Autodesk Gallery Powers of Design Exhibit: 10**-3 Sonata Silicium Watch Components

March 21, 2013

Autodesk Gallery Powers of Design Exhibit: 10**-3 Sonata Silicium Watch Components

I work out of our office on One Market Street in San Francisco. My standup-desk is right across from our Gallery at One Market. One of our newer exhibits is called Powers of Design. It was first featured at the Technology Entertainment & Design (TED) conference last year. Powers of Design depicts the size of everything from the inconceivably small to the mind-blowingly large. I thought I'd cover the exhibit elements, one at a time, over the next few months. I started small and am working my way up.

Image courtesy of Ulysse Nardin.

10^-3 MAGNITUDE
0.001 m
1 Millimeter

Sonata Silicium Watch Components

2 Millimeters

We’ve arrived at a scale where we can really see what we’re looking at—if we squint. In this case, the minuscule (about a millimeter) parts of the world’s first mechanical 24-hour alarm watch with a countdown display, the Sonata Silicium from Ulysse Nardin. Comprising more than 400 of these parts, this mechanical marvel had to be precisely designed and assembled to ensure the elements would work in delicate concert.

Designers used 3D modeling to visualize the intricate assembly of gears and springs, enabling them to spot and eliminate even the slightest interferences early in the design process, thereby cutting development time in half.

Hey buddy, do you have the time? But of course,... Actually, I blogged about the Sonata watch on my birthday in 2010. It's amazing that they can make pieces so small and even more amazing that they are crafted precisely enough to tell the correct time.

Thanks to Global Content Manager, Matt Tierney, for the images and text that comprise the exhibit element. This is just one of the many exhibits in the gallery at One Market in San Francisco. The gallery is open to the public on Wednesdays from 12 pm to 5 pm, and admission is free. Visit us.

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