In my watch shop I have repaired many of the auto-winding watch mechanisms. They are very robust and what causes the most failures is bearing contamination with dirt and old sticky lubrication. Once cleaned, they will auto-wind the mainspring for another 50 years!

In the 70s my dad gave me his old Seiko automatic he wore in the desert but stopped working. As a kid with nothing to lose I opened it up with a pair of 'Mole' grips and amazed to see the swinging weight, which had fallen off. The watch still works! Thanks for showing me the trickery of its mechanism all these years later

The generating tiles are the equivalent of "mushy" ground which is harder to walk through. Smart people will want to detour around it, and it's really a clever way to make the simple people work harder. A backpack that bounces to generate power will make the wearer work harder and more tired. There's no free power to harness here.

Magic trick reveal: If you harvest some energy from people walking, it means that people will have a harder time walking on such surface. The energy required for a watch is very small, so, the restriction on the wearer's movement is imperceptible . The more energy you want to harvest, the more restriction/effort you have to overcome.

Way back in the late 1960s I saw an article describing a similar ratchet mechanism hooked up to a rope tied toward the top of a tall tree. As the tree swayed in the wind it produced some very high tensions and some fairly long strokes. If you matched such a "tree and ratchet" mechanism with a heavy weight driven generator (on the ground next to the tree) you might get some usable power. If you use three or four top ropes (every 120 or 90 degrees) you can get a pull on the ratchet no matter what direction the tree is blown in. One small correction: A LOT of life uses rotary motion instead of reciprocating motion -- but we don't normally see it because the life is single celled. You know all those microscopic movies of bacteria with propulsive flagella waving snake-like behind? They aren't actually flailing, they are actually rotating corkscrews and just appear to be flailing because they rotate. The base of each screw has a tiny chemical/electric "motor" twirling it about. Ain't life AMAZING?! And your videos are great too! Thanks?

Once again Rob shows us machines that can help us today don't necessarily need to have transistors and electricity to be super useful. Thanks Rob

I suspect a lot of these energy harvesting devices would make the humans actuating them more tired, but if they only extracted a small insignificant amount per human and there are a lot of humans, then they wouldn't be so noticeable.

What an amazing GENIUS idea that thing is!! So simple but not so simple. There are some clever chaps about.

Many years ago I got myself interested in just how such winding mechanisms work. Probably spent the better part of a week at the library (not that doing so was wholely unheard-of for me) but it's a new understanding to see a large model demonstrated. Rob, thank you!

That's such an elegant mechanism. Thank you for making us aware of it. An eccentric weight, winding a clock spring that drives an electrical generator is an obvious task for this mechanism.

I've found the climbing device the "GRIGRI" to be a very interesting mechanism. It's a very important safety device, so it must not fail, but it's also a piece of climbing gear so it'll get banged up against rocks, wet, muddy, has to accommodate ropes of all different sizes, etc.. It's incredibly simple, though, but it just doesn't fail except in exceptional circumstances.

I really hope you pursue this! I am a Thru-hiker and have walked about 10,000 miles and keeping electronics charged on trail is always something we struggle with. In more open places you can use solar, but on a lot of trails with tree cover it just isn't viable. My friends and I definitely have thought about something to take advantage of the energy we use walking, but haven't seen anything like this. Given that we tend to walk around 8-10 hours a day average, this really could be viable for us. One thing to be aware of is that the energy to lift something from your foot (Like shoes) is equivalent to carrying about 5 times that on your back. So if you have a pair of shoes that weight 1 lb vs a pair that weight 2 , you will be expending about 5 lbs extra in energy of work. The military did some studies on this years ago. I mention this because if what you spend in energy over say a 5 day stretch lifting a heavy electric generator system on your shoes is more than say carrying and extra 3/4 lb battery bank, it wouldn't be much use, for us at least. Though, if you live in a city and want a bit extra exercise it could be worth it. Anyhow, been watching for a while and love your channel ! Keep up the good work!

Fascinating. I've got several automatic winding watches, but I never understood exactly how they worked. Thank you for the explanation.

This is a clock escapement only for storing energy rather than controlled release. Think of an escapement in reverse. Ingenious! Thanks Rob.

My first idea for getting energy out of walking would be some sort of liquid squirting through a turbine of sort. I mean, there would be a soft chamber with one way valves in built in the bottom of the shoe, and when it gets squished, it pumps a liquid through thin tubes in to a turbine..

Now that is what a great YT video is. From the content to the introduction, presentation to editing… Subject perfectly covered under 5 mins with a hands on demo.

Back in the '70s I came up with a similar mechanical energy storage design to store short milder kicks to load a spring for a motorcycle kick starter. The Yamaha RT360 single cylinder 2 stroke had a reputation for delivering injuries if it wasn't kicked with kung fu precision. Shame I didn't have the resources to build it. But I was only in high school at the time.

'Someone' needs to invent a dog harness with some...

