14 ms·

How Watches Work

254 points by nstricevic 5y ago

yboris 5y ago
One of my favorite videos: a Japanese watch repairman repairs a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbpgNSvWHOo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbpgNSvWHOo
hellbannedguy 5y ago
To those that are interested in Watchmaking. 1. All books by Henry Fried. (A. many books overlap info., but if reasonably priced are work buying.) 2. All books by DeCarle. (see A above.) 3. George Daniel's book. 4. All past issues of AWCI magazine. 5. Oh yea, get Questions, and Answers for AWCI test questions. (Don't pay a lot for these books, pamphlets. They can be found, but you need to hunt.) 6. Decide if you want to use a loupe, or stereoscope. 7. Yes--it does take a few years to get good. 8. You will not get rich repairing watches, but you can do it forever. (If you are in the need if a watchmaker in the bay area, in a few months I will have a small shop. The business will be under the name of Jacob Decosta. I'm honest. There will be some very complicated watches I won't work on though. My prices will be vastly lower than factory prices.)
- dole 5y ago
  Kind of a niche for HN, but there's a few watchmaking programs catering to US military veterans that began after WWII, dried up a bit but seem to be making a bit of a resurgence. https://www.veteranswatchmakerinitiative.org https://www.veteranswatchmakerinitiative.org
- mvanga 5y ago
  I really enjoyed the courses at: https://learnwatchmaking.com/ https://learnwatchmaking.com/
- aranchelk 5y ago
  Do you have a Google Form or something where people can sign up for an email notification when you open your shop?
  - hellbannedguy 5y ago
    Not yet, but I'm on FB. I have a neglected page that tries to teach Watch Repairing--It's called "Watch Repairing". My page has a b/w picture of my bench. You can message me here--I believe: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=732457960219638&ref=content_filter https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=732457960219638&ref=co...
samatman 5y ago
I would like to suggest "the history and mechanics of the self-winding mechanism" from the subtitle as a more informative title for this article. Watches work in a lot of ways, after all; some are solar-powered quartz with a radio listening to the atomic broadcast! Also, it appears "How Watches Work" is the name of the series, which would be awkward if another post from the series ended up on Hacker News.
CydeWeys 5y ago
I got pretty into watches during the pandemic. It's definitely one of those expensive hobbies.
- NinjaViking 5y ago
  Not necessarily! You can get plenty of nerd mileage out of Orient, Seiko and Vostok automatic/mechanical watches for a reasonable amount of money.
  - iamben 5y ago
    My first mechanical watch was a Seiko SKX007. I wore it almost everyday for ~10 years and it was a complete delight. There is something so wonderful about having something on your wrist that feels like magical engineering.
  - joshocar 5y ago
    I'm a big fan of Hamilton watches. I like the simple design and the one I have is amazingly accurate, like within seconds of NTP over weeks when the weather and temperature are ideal. They definitely don't break the bank.
  - vgeek 5y ago
    Exactly this. There are tons of essentially new old stock mechanical watches from all over the world (Vostok and other similar brands) that can be had in the $100 range, and the $300-500 range has lots of solid watches (maybe also Hamilton?). I'd take an equally functional and/or reliable Japanese movement over an ETA that is used in the "luxury" categories where you're just paying for the label on the watch. But quartz watches (~90% of my collection) are way more practical. They last longer (most mechanical watches need servicing every 5 years at $150+ per pop), keep better time, can be picked up and put on without setting if not worn every day and are only like $3 to swap out a battery. The key is finding a neat "gimmick" with quartz watches from quality brands. Things like Tritium luminescence are good if you like field watches. Or Citizen/Casio atomic watches that are super accurate through the use of the WWVB signal. Or "other uses" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W#Usage_in_terrorism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W#Usage_in_terrorism
martinkraft 5y ago
For those who are interested in superior technology, start reading about quartz movements and the piezoelectric effect. Citizen Watch Company recently release the most accurate quartz watch ever, accurate to 1 second per year. Contrast that to the mechanical watches that Rolex—one of the best mechanical manufacturers—produces and the best they can do is an accuracy of about 1 second per day. Hundreds of times less accurate. Yikes! And then you can get into radio-controlled and GPS-controlled solar watches that you literally never have to set or change the battery. So neat! Mechanical watches are an emotional rather than rational technology, and hey if that's what you're into: mechanical watches and horse-drawn-buggies and gas lanterns then that's totally cool.
- nine_k 5y ago
  Mechanical watches are a fashion accessory that also happen to show time. This does not prevent them from being feats of engineering, because of the technology limitations, and the need to show off (ever saw a tourbillion watch?). I would compare them to Fabergé's eggs of our time.
