Surprisingly Not A Joke Device - A Combo Tourbillon + Cell Phone, Only $275,000

[markf]

A brilliant mechanical and electronic engineering effort, but... why?  And can the Celsius company possibly make it any more difficult way to upgrade your phone in a year or two?  markf    http://watchismo.blogspot.com/2010/03/celsius-x-vi-ii-micro-mechanical.html

[MechanicalMouse]

unfortunately the beauty of such a device it lost on most that could afford it. however the comment

towards the dream of a completely mechanical mobile phone

made me think though.

[Mechanism Man]

it is rather pointlessly wonderful - but does it support the spirit level app....?

[MechanicalMouse]

I am curious to how far they want to take the idea on a mechanical mobile phone.

I know there is developments in micro mechanics but nothing anywhere complex enough to process digital information.

Maybe an electro-mechanical screen will be the next step.

[Abslomrob]

Part of the description reminds of some of the early attempts to add auto-wind functionality to watches.  One rather innovative design involved a lever attached to the cover hinge of a hunter-case watch, which wound the mainspring when the case was opened and closed.  Of course, the design didn't work too well at the time; the added stress on the hinge wasn't workable.  But it sounds like these guys are going down the same road.  With modern alloys, I suspect they'll have better success.  I wonder if they're working towards something like the Eco drives, such that the winding will power a generator to charge a battery?  I consider that pointless technology for watches, but if they can make it work for cell phones, that would be cool.