I think my favorite thing about this channel, other than the consistently fascinating and informative content, is that RMS always delivers exactly what is promised in the title. It's never clickbait, or pseudo scientific rubbish trying to sell some VPN or something. If the title promises you a Magic Lever... well, here you go. One magic lever and the files for you to make your own right now. All channels should be held to such a high standard. Thanks for this.

My first big purchase in 1976 was a SEIKO watch.. thanks for explantion.FASCINATING

Every bit of energy you generate from walking is added to the effort of walking.

going from nothing to winding a watch spring, and then generating meaningful energy are giant leaps remember that no one person inventions have occurred for many many years, need to collaborate and build together these days.

Thank you, I always wondered how the auto-winding watch worked. I learn so much from your videos!!!!

My new favorite channel so humble and informative, it’s a delight to see you just as excited as I am to see your inventions working 👍

🎩👍Good one Robert, I never thought of that until you came up with it either

When I first got interested in automatic watches I learned of this. Making complicated stuff is very simple. Making simple stuff is complicated. Brilliant!

Brilliant ! Thanks for showing us this mechanism.

It’s amazing how tough these are. When I service a seiko watch I’m always impressed with this very tiny parts and how much energy thy store.

Hypnotic. And I'll be sure to binge on your other videos for a dive into energy scavenging. Interesting topic and I look forward to hearing more on it.

A simple stroke of genius. I made a crude ratchet-pawl mechanism for my weaving loom using a steel washer, hacksaw and heavy guage wire. It was expensive to buy the mechanism, so a little autocad magic and elbow grease, it cost pennies and it's working just fine. However, a 3D printer/mould would have been perfect. Again, the goal was improvising on a low budget. Now I'm wondering if I can construct this without the need for a milling machine, 3D printer or a mould. Ok you've inspired me. Great video!

This is mind-blowing for someone like me who doesn't know about watch mechanisms. Very cool how it always goes the same direction!

man, that was awesome. i love this channel. thanks mate.

Another system Seiko has is their KINETIC drive system (I have it in my 20+ yo Seiko watch) where you basically "shake" (or walk) to charge the internal battery. Fascinating stuff to say the least

Robert. Thankyou for the upload, that's a great idea! I'd like to see you cover the LaMSa mechanism used by the mantis shrimp. It's fascinating and quite difficult to grasp the concept. I think you or Luke could make a brilliant job of simplifying and possibly recreating the design that nature apparently favours. Much respect for what you do here on TnT, RB

God how I love this channel.

I always wondered how these things worked. That was incredibly well described.

Most delightful to watch, thank you. I always wondered how this mechanism (self winding) works. I had a beautiful Rotary watch with self winding back in the seventies but unfortunately it got swiped.

I'm not sure why, but watching this video made me think about the 7 natural steps law for walking with a cup of coffee (think it's universal for most liquids) when we walk with a liquid filled cup we actually have to adjust the way we walk else it will spill around the 7th step due to the resonance of our walk going through the liquid, interesting mechanism in the video though, I use to have a watch that was powered like that

I seem to recall a wind generator made on TnT a year ago or two that was a vertical blade that oscillated back and forth in light winds. Wouldn’t that work with this mechanism?

Thank you so much. This was very educating!

Mechanical engineering has so much useful wisdom to teach us.

First time I've seen you, I don't know how to describe it, but I like the way you present yourself and the concepts

Thank you for sharing this piece of information.

Clever, relatively simple, easily produced. Well done!

Thank you for an interesting video, as always your videos are interesting, well presented and informative. Thinking about this, the energy involved in say, walking is not wasted by the body, it is mainly stored in the elasticity of tendons etc. and it is utilised in the next step taken. To "harvest" it will make walking tiresome due to the imbalance created in the body's perfect walking mechanism, but I suppose siphoning off just a watt or two to charge a 'phone wouldn't make too much difference. After all, the self winding watch never made anyone's arm ache...

In the 70's I had a Timex watch that was a self winding and it worked like that. I really liked that watch and was really bummed when it died.

Genius! It goes the same direction no matter which way you rotate!!!

It’s dead reliable too! My SNK809 with the 7s26 automatic movement has the magic lever system and is 5 years old. This movement is rated at about 10 to 15 years of continuous wear between needed maintenance. Seiko also has a Kinetic movement that uses a automatic rotor and the movement charges a capacitor for quick energy recovery and powerful discharge to power a quartz movement.

This would be nice to use in harvesting tidal energy, as it can capture movements from variable motions. Kudos Seiko😊

I think sitting on office chairs could be used too. Let them spring back up when we stand up. Whole body of weight on it. Just an idea. Thanks for sharing :)

What a fascinating device indeed! One of those 'simple' notions that illustrates how we can manipulate shapes and interfaces to achieve a useful outcome.

This is wild! Thanks 😊

This looks looks like a great device for harvesting wave energy. Very interesting!

Very interesting and insightful. That’s a lot to think about. Cheers.

