Reverse Engineering a Watch, One Tiny Part at a Time

Most orders that come through the MakerLab arrive with a file attached. This one arrived as two small pieces of metal in an envelope.

No File, No Problem

A campus client brought us two watch components: one broken part that needed replicating, and a case back that was missing entirely. There was no digital model for either. Recreating them meant measuring the physical objects carefully and building the geometry from scratch.

This is what we call a design order rather than a print order. The billable work is the modeling time, not the material.

Small Parts, Fine Detail

Watch components are unforgiving. Tolerances are tight, features are millimeters across, and a layer line in the wrong place makes a part unusable. We printed these on our Bambu machine, which gives us the finest resolution in the lab, rather than on the larger Ultimakers we use for most jobs.

The client came into the lab to inspect the results in person, was happy with the fit, and settled up for the design time.

When Reverse Engineering Makes Sense

Recreating a discontinued or unavailable part is one of the most satisfying things we do. It works best when:

• The original part exists, even if broken, so it can be measured
• The geometry is reproducible without specialized tooling
• A printed material is adequate for the job the part has to do

Have a part you cannot source anymore? Bring it by and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.