- dvt 5y ago
  > Hundreds of times less accurate. Yikes! Everyone knows this; you're making it seem like it's some kind of conspiracy. Mechanical watches are awesome. I bought my first "semi-luxury" one (a Longines Diver for like $3,000) two years ago and I love everything about it: the style, the complication, the fact that I need to wind it if I want to wear it. Everything is so interesting and neat. Everything has so much history: watchmakers were the pinnacle of human engineering for centuries! It's something special I'd love to leave to my hopefully future kids. I like my Casio F-91W for different reasons[1], but it's certainly not as special. [1] https://dvt.name/2019/06/03/hacking-the-casio-f-91w-to-handle-1000-psi/ https://dvt.name/2019/06/03/hacking-the-casio-f-91w-to-handl...
  - martinkraft 5y ago
    Longines makes a high-accuracy (± 5 seconds-per-year) quartz watch called the Conquest V.H.P. that is respectable. Both your mechanical and their quartz movements are produced by ETA (Swatch Group).
breakall 5y ago
May I also recommend this excellent video[1] from Hamilton made in 1949 that thoroughly explains how mechanical watches work. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0_vOw6eCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0_vOw6eCc
EvanAnderson 5y ago
Gerald Sussman[0] (of SICP fame) gave an interesting talk[1] on mechanical watches awhile back. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Jay_Sussman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Jay_Sussman [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWQN8Yf1g70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWQN8Yf1g70
- desine 5y ago
  Whoa he has hair. This must be early career.
KaiserPro 5y ago
Another type of movement which is fun is the tuning fork movement: https://www.watchonista.com/articles/bulova-accutron-tuning-fork-revolution https://www.watchonista.com/articles/bulova-accutron-tuning-... For those of you of a patriotic persuasion, its a US invention, something they did better than the swiss. I like them (even though I'm not american) because they are good looking movements, and have some hilariously tight engineering tolerances They also used to power planes and satellites before cheap low power robust quartz and eventually atomic clocks.
- anadem 5y ago
  I had a Bulova Accutron with tuning fork movement, which I lost. Some months later while napping I hear a quiet hum, and find the watch rolled up in a carpet .. it was a watch with inbuilt locator function!
desine 5y ago
I recently fell into this rabbit hole. I bought a cheap automatic watch - a Seiko 5, for both practical reasons and otherwise (will work after an EMP attack/solar event, but it's also just cool as hell mechanical engineering using 200 year old technology). Then I started putting watch repair youtube videos on in the background as I did chores or wrote code. Then I started actually watching the watch repair videos. Last week, I got a box of books, tools, and expendables. Today, when I get home, I'll have a box of broken pocket watches to tear into and probably irreparably mess up. When I was a kid, my grandfather and I tore down some old watches as a rainy afternoon activity one day. I was fascinated. It wasn't until I listened to the podcast Shit Town (S-Town) that I thought about horology as a hobby again. One interesting thing I learned, is that if you're looking for a career change, you can become a certified watch maker for free. Many of the schools are sponsored by the big name watch manufacturers, and tuition is free. It's a full time education, so you'll need enough financial runway to survive for a year or two, but you'll come out with no debt as a certified watch builder/repairperson.
- ubermonkey 5y ago
  That’s how it starts! For me, my mechanical watch obsession started when I inherited my father’s mid-70s Rolex. Back then, they weren’t as insanely out of reach as they’ve become; they were a very robust watch that would Just Work for a long, long time, and which looked nice. (Remember, this was only about 15 years after Sean Connery wore a Submariner in Dr No; Rolex was even LESS upmarket in the 60s, which was a time when very few watches were waterproof AT ALL.) Then the dot-com boom happened, and I had a little money, and I bought an Omega (which I’m actually wearing right now). It’s a late-90s Seamaster, like the one they put on Pierce Brosnan’s wrist for Goldeneye around the same time. (Incidentally, snooty jewelers do not think you are funny if you ask how to make the laser shoot out.) There are others, too, but the Omega is the nicest one I own. They are all EMP-proof, spring-driven marvels. Most have dates, but none show days or months. I do enjoy that there ARE mechanical movements with perpetual calendars, though, even if they do cost as much as a cheap house. About 5 years ago, I fell down the AppleWatch hole after buying one to use while running and biking, and finding it so useful that I wore it to the exclusion of all the other watches. I have a nicer Apple Watch now (titanium S6) that I wear MOST of the time, but several times a month I’ll pull one of the others out to wear. With this usage pattern, they’re all “oh, shiny!” to me, too, which is neat.
nikital 5y ago
