly. They kept bending and breaking, and I had to redo them several times. But eventually, I got something that resembled watch hands. It’s really hard to deal with such a tiny thing, I don’t know how those masters build these watches.
The Tourbillon
Now, the tourbillon. That’s the spinning cage thing that’s supposed to make the watch more accurate. I had absolutely no idea how to make one of those. So, I just took a bunch of tiny gears and glued them together in a way that looked vaguely like the pictures I’d seen. It doesn’t spin or anything, but it kinda looks the part if you squint.
I spent many hours to assemble all the parts together. To be honest, I’m actually quite proud of how it turned out.
After I finished the imitation, I put it on my wrist and showed it off to my family. They were impressed, or at least they pretended to be. I know it’s not perfect, not even close, but it was a fun project, and I learned a lot. Plus, now I have a somewhat-wearable, even though it is huge, kinda-sorta replica of a fancy watch. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll actually be able to afford the real thing. Until then, this will have to do.
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