The Automatic Winding Device of a Mechanical Watch Movement and Its Application in Energy Harvesting

Abstract

Invented more than 200 years ago, the automatic winding device of mechanical watch movement is one of the most successful energy harvesting devices. It harvests the kinematical energy from body movements and drives the mechanical watch movement. According to literatures, however, few have studied its kinematics in detail. In this paper, the kinematical model of automatic winding device is developed. The model is a pendulum model with a set of gears that converts the bidirectional motion to unidirectional motion. The simulation shows that the efficiency of the device is about 46.3%. Experiment validations are also conducted, which confirm the simulation results. With some modifications, it can be used to drive various mobile electronic devices.