Inspired reforms – magnificent outcomes
This post was written by James Nye
In May 2014, I blogged about a competition to devise uses for new-old stock 1950s Calibre 5000 Reform movements that had turned up at the annual Mannheim electro-fair.
![The competition announcement](https://ahs.contentfiles.net/media/images/1_HwMBj1c.width-600.jpg)
I judged the entries on 24 May this year, and what an amazing event to witness. Here was a beautifully executed movement, simple, reliable, long-lived, but criminal to hide.
How to incorporate it in a modern design, and achieve a functional clock, when the attractive side of the movement would necessarily normally face the rear? In significant style, it turns out……
![Pure schlock!](https://ahs.contentfiles.net/media/images/2_eKy7FwM.width-600.jpg)
Ivo Creutzfeldt ignored convention and went for pure schlock with his tongue-in-cheek ‘winged chariot entry’.
![Minimalist and modern](https://ahs.contentfiles.net/media/images/3_e4n9S15.width-600.jpg)
Thomas Schraven offered a couple of entries, one channelling a strong modernist theme – using two movements, one for display, the other for timekeeping.
![Brilliant digital mug concept](https://ahs.contentfiles.net/media/images/4_nY3qq2y.width-600.jpg)
Eddy Odell showed considerable lateral thought, introducing the movement into a glass mug, keeping the movement visible to the top, while driving digital minute and hour bands in the base, the battery neatly hidden.
![3D printing and tourbillon design](https://ahs.contentfiles.net/media/images/5_Lt3BMbF.width-600.jpg)
Till Lotterman and his home team colleagues offered a remarkable test exercise. Using original parts, they recut elements to form a tourbillon, brought out on the dial side of the movement, achieving real spectacle ( film here).
Not only this, they 3D printed a stylish stainless steel dial, and also 3D printed an open-sided plastic tubular case, with internal mirror to reflect the movement. Later we were treated to a lecture on the extraordinary possibilities emerging for 3D printing.
![Outstanding urban diorama – a VW/Reform extravaganza](https://ahs.contentfiles.net/media/images/6_KVUvOud.width-600.jpg)
Finally, the most talked about item in the competition, Frank Dunkel’s inspired diorama clock, using the Reform at the centre of a roundabout, driving hidden arms carrying neodymium magnets, in turn propelling a VW Beetle (minutes) and VW van (hours) against perimeter hour markers ( film here ).
Power even arrives by wire supported on telegraph poles. Absolutely inspired!
![Triumphant reformers!](https://ahs.contentfiles.net/media/images/7_WRqQ1VO.width-600.jpg)
The whole party retired to a restaurant for the evening, at which, amidst characteristically heroic levels of consumption, we celebrated the amazing results of our competition – prizes all round.