{"id":1622,"date":"2016-04-14T08:10:17","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T15:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/?p=1622"},"modified":"2016-04-14T08:44:34","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T15:44:34","slug":"christoph-laimer-brings-3d-printing-world-timepieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/christoph-laimer-brings-3d-printing-world-timepieces\/","title":{"rendered":"Christoph Laimer Brings 3D Printing to the World of Timepieces"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Swiss watches represent one of the high points of artisanal craft in all the world: For centuries, their fine mechanisms have relied on the most delicate balance of art and engineering in the cutting and shaping of dials, springs, and other components. But what if those pieces could be created in resin using 3D printing?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what Christoph Laimer, a Swiss engineer (but with no training in making watches), has done with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thingiverse.com\/thing:1249221\">his tourbillon-based timepiece<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1637\" src=\"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Laimer3.jpg\" alt=\"Laimer3\" width=\"455\" height=\"239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Laimer3.jpg 455w, https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Laimer3-300x158.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 455px) 100vw, 455px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1640\" src=\"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Laimer4.jpg\" alt=\"Laimer4\" width=\"359\" height=\"239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Laimer4.jpg 359w, https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Laimer4-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 359px) 100vw, 359px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Horological History Meets 21st-Century 3D Printing<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tourbillon\">tourbillon mechanism<\/a> was created at the end of the 18th century by legendary watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet to improve the accuracy of timepieces. What makes Laimer\u2019s work a big deal? Horologist Nicholas Manousos explains the significance in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hodinkee.com\/articles\/a-major-step-forward-in-horological-additive-manufacturing-christoph-laimers-3d-printed-tourbillon\">his overview of Laimer\u2019s work<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The tourbillon \u2014 a 200+ year old invention designed by one of the greatest watchmakers to ever live, which for most of its history has been practically synonymous with hand-craftsmanship and high end watchmaking, has been produced in a working watch <em>with a 3D printer.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The watch is a little bulky and not especially accurate, but Manousos doesn\u2019t care. He\u2019s still impressed that an entire timepiece, including tourbillon, has been 3D printed \u2014 and affordably, to boot.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1658\" src=\"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/LaimerF-1.jpg\" alt=\"LaimerF\" width=\"791\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/LaimerF-1.jpg 791w, https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/LaimerF-1-300x82.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/LaimerF-1-768x211.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 791px) 100vw, 791px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>From Scientific Software to Mechanical Design<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Laimer came to timepiece design and 3D printing after twenty years of work as a software engineer, most recently developing programs for the life sciences. He became interested in watches because he wanted to 3D print something with a purely mechanical function.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Watches are great for this, he says, because \u201cyou can feel how life works\u201d with them. That\u2019s a big contrast from writing software, where everything happens invisibly in the depths of the computer, and Laimer has welcomed the change.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After evaluating various CAD applications, he gravitated to Fusion 360 to make his design. He was happy to discover that the program had a script to generate gears. The sketch functions \u2014 and especially the ability to go back in time and refine sketches \u2014\u00a0also helped him create the watch&#8217;s escapement mechanism. Instead of needing to use a compass and set square, he used online Fusion 360 tutorials to quickly teach himself how to shape the mechanism and design its teeth.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Sharing His Work with the Community of Makers<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Because he had never had any particular connection with timepieces before, Laimer had to do a lot of research on how a watch works, then spend even more time making it 3D printable. He\u2019s now <a href=\"https:\/\/myhub.autodesk360.com\/ue29a46f4\/g\/shares\/SHabee1QT1a327cf2b7a779ca5cee6b3fff7\">shared all the files<\/a> so that anyone can take advantage of his hard work.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the future, Laimer is thinking about going smaller and more complex with his designs, focusing on a \u2018really wearable\u2019 watch. Given his work on the tourbillon, it makes you wonder whether we\u2019ll all be wearing one of his designs soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Check out how Laimer has designed and 3D printed a beautiful tourbillon-based timepiece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":1715,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fusion","dhig-theme--light"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Christoph Laimer Brings 3D Printing to the World of Timepieces - Fusion Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/christoph-laimer-brings-3d-printing-world-timepieces\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christoph Laimer Brings 3D Printing to the World of Timepieces - 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