I *LOVE* the sound of my mechanical watches. One of my favorites is from the Zenith Cairelli CP-2. However, I'm struggling to figure out how to record it well. This version is video from my camera with a shotgun mic set to tele.

To hear it you have to turn the sound all the way up.

So it does work, but I'm not sure that it will work for quieter watches. Does anybody else have a better approach?

 

Not an easy task, the sound level of a watch is well below the ambient room level and noise floor of any domestic camera or mobile phone, try mechanically coupling your shotgun mic to the watch for a start, experiment with changing the shotgun from tele to normal as tele will thin the response to compensate for the longer throw, so a wide pickup pattern will always sound more flat and natural. Record it under a blanket to dampen a lot of room and ambient noise, post the results when your done.
Just don't try and use a dynamic type mic, (typical hand held style vocal mic) as these have a permanent magnet in the capsule and you don't want that anywhere near a watch. It's low sensitivity will be useless in this application anyway.

 

thanks orbistat, that's really helpful. I haven't had a chance since to carefully try out more experiments. I realized in my reporting that I didn't really do good science here. I did try it with both normal and tele, and tele worked and normal didn't work at all.

I will do more experiments and report back when I have a chance.

 

Second try. I think this one sounds a little louder and a little less hollow. I put the mike right up touching the watch, and that seemed to help. I also covered it with a cloth, but that didn't make a difference.

 

A piezo pickup with a lot of amp and good noise filtering would probably be the best option.

 

Thanks. I don't have this gear, so I'll have to do some shopping around and see what I can come up with.

 

Nice thread... And I think you are getting more than decent results.

 

Thanks @Fer Seamaster, but if I can do better I'd really like to. Also, this is one of my louder watches. Some of them are really subtle and I don't think this method will capture those.

 

A piezo mic is cheap and you can build an amp yourself with online instructions. There're also inexpensive but usable amps. A microphone mixer would work well too.

 

I could watch that for ages!

Dont the timeograph machines use a microphone? Could you somehow use that?

 

Yes, they use piezo mic and have an amp built in, but they don't have audio out.

 

I think (I am overseas at the moment, so can't check), that mine has a lead where the mic/watch stand plugs into the unit. Could that be plugged into something else?

 

You can't beat a good ol' American 16 or 18 size, well tuned, fully wound railroad grade pocket watch for dramatic sound. This coming from someone whose hearing ain't like it used to be. I no longer am able to hear most wrist watches.......except Accutron, of course.

 

I think you could plug it into an amp, if that plug fits your amp.

 

There will be an adaptor for that.

ps: love looking at that movement.