1. Time base & seconds motion
The going train, escapement and balance behind every watch — plus how the seconds hand moves.
every complication
The interactive atlas of watch complications — see how every mechanism actually works.
The wonder of a mechanical watch isn't how it looks — it's how it works. A few hundred tiny parts, arranged so the machine knows 2100 isn't a leap year, or chimes the hour out loud the moment you ask it to. The catch: almost all of that lives hidden behind the dial. This atlas opens it up. Every complication, shown in interactive 3D you can spin, slow right down and take apart piece by piece — free, on any device, whether you're twelve and love how things work or studying for a watchmaking exam.
A growing, multi-year project — built ground-up and in the open.
The whole taxonomy
Ten families, every function a mechanical watch can have — in the order they're best understood, from the going train outward. Highlighted rows are available to explore now.
2. Calendar
From a simple date to a perpetual calendar that knows 2100 is not a leap year.
3. Time zones
Telling the time in more than one place at once.
4. Timing
Measuring elapsed time — the chronograph and its exotic cousins.
5. Chiming & musical
Watches that tell the time out loud — and a few that play a tune.
6. Astronomical
The watch as a model of the heavens.
7. Precision & exotic
The mechanisms built to fight gravity and friction — the prize of horology.
8. Display oddities
Unconventional ways to show the time.
9. Power
Storing and managing the energy that runs it all.
10. Instrument bezels & scales
The functions that live on the outside of the watch.
Complete
The whole taxonomy, built from the ground up — not a greatest-hits gallery of the famous few.
Honest
No marketing gloss. Every mechanism gets a candid note on what it's really for — and whether it's actually useful.
Free
Open, and made to run on every device. No account, no paywall, no app to install.