I made a WebGL mechanical clock simulation if anyone wants to look at it in motion: https://clock.leshenko.net/ https://clock.leshenko.net/
- city41 5y ago
  This is very cool. Thanks for making it.
- opmac 5y ago
  Super cool - thanks!
- michaelg7x 5y ago
  Superb, thanks for sharing!
iamgopal 5y ago
Can current physics simulation software or library fast enough to simulate such watch in real time ?
opmac 5y ago
I love this. As a watch enthusiast myself, it's always great to see the history of watches and how their internals came to be. For anybody interested, there's also an awesome video from Hamilton made in the late 40s that shows a lot of the information in this article! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0_vOw6eCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0_vOw6eCc
bartschuijt 5y ago
Also I can recommend taking a look at Seiko's spring drive technology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoEorK6elZM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoEorK6elZM
- cjlars 5y ago
  Spring drive's are cool. I'll try my best fast explanation: it has an ordinary rotor and spring barrel, but replaces the escapement with a flywheel, an electromagnetic break (like you have on an ebike) and a quartz controller. The rotor winds the spring barrel, the spring barrel powers the flywheel, and the break generates electricity for the controller, which keeps track of the time and then in turn tells the break how fast to allow the flywheel to spin. The fact that they sidestep the need for a battery (the spring barrel pretty much is the battery) is the clever part here. It's more efficient than using a rotor to charge a battery and run a stepper motor, and more accurate than a purely mechanical escapement. But it's still fundamentally a quartz watch, which turns some purists off.
tintt 5y ago
Mechanical watch is a mesmerizing device. Makes you wonder though, why there was so little progress around mechanical technology (not only watch specific) lately? My car can talk to me, steer, retain speed by following other vehicles, but the most amazing mechanical innovation it has is a frustratingly slow, whining seat memory function. It’s not only boring, it also relies on a century old tech. Watch are the same, auto wound mechanism was introduced 98 years ago, was slightly improved 60 years ago, still is expensive to produce and maintain, still has reliability issues.
- cstoner 5y ago
  Seiko's "spring drive" is a pretty cool innovation, though it's not purely mechanical. I think at the very core of the issue is that mechanical watches are really art pieces at this point. Quartz watches are just cheaper and more reliable. So, if you wanting a watch for the pure utility of it all that's what you should be going for.
  - desine 5y ago
    >Quartz watches are just cheaper and more reliable. And more accurate. Better in every measurable way, honestly. Which just makes me love mechanicals even more.
- havelhovel 5y ago
  For the most part I agree with you. I think the popular watch companies (Omega, Rolex, etc.) are resting on their laurels, but perhaps in part because that's what their consumers want. I credit Zenith and Seiko with making their more recent advances accessible to wider audiences. However, most innovation in mechanical watches, unfortunately, is currently too expensive or niche for wide diffusion. Check out companies like MB&F, Urwerk, HYT, and Ressence to see what's being done.
  - ymolodtsov 5y ago
    They aren't resting, they are proactively building on that legacy they had. In fact, Omega suffered a lot because they tried going too deep with their quartz models.
toiletaccount 5y ago
If anyone is interested in this I highly recommend Longitude by Dava Sobel. It's about the creation of modern timekeepers by a carpenter with no training at all in watchmaking. Brilliant guy who created something which truly changed the world.
greg7gkb 5y ago
Slight tangent but I thought this guide to Rolex labels and features was pretty interesting - even for a non-watch-head: https://www.gearpatrol.com/watches/a539980/the-complete-rolex-buying-guide/ https://www.gearpatrol.com/watches/a539980/the-complete-role...
tedyoung 5y ago
A great read, but animations would have been soooo much better than the static diagrams.
ymolodtsov 5y ago
Since I bought my first Apple Watch it's really hard for me to find a reason to buy mechanical watches. They are less useful, less accurate, and this gap is only going to continue. Yes, they are beautiful. But even their straps and bracelets are superior and more comfortable than any leather or steel I experienced. Imagine if in 10 years Apple Watch would measure your blood glucose and pressure. And what that could do to your health. And mechanical watches aren't eternal by any means. Servicing a premium watch (recommended every 5 years, 10 years for Rolex) costs about the same as an aluminum Apple Watch.
- Veen 5y ago
  I just think of my mechanical watches as an intricate form of jewelry rather than as something purely functional.
Gravityloss 5y ago
Mechanical watches are fascinating, but to be honest, they don't serve any practical purpose. Time is a solved problem. They can be cool and often are also status symbols. It feels a bit giving up on participating in the betterment of society if one concentrates on those.

