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> I'm big into mechanical watches and I find it surprising that more software developer types are not into watches. They're the mechanical parallel that complet
by runeks 10y ago
> I'm big into mechanical watches and I find it surprising that more software developer types are not into watches. They're the mechanical parallel that completes my otherwise purely digital world.
The lack of interest from my side is due to the inferiority of mechanical watches in accomplishing their main purpose: keeping time. I know my smartphone always has the right time, because it's internet-connected and uses NTP. For a mechanical watch, that trust just isn't there: either it has the right time, or it's run out of power.
Surely, I can appreciate the craftsmanship, but when it comes to knowing what time it is, this is not relevant for me at all. When I look at a clock, I really appreciate knowing that if it has run out of power it doesn't display the wrong time, as opposed to a mechanical watch.
- richardw 10y agoSame. I seem to consider them a Rube Goldberg machine that people use to indicate status. I was partly reading the comments here to see what I'm missing. I'm sure there's a lot. My wife loves watches (for the design). I'd rather have a nice bike.
- eo3x0 10y agoAnyone who buys a watch for the status is going to be disappointed. A $200,000 car will get you laid quick. A $200,000 watch wouldn't get noticed except by geeks you wouldn't want to bed down anyway. Fortunately, in 10 years, at least the latter will still be worth roughly just as much if not more while the former would be depreciated to less than half the value if that.
- craigsmansion 10y agoBy the same rationale, bikes could be considered a Rube Goldberg machine that people use to indicate status. Maybe not extreme wealth, but signalling physical fitness, plenty of leisure time, disposable income, etc. Of course that's probably not the case with you. It's likely you personally have deeper motivations than simply indicating status. That's why it's called actor-observer bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93observer_asymmetry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93observer_asymmet... I'm not trying to corner you here, and I hope you see how these explanations of the situations are the same except in one case you're the actor, in the other you're the observer.
- kweinber 10y agoPerhaps you should be interested in the mechanism ntp is syncing you to then.... atomic clocks are fascinating too.
- kweinber 10y agoPerhaps you should be interested in the mechanism ntp is syncing you to then.... atomic clocks are fascinating too.
- craigsmansion 10y ago> I know my smartphone always has the right time Unless it's dropped in the toilet, or runs out of battery, or the software gets compromised, or you simply lose it. Reliability is it's own feature, a thing that often gets overlooked in software development. Software is that which is disposable enough not to bother building hardware for.
- 8note 10y agomy mechanical watch keeps telling good time for days when I go out camping, whereas my phone will be dead or out of service. Otherwise, generally when I need to know the time, it's at the end of a night out and I'd like to catch the bus, or at least know if theres still another bus coming. My phone tends to be on its last legs by that point, and frequently is dead another benefit is charging -- when I'm wearing a watch, I wind it instead of fidgeting, and I'm not stuck waiting at an outlet for my phone to charge.