Wooden watch wonders from Valerii Danevych

Danevych-wood-watch

Working in Kiev, Ukraine watchmaker Valerii Danevych has been perfecting his miniature joinery skills since he was a child- during his school days he made a 3cm guitar which used hair for strings.

Descended from a family of cabinet makers he didnt find traditional wooden joinery gave him satisfaction and was ambitious to tackle more complex wooden structures.  In 2005 with this in mind he dedicated himself to creating wooden timepieces or perhaps you could say “wood horology”.

Danevych-wood-watch

With no training as a watchmaker Danevych produces wooden wristwatches, pocket watches and clocks with complex movements made entirely from wood except for the metal hairspring. He has even mastered a wooden flying tourbillon in his latest movement that also features a retrograde indication and took seven months to create.  A tourbillon is a difficult feat of engineering even with traditional watch materials and technology, let alone wood.

Danevych wood watch c2 Wooden watch wonders from Valerii Danevych

He mostly uses Birch wood due to its strength and resistance to wear but also some more exotic wood such as juniper and bamboo, the different types  giving the timepieces added textural beauty to them. All his watches are functional and some even have power reserves of 20 hours, they are typically accurate to approximately +/- 5 minutes a day.

In 2012 in recognition of his impressive wooden watch contributions he was inducted into the Horological Academy of Independent Creators (AHCI).

You can read about and see more of Valerii Danevych’s amazing wooden timepieces at his website.

Danevych wood watch c1 Wooden watch wonders from Valerii Danevych

Specifications for Watch model above

Planning/Construction:             Handmade to order in the period from March to July 2011, total manufacturing time of 4 months
Total number of parts:              141 (without separate attachments)
Number of movement parts:     70 (3 hands additionally)
Power reserve:                          24h +/- 2h
Accuracy:                                   5-8 min within 24h
Materials:                                   canker of birch, juniper from Crimea region, guaiacum from
                                                   Australia, bamboo, Wenge from Africa, mammoth’s tusk,
                                                   mainspring and hairspring from metal, view disc of glass
Case diameter:                           41 mm
Case height:                               14 mm
Movement diameter:                 30 mm
Movement height:                      10 mm (with motion arbor)
Skeletonized and decorated screw-less wooden movement with balance wheel and escape from birch-canker, decentralized small second hand at six o’clock, pressed back top with separate opening lever.
Smallest components are a wooden 6-tooth-pinion of 1.5 mm diameter with 1.2 mm height and a fixing pin (0.2 mm diameter with head 0.5 mm) from birch-canker for a pinion.
Separated shifting (1 crown for setting, 1 crown for winding).
Expanding bracelet of different wood and wooden hinges with pins from bamboo of 1.5 mm diameter and adjustable wooden shackle lock.
Wooden folding case with velvet inside and wooden hinges, bracelet-additional part.

Danevych-wood-watch hanging

Incidentally wooden watchmaking has a heritage in this region, the Bronnikov family from Vjatka, Russia specialized in the making of all-wood watches as can be seen in the example below from circa 1865.

bronnikow-wooden-pocket
Wooden Bronnikow pocket watch circ 1865 – image courtesy of Antiquorum

4 Comments

  1. Hi, I was wondering if there is any way I could buy a Valerii Danevych watch and where I would look to order one. Do you also know what kind of price his watches go for, if they are sold at all.

    Thank you.

  2. Can you tell me where I can find this watch and will be the price for this.
    Thank you

  3. You can just search his name for the site to his watches to purchase one. They go for about 150,000 Eur or (200,000 usd).

  4. […] sasaminijature kaže: Posto cu za prvi sat kopirati odredjeni model,kako funkcionise vas svet,da li cu imati problema tipa autorska prava vezano za mehanizam.Da li se sme potpuno kopirati ili moram nesto promeniti. ! Ako ćemo regularno , morao bi se prvo raspitati do kada važe patentna prava za određeni mehanizam.Ne bi se smelo (ako su patentna prava aktuelna) potpuno kopirati. Naravno ovo je važno ako imaš nameru praviti više komada i prodavati ih. Sad,ako praviš jedan sat za sebe onda sve to i nije mnogo bitno. Inače, vrlo pdržavam ideju i nadam se uspešnoj realizaciji! Ove linkove si sigurno video ali zbog ostalih članova…- Valerii Danevych’s Amazing Miniature Wooden Watches | KeepTheTime.com i Wooden watch wonders from Valerii Danevych […]

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