254 points by nstricevic 5y ago

One of my favorite videos: a Japanese watch repairman repairs a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbpgNSvWHOo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbpgNSvWHOo

hellbannedguy 5y ago

To those that are interested in Watchmaking. 1. All books by Henry Fried. (A. many books overlap info., but if reasonably priced are work buying.) 2. All books by DeCarle. (see A above.) 3. George Daniel's book. 4. All past issues of AWCI magazine. 5. Oh yea, get Questions, and Answers for AWCI test questions. (Don't pay a lot for these books, pamphlets. They can be found, but you need to hunt.) 6. Decide if you want to use a loupe, or stereoscope. 7. Yes--it does take a few years to get good. 8. You will not get rich repairing watches, but you can do it forever. (If you are in the need if a watchmaker in the bay area, in a few months I will have a small shop. The business will be under the name of Jacob Decosta. I'm honest. There will be some very complicated watches I won't work on though. My prices will be vastly lower than factory prices.)

dole 5y ago
Kind of a niche for HN, but there's a few watchmaking programs catering to US military veterans that began after WWII, dried up a bit but seem to be making a bit of a resurgence. https://www.veteranswatchmakerinitiative.org https://www.veteranswatchmakerinitiative.org
mvanga 5y ago
I really enjoyed the courses at: https://learnwatchmaking.com/ https://learnwatchmaking.com/
aranchelk 5y ago
Do you have a Google Form or something where people can sign up for an email notification when you open your shop?
- hellbannedguy 5y ago
  Not yet, but I'm on FB. I have a neglected page that tries to teach Watch Repairing--It's called "Watch Repairing". My page has a b/w picture of my bench. You can message me here--I believe: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=732457960219638&ref=content_filter https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=732457960219638&ref=co...

samatman 5y ago

I would like to suggest "the history and mechanics of the self-winding mechanism" from the subtitle as a more informative title for this article. Watches work in a lot of ways, after all; some are solar-powered quartz with a radio listening to the atomic broadcast! Also, it appears "How Watches Work" is the name of the series, which would be awkward if another post from the series ended up on Hacker News.

