Clockwork Spring Winding

How it's made

Source

a key winds a clock mainspring; the retaining pawl drops across 20-42 teeth in three turns. Each tooth excites a rounded 0.4 ms attack, 2-4 ms filtered noise impact and a softer delayed rebound.

Body

small metal parts have inharmonic modes near 1.65, 2.87, 4.73 and 6.91 kHz, with 28-115 ms decays. A damped 640 Hz key shoulder adds weight; size lowers all modes without adding room reverb.

Envelope

teeth span 0.015-2.12 s; intervals grow by up to 3.8 times as spring torque rises, with two brief hand repositioning gaps. Final pawl seating is followed by a naturally damped tail to 2.5 s.

Layers

tooth contact scrapes last 18-42 ms; spring friction swells in each turn, its broad band rises from 650 to 1550 Hz with torque. Friction stops before the final latch; there is no motor drone.

Variation

seeded timing jitter of 3%, impact level of 12% and modal detuning of 1.5% avoid machine repetition. Size, tooth count, tension, friction and damping distinguish watch, brass, tight and worn.

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