ENGI 301 - DIY Watch Winder

Background and Motivation

▪I recently got an automatic watch (one that harnesses energy through movement), but I have made the critical error of forgetting to purchase a watch winder, which prevents the watch from dying when not wearing it.

▪There have been some DIY designs, and I am especially partial to the gyroscopic design. I wanted to incorporate a stepper motor such that the user has finer control over how the watch is wound in comparison to designs using a DC motor.

Build Instructions

It started with using Michael Mahoney's 3D printed gyroscopic watch winder design posted on thingiverse (linked below).

I was able to use a Bambu Lab X1 printer to print the same components, ensuring the keep the scale of the model identical across all the components.

Once I had the physical components in place, it was time to move on to the electronic components. I started with getting the stepper motor functional, which was simple given the driver was built with the pocket beagle and this specific stepper motor in mind.

I then moved on to adding further components, including a 16x2 character display, and an RTC module. The drivers for these components required the pocketbeagle to run python 3.8, which posed some challenged in the beginning.

Finally, after adding the buttons, we arrive at the current state of the project. I still have to assemble the 3D printed watch winder with bearings in between the various arms, and then attach the servo to the base.

Operation Instructions

• The project relies on the user interacting with the four buttons and interpreting the character display.
• The display walks the user through their various options, with each option tied to a button of a specific color.
• When the program starts, the user can set the time or simply run the servo.
• Setting the time allows the do not disturb function to work accurately, since an accurate time ensures the servo will not operate between 8 pm and 8 am.
• While running the user can choose to turn the backlight of the display on or off (can turn it off while in DND, for example), and toggle the DND function, again with the buttons specified on the display.

Video of Project

Here is a video of the mechanism behind the watch winder in action.