CydeWeys 5y ago

I got pretty into watches during the pandemic. It's definitely one of those expensive hobbies.

NinjaViking 5y ago
Not necessarily! You can get plenty of nerd mileage out of Orient, Seiko and Vostok automatic/mechanical watches for a reasonable amount of money.
- iamben 5y ago
  My first mechanical watch was a Seiko SKX007. I wore it almost everyday for ~10 years and it was a complete delight. There is something so wonderful about having something on your wrist that feels like magical engineering.
- joshocar 5y ago
  I'm a big fan of Hamilton watches. I like the simple design and the one I have is amazingly accurate, like within seconds of NTP over weeks when the weather and temperature are ideal. They definitely don't break the bank.
- vgeek 5y ago
  Exactly this. There are tons of essentially new old stock mechanical watches from all over the world (Vostok and other similar brands) that can be had in the $100 range, and the $300-500 range has lots of solid watches (maybe also Hamilton?). I'd take an equally functional and/or reliable Japanese movement over an ETA that is used in the "luxury" categories where you're just paying for the label on the watch. But quartz watches (~90% of my collection) are way more practical. They last longer (most mechanical watches need servicing every 5 years at $150+ per pop), keep better time, can be picked up and put on without setting if not worn every day and are only like $3 to swap out a battery. The key is finding a neat "gimmick" with quartz watches from quality brands. Things like Tritium luminescence are good if you like field watches. Or Citizen/Casio atomic watches that are super accurate through the use of the WWVB signal. Or "other uses" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W#Usage_in_terrorism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W#Usage_in_terrorism

martinkraft 5y ago

For those who are interested in superior technology, start reading about quartz movements and the piezoelectric effect. Citizen Watch Company recently release the most accurate quartz watch ever, accurate to 1 second per year. Contrast that to the mechanical watches that Rolex—one of the best mechanical manufacturers—produces and the best they can do is an accuracy of about 1 second per day. Hundreds of times less accurate. Yikes! And then you can get into radio-controlled and GPS-controlled solar watches that you literally never have to set or change the battery. So neat! Mechanical watches are an emotional rather than rational technology, and hey if that's what you're into: mechanical watches and horse-drawn-buggies and gas lanterns then that's totally cool.

nine_k 5y ago
Mechanical watches are a fashion accessory that also happen to show time. This does not prevent them from being feats of engineering, because of the technology limitations, and the need to show off (ever saw a tourbillion watch?). I would compare them to Fabergé's eggs of our time.
dvt 5y ago
> Hundreds of times less accurate. Yikes! Everyone knows this; you're making it seem like it's some kind of conspiracy. Mechanical watches are awesome. I bought my first "semi-luxury" one (a Longines Diver for like $3,000) two years ago and I love everything about it: the style, the complication, the fact that I need to wind it if I want to wear it. Everything is so interesting and neat. Everything has so much history: watchmakers were the pinnacle of human engineering for centuries! It's something special I'd love to leave to my hopefully future kids. I like my Casio F-91W for different reasons[1], but it's certainly not as special. [1] https://dvt.name/2019/06/03/hacking-the-casio-f-91w-to-handle-1000-psi/ https://dvt.name/2019/06/03/hacking-the-casio-f-91w-to-handl...
- martinkraft 5y ago
  Longines makes a high-accuracy (± 5 seconds-per-year) quartz watch called the Conquest V.H.P. that is respectable. Both your mechanical and their quartz movements are produced by ETA (Swatch Group).

breakall 5y ago

May I also recommend this excellent video[1] from Hamilton made in 1949 that thoroughly explains how mechanical watches work. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0_vOw6eCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0_vOw6eCc

EvanAnderson 5y ago

Gerald Sussman[0] (of SICP fame) gave an interesting talk[1] on mechanical watches awhile back. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Jay_Sussman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Jay_Sussman [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWQN8Yf1g70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWQN8Yf1g70

desine 5y ago
Whoa he has hair. This must be early career.