My favorite is the Jaeger LeCoultre mechanism that uses a bellows to wind the spring as the bellows moves in and out with changes in the ambient temperature.

Magic indeed, it is mesmerizing to watch it in action.

Love it. Mechanism and battery go into your shoe and when you sit down at the airport you plug your USB into your sole. Genius.

That is awesome and it may help me with a project I am dreaming up! Thank you!

I saw this mechanism in a video I was watching where a guy was fixing a watch, I hadn’t seen it in any other watches before. Nice to see how it works!

Would be great to use that to lift the weight of a gravety generator. Hook it up to a water wheel or wind mill...use 2 ...one weight comes down for constant power to the generator, while the mechanism on the wind mill pulls up the second for the next cycle. Weight comes to the bottom limit, hits a lever and switches the power to the top weight.

My biggest concern is that it seems like those arms would wear down rather quickly

Great video! Interesting stuff!

We need more good, functional inventions like these, that are good for the environment and ourselves !!🤩

Love it thanks mate.

Very very good good and easy mechanism Thank you from Jaipur India

More than two centuries ago there was some floor clocks that worked on an atmospheric pressure fluctuations. They could work without human support for decades! Imagine scaling this thing to a huge size that could generate pretty big amount of energy, for free.

fascinating and ingenious!

Wow! Fascinating!

It's so simple yet so astonishing!😮😮

I have a Seiko with the magic lever! They also have a clutch to stop the winding when the mainspring is wound. I just don't hear any clicking, so there must be some more than just the three simple parts?

Simple mechanics, all ways interesting to watch nice video Rob. 👍😊

This is magnificent piece of engineering, and still available for only few dollars, everyone can afford it, simple and beautiful like EM=C squared.

what a clever device, the simplest things are the best, and things that do something without moving are the best, like seat belt positioning mounts that always return the seatbelt to where its meant to be without any moving parts,

bicycle that can run energy or a washing machine. something i once saw that was intriguing.

Phew. I'm so glad you heard me shouting, turn it the other way. 😊 Can't wait to see what you come up with. I can imagine something attached to someone's hip area and operated by a pull cord attached front and back to their leg.

Amazing ! There are many mechanical gadgets we haven't invented yet.

I've been thinking about this for decades.

So it's a radial mechanical version of an electrical full bridge rectifier. Fascinating.

I usually skip 3D printing videos because I don't have and can not afford a 3D printer, but damn this video was super interesting. I always wondered how self winding watches worked!

I love this concept, and its something that is also very human. If you take a cylinder (ex. drink can) and apply force on one side with your thumb like you are grabbing it. It will rotate forward, and now with your pointer finger apply force coming back and the item will so the same motion. I love the idea of capturing the energy of a step, when you really think about how much force we put down per step for a 180lb person x 5,000 steps is a lot of energy that we burn, but could be translated into something more.

Ingenious!

The Vostok sprag clutch using ruby needle roller bearings is also interesting 😁

That's cool, looks like it's modelled on a pendulum clock escapement mechanism which first showed up in the 13th century, but put to a slightly different use. Very creative.

That’s so wicked. I love it.

I have always been impressed with this mechanism. Even some swiss watches can’t wind in both directions

Great video! I love when you can make a model and observe the mechanism as you manipulate it with your hands. It takes a real world class instructor to do that instead of being lame and just explaining things by math formulas or reading verbatim a paragraph from a boring book.

Smash that LIKE! Robert is doing yeoman's work with this channel--getting people interested in electromechanical devices. Thinking "outside the box" is a learned skill, and this channel is fantastic training for that. Thank you sir!

Brilliant ❤

Remember energy and matter can not be created or destroyed. Energy comes from somewhere, and in this case from your body. It will make you tired faster but it might be worth it if it keeps the scout drone operational. (Sidewalks you see early in the clip, good for people that will avoid them like they do gyms. Also probably feel sort of like you're walking on sand, full stride/energy input but only half the progress)

I'm a hiker. And usually use a solar panel to keep my electronics charged. If this is going anywhere near a foot it has to be 100% comfortable and not rub anywhere. I can do 16+ (sometimes 20+) miles in a day. Even the slightest problem with your feet can kill that.

One of my Khun Rikon tin openers has a lever that you push or pull & it creates movement in the same direction if pulled or pushed.

Loved it simple but mind blow thumbs up

Clever simplicity is always best imo.

I think that suits with these devices at knees, shoulders, etc., would be very useful and children would be great primary sources of energy.

Absolutely phenomenal mechanism! Thank you so much for sharing!

Anyone who's cycled a bike with a dynamo will understand that adding energy generation to your own movement adds additional effort. Sometimes it's worthwhile, but worth bearing in mind it's not free

Nice video

I actually own one of such Seiko watches with that very mechanism but have never realized how exactly it works. :-)

I've had the perfect idea for years. I'd love to see it built out.

I sure love magic ✨