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> Autonomy isn’t the only thing that matters when comparing mechanical to quartz. says the caption beneath a photograph of a „A. Lange & Söhne with a 31-day po

> Autonomy isn’t the only thing that matters when comparing mechanical to quartz. says the caption beneath a photograph of a „A. Lange & Söhne with a 31-day power reserve“ So there’s the notion that —-in case your air plaine crashes and you land on a desert island—- a quartz watch‘s battery will drain in 5 years and you’re left without a watch, but the thing is: A mechanical watch needs to be serviced every five years (taken apart, lubricated). But I agree: A mechanical watch is infinitely more appealing than a quartz. Considering how minuscule the parts are, what a Meisterleistung it is to produce something that works for decades. I also find the idea very appealing to have objects that can outlive their owners: Furniture, writing instruments, mechanical watches.

vesinisa 3y ago
There exist specialized quartz watches with battery lifes in the 15 years range - I am sure if there was any real demand it would be possible to build a digital watch that can survive a century without any service. While I appreciate the craft, let us not pretend the demand for mechanical watches in the modern day is nothing but a luxury vanity driven buy wealthy people with way too much money to spare.
rdl 3y ago
For this “desert island” use case, a solar powered quartz watch seems like it would work the longest, of COTS options today (although a mechanical watch might be fine without servicing). Of course, my favorite watch in this case would be something like the Breitling Emergency (https://www.breitling.com/us-en/emergency/ https://www.breitling.com/us-en/emergency/) which could call for rescue. Looking forward to a satellite connectivity version in the future — iPhones are able to do this now, so something like the Apple Watch Ultra 2 may be able to.
- trillic 3y ago
  I’ve got a 20 year old G-shock with solar that’s never been serviced that’s been worn for thousands of miles of offshore sailing. It gets the time every day at 3am from some 60kHZ radio signal in Colorado and as long as I wear it a few times a year all day in the sun, it never dies. Its time has been within ~500ms of GPS time continuously since 2004. I leave it on a small metal rack near a south facing window with the antenna touching the rack for increased reception of the nightly time calibration, and a bit of solar in the morning. One day it will die, or some of the rubber on it will rip and I will replace it with the same model from Casio. It’s still only ~$100 and looks identical just with a new battery and more modern antenna/electronics. Hoping for an EPIRB on my wrist or maybe even just a 162 MHz emergency AIS transmitter that fits on the wrist sometime in the next 5 years.
throw0101a 3y ago
> So there’s the notion that —-in case your air plaine crashes and you land on a desert island—- a quartz watch‘s battery will drain in 5 years and you’re left without a watch, but the thing is: A mechanical watch needs to be serviced every five years (taken apart, lubricated). Except if you get a watch with Citizen's Eco-Drive, which is where the power comes from ambient light and not a battery: * https://www.citizenwatch.com/ca/en/technology-eco-drive.html https://www.citizenwatch.com/ca/en/technology-eco-drive.html
- akavel 3y ago
  I own a Casio solar (brand name "Tough Solar") watch, which is generally the same technology IIUC. I believe they indeed have long life, but there is actually still something of a "battery" inside (specifically, I think a kind of a capacitor, though not 100% sure), which still has some life expectancy and a number of cycles it can survive. Not to mention that even this kind of a watch has a number of potential other failure modes as well... just recently I stumbled and dropped it, and the back-plate sprung away. Surprisingly, even a watchmaker took a while to put it back in, and was similarly mildly amused that what looked like a trivial job proved to not be exactly so. That said, it was more of a suit watch, totally not a G-Shock.
  - stateofinquiry 3y ago
    Some data: I had a "Tough Solar" G shock for field work- it was very long lasting. I got it in 2002 (if memory serves) and it lasted about a dozen years. By that point the capacitor could not hold a charge very long at all, and it became unusable. I set it aside and a few year later the rubber bits fell apart including stuff around the case. I'd say by 15y it was totally toast. Not bad considering I never did a single bit of service on it, but definitely a reminder that time always wins in the end. Even when it comes to your timepiece!
  - Animats 3y ago
    G-Shock basically solved the what-time-is-it problem when they got ruggedness, solar power, and remote time signal update into a cheap package. Expensive watches that don't have those features are jewelry.
mchanson 3y ago
If you were stranded on the desert island, what would you need to watch for?
- Dr_Birdbrain 3y ago
  Watches can be used to find fresh water sources. (Joking, of course you are completely correct)
- submeta 3y ago
  Well, you can navigate with the help of the sun. And keep sane having some sort of structure (when to wake up, when to go to bed, when to eat), monitor tidal changes. There is lots of value in knowing the time, even on a desert island.
  - hirundo 3y ago
    > And keep sane having some sort of structure (when to wake up, when to go to bed, when to eat) Without other people to coordinate with, the signals from the environment and your body are a more sound structure for these. The time of day is at best a good proxy.
  - jlg23 3y ago
    > And keep sane having some sort of structure (when to wake up, when to go to bed, when to eat), monitor tidal changes. Though you could just stick a piece of wood into the sand, mark shadows thrown at sunrise sunset and divide the circle's span however you want for your time system..
    - akdor1154 3y ago
      My desert island will be a metric time paradise.
- bazzargh 3y ago