KaiserPro 5y ago

Another type of movement which is fun is the tuning fork movement: https://www.watchonista.com/articles/bulova-accutron-tuning-fork-revolution https://www.watchonista.com/articles/bulova-accutron-tuning-... For those of you of a patriotic persuasion, its a US invention, something they did better than the swiss. I like them (even though I'm not american) because they are good looking movements, and have some hilariously tight engineering tolerances They also used to power planes and satellites before cheap low power robust quartz and eventually atomic clocks.

anadem 5y ago
I had a Bulova Accutron with tuning fork movement, which I lost. Some months later while napping I hear a quiet hum, and find the watch rolled up in a carpet .. it was a watch with inbuilt locator function!

desine 5y ago

I recently fell into this rabbit hole. I bought a cheap automatic watch - a Seiko 5, for both practical reasons and otherwise (will work after an EMP attack/solar event, but it's also just cool as hell mechanical engineering using 200 year old technology). Then I started putting watch repair youtube videos on in the background as I did chores or wrote code. Then I started actually watching the watch repair videos. Last week, I got a box of books, tools, and expendables. Today, when I get home, I'll have a box of broken pocket watches to tear into and probably irreparably mess up. When I was a kid, my grandfather and I tore down some old watches as a rainy afternoon activity one day. I was fascinated. It wasn't until I listened to the podcast Shit Town (S-Town) that I thought about horology as a hobby again. One interesting thing I learned, is that if you're looking for a career change, you can become a certified watch maker for free. Many of the schools are sponsored by the big name watch manufacturers, and tuition is free. It's a full time education, so you'll need enough financial runway to survive for a year or two, but you'll come out with no debt as a certified watch builder/repairperson.

ubermonkey 5y ago
That’s how it starts! For me, my mechanical watch obsession started when I inherited my father’s mid-70s Rolex. Back then, they weren’t as insanely out of reach as they’ve become; they were a very robust watch that would Just Work for a long, long time, and which looked nice. (Remember, this was only about 15 years after Sean Connery wore a Submariner in Dr No; Rolex was even LESS upmarket in the 60s, which was a time when very few watches were waterproof AT ALL.) Then the dot-com boom happened, and I had a little money, and I bought an Omega (which I’m actually wearing right now). It’s a late-90s Seamaster, like the one they put on Pierce Brosnan’s wrist for Goldeneye around the same time. (Incidentally, snooty jewelers do not think you are funny if you ask how to make the laser shoot out.) There are others, too, but the Omega is the nicest one I own. They are all EMP-proof, spring-driven marvels. Most have dates, but none show days or months. I do enjoy that there ARE mechanical movements with perpetual calendars, though, even if they do cost as much as a cheap house. About 5 years ago, I fell down the AppleWatch hole after buying one to use while running and biking, and finding it so useful that I wore it to the exclusion of all the other watches. I have a nicer Apple Watch now (titanium S6) that I wear MOST of the time, but several times a month I’ll pull one of the others out to wear. With this usage pattern, they’re all “oh, shiny!” to me, too, which is neat.

nikital 5y ago

I made a WebGL mechanical clock simulation if anyone wants to look at it in motion: https://clock.leshenko.net/ https://clock.leshenko.net/

city41 5y ago
This is very cool. Thanks for making it.
opmac 5y ago
Super cool - thanks!
michaelg7x 5y ago
Superb, thanks for sharing!

iamgopal 5y ago

Can current physics simulation software or library fast enough to simulate such watch in real time ?

