Okay, so, today I wanted to mess around and try to imitate that Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon 3, the classic style one. You know, the one that’s like, ridiculously complicated and expensive? Yeah, that one.
First thing I did was pull up a bunch of pictures and videos of the watch online. I needed to really see what I was up against. I spent a good chunk of time just zooming in on all the tiny details, trying to figure out how all those gears and springs fit together. Man, that thing is intricate!
Then I started sketching. Now, I’m no artist, but I tried my best to draw out the basic layout of the watch face, the different dials, and of course, that crazy spinning tourbillon thing. It looked pretty rough, I’ll admit, but it was a start.
- Looked up “GSTR-2B” and “SU3 transaction code” because, I don’t know, they sounded kinda watch-related? Turns out, not so much. One’s about taxes and the other is some system admin thing. Who knew?
- Got sidetracked by something called “multistage sampling.” Sounded cool, but had nothing to do with watches. More like a survey method.
- Even found a “POKMON THEME” song. I guess I was hoping it’d have some secret watch knowledge. It didn’t. But it was a fun listen.
After the sketching, I decided to try and build a really simplified model of the tourbillon mechanism. I grabbed some cardboard, toothpicks, and glue – my go-to materials for these kinds of projects. It was super fiddly work, and I definitely messed up a few times. Let’s just say there was a lot of trial and error involved. For instance, I saw “%2B” and thought it was some watch term, but I figured out it just meant a “+” sign. Some websites were saying how URLDecode was messing up and turning %2b into a +, and I think that was what confused me in the first place!
I remembered reading something about a “Filter option” and “Numbers filter,” so I tried to apply that to my cardboard gears. I was thinking maybe I could filter out the parts that didn’t fit. Didn’t really work out that way, though. But it was worth a shot, right?
Eventually, I managed to get something that kinda, sorta resembled a tourbillon. It didn’t spin perfectly, and it definitely wouldn’t keep time, but it was something! I even tried to add some extra details to make it look more like the real deal, like those little blue screws they use on the actual watch.
I also saw a warning about pop-up blockers needing to be disabled, so I made sure mine were off. Didn’t really make a difference for my cardboard project, but hey, you never know.
By the end of the day, I had a messy but somewhat functional cardboard tourbillon and a newfound appreciation for the people who actually make these watches. It’s way harder than it looks! I mean, I didn’t even touch on the other complications, like the chronograph and the jumping hour. Maybe I’ll try to tackle those another time.
It was fun, it was a bit chaotic, but I learned a lot, and I think I’ll be able to apply this experience in future projects. So I encourage everyone to go out there and do something, you can start small and learn as you go just like me. Hope you had fun reading my report, see you next time!
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