Japanese watchmaker Seiko has released a video on YouTube and has unveiled what's possibly the smallest Rube Goldberg machine. A Rube Goldberg machine is essentially a mélange of art of engineering. A chain reaction sets off a complicated series of events to perform a simple task and Seiko has done something truly remarkable.
Made almost entirely of watch parts, Seiko's Art of Time video shows little gears and rubies literally travelling through hoops and more. Even though the video does show small amount of human intervention, it's still quite entertaining — come on, the parts used are measured in millimeters. You can't expect gravity to take care of everything.
According to Seiko, the video has been in the making for a year, with the final shoot taking place over the course of two days and required 15 retakes.
Best Ads on TV says that Seiko's Rube Goldberg machine comprised over 1200 parts, with some as small as 0.7mm. The soundtrack was composed by Shinji Hattori, chairman and CEO of the Seiko group, and the lyrics were chosen from entries sent in by Seiko employees. Japanese singer, songwriter and composer Etsuko Yakushimaru was the voice behind the soundtrack.
What's interesting is that the end credits list the names of all the parts used in the order in which they appeared.
The Rube Goldberg machine is named after its creator, cartoonist Rube Goldberg, whose cartoons depicted complicated devices that performed simple tasks in a roundabout way.
