Okay, so I’ve been messing around with this thing called the Jaeger-LeCoultre JLC Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Cylindrique. Sounds fancy, right? Well, it kinda is. It’s a watch, a super complicated one. I wanted to see if I could kinda, sorta replicate it, or at least get the general vibe.
First, I looked up a bunch of pictures and videos of the real deal. I mean, you gotta see what you’re aiming for. This watch has a lot going on. There’s this thing called a “tourbillon” that’s basically a spinning cage that’s supposed to make the watch more accurate. And this one’s “cylindrique,” which, you guessed it, means it’s shaped like a cylinder.
I started with the case. I just grabbed some scrap metal I had lying around and started to shape it into a circle, like the watch case. It was rough, no precision tools here. I had to filed it down a lot.
- Figured out the rough size of the watch face by comparing it to my own wrist.
- Cut a circular piece of metal to match that size.
- Filed and sanded the edges until it was smooth enough. It took time!
Next up was the dial. Now, the real watch has these beautiful, intricate details. I wasn’t even going to try to match that. I just took a piece of white paper, cut it into a circle, and drew some basic lines on it to represent the hour markers. Real basic stuff. I added some hands from another old watch that I took off.
Then came the hard part – the tourbillon. No way was I going to make a working one. But I wanted to give the illusion of it. I found this small, round piece of plastic, I have no idea what it was originally. I painted it silver and glued it to the center of the dial. I added a couple of tiny metal bits to make it look like it’s made of some cogs.
- Searched through my junk drawer for anything that resembled a tourbillon cage.
- Settled on a small plastic piece and painted it.
- Glued it to the dial and added some embellishments.
Finally, I needed a strap. I found an old leather belt and cut a strip off it. I punched some holes and attached it to the case with some wire. Yeah, it wasn’t pretty, but it held the thing together.
The Result
So, did I successfully imitate a Jaeger-LeCoultre JLC Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Cylindrique? Absolutely not. But did I have fun trying to make something that vaguely resembled it? You bet. It looks nothing like the real thing, but it’s kinda cool in its own, rough way. It’s a reminder that you don’t need fancy tools or skills to create something. Just some spare parts, a bit of imagination, and a whole lot of patience. I just tried my best to do this. I did it!
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