opmac 5y ago

I love this. As a watch enthusiast myself, it's always great to see the history of watches and how their internals came to be. For anybody interested, there's also an awesome video from Hamilton made in the late 40s that shows a lot of the information in this article! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0_vOw6eCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0_vOw6eCc

bartschuijt 5y ago

Also I can recommend taking a look at Seiko's spring drive technology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoEorK6elZM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoEorK6elZM

cjlars 5y ago
Spring drive's are cool. I'll try my best fast explanation: it has an ordinary rotor and spring barrel, but replaces the escapement with a flywheel, an electromagnetic break (like you have on an ebike) and a quartz controller. The rotor winds the spring barrel, the spring barrel powers the flywheel, and the break generates electricity for the controller, which keeps track of the time and then in turn tells the break how fast to allow the flywheel to spin. The fact that they sidestep the need for a battery (the spring barrel pretty much is the battery) is the clever part here. It's more efficient than using a rotor to charge a battery and run a stepper motor, and more accurate than a purely mechanical escapement. But it's still fundamentally a quartz watch, which turns some purists off.

tintt 5y ago

Mechanical watch is a mesmerizing device. Makes you wonder though, why there was so little progress around mechanical technology (not only watch specific) lately? My car can talk to me, steer, retain speed by following other vehicles, but the most amazing mechanical innovation it has is a frustratingly slow, whining seat memory function. It’s not only boring, it also relies on a century old tech. Watch are the same, auto wound mechanism was introduced 98 years ago, was slightly improved 60 years ago, still is expensive to produce and maintain, still has reliability issues.

cstoner 5y ago
Seiko's "spring drive" is a pretty cool innovation, though it's not purely mechanical. I think at the very core of the issue is that mechanical watches are really art pieces at this point. Quartz watches are just cheaper and more reliable. So, if you wanting a watch for the pure utility of it all that's what you should be going for.
- desine 5y ago
  >Quartz watches are just cheaper and more reliable. And more accurate. Better in every measurable way, honestly. Which just makes me love mechanicals even more.
havelhovel 5y ago
For the most part I agree with you. I think the popular watch companies (Omega, Rolex, etc.) are resting on their laurels, but perhaps in part because that's what their consumers want. I credit Zenith and Seiko with making their more recent advances accessible to wider audiences. However, most innovation in mechanical watches, unfortunately, is currently too expensive or niche for wide diffusion. Check out companies like MB&F, Urwerk, HYT, and Ressence to see what's being done.
- ymolodtsov 5y ago
  They aren't resting, they are proactively building on that legacy they had. In fact, Omega suffered a lot because they tried going too deep with their quartz models.

toiletaccount 5y ago

If anyone is interested in this I highly recommend Longitude by Dava Sobel. It's about the creation of modern timekeepers by a carpenter with no training at all in watchmaking. Brilliant guy who created something which truly changed the world.

greg7gkb 5y ago

Slight tangent but I thought this guide to Rolex labels and features was pretty interesting - even for a non-watch-head: https://www.gearpatrol.com/watches/a539980/the-complete-rolex-buying-guide/ https://www.gearpatrol.com/watches/a539980/the-complete-role...

tedyoung 5y ago

A great read, but animations would have been soooo much better than the static diagrams.

ymolodtsov 5y ago

Since I bought my first Apple Watch it's really hard for me to find a reason to buy mechanical watches. They are less useful, less accurate, and this gap is only going to continue. Yes, they are beautiful. But even their straps and bracelets are superior and more comfortable than any leather or steel I experienced. Imagine if in 10 years Apple Watch would measure your blood glucose and pressure. And what that could do to your health. And mechanical watches aren't eternal by any means. Servicing a premium watch (recommended every 5 years, 10 years for Rolex) costs about the same as an aluminum Apple Watch.

Veen 5y ago
I just think of my mechanical watches as an intricate form of jewelry rather than as something purely functional.

Gravityloss 5y ago

Mechanical watches are fascinating, but to be honest, they don't serve any practical purpose. Time is a solved problem. They can be cool and often are also status symbols. It feels a bit giving up on participating in the betterment of society if one concentrates on those.