Mechanics of Mechanical Watches and Clocks

Prof. Ruxu Du was born in China in 1955. He received his Master’s degree from the South China University of Technology in 1983 and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1989. He has taught in the North America for ten years before joining the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Currently, he is a professor in the Dept. of Mechanical and Automation Engineering. He is also the director of the Guangzhou Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) Institute of Advanced Technology. His areas of research include: design (mechanical watch and clock, industry sewing machine and etc.) and manufacturing (metal forming, machining, plastic injection molding and etc.), as well as energy and materials. He has published over 290 papers in various academic journals and international conferences. He is the associate editor / the members of editorial board of six international journals. He is a Fellow of ASME. He has being happily married since 1985 and has two children, Jin and Ann. He enjoys Chinese poetry and tennis. Dr. Longhan Xie was born in China in 1978. He received his Bachelor’s degree in 2002 and Master’s degree in 2005, both from Zhejiang University, China, and his Ph.D. degree in 2010 from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, the South China University of Technology. His areas of research include product design, CAD/CAE and energy harvesting devices.

• Introduction.- A Brief History of Mechanical Watch and Clock.- The Mechanics of Swiss Lever Escapement.- The Mechanic of the Spiral Spring.- Automatic Winding Device.- Gear and Power Transmission.- Concluding Remarks.

From the reviews:“An interesting and well-illustrated introduction into the history and current understanding of the mechanics of watches and clocks … . Many of the results reported here were obtained by academicians in China, first published as PhD or Master theses, or various local research papers. The publication of this monograph in the Springer series ‘History of Mechanism and Machine Science’ makes the interesting topic of design and manufacturing of mechanical watches and clocks easier accessible to the western research community.” (Franz Selig, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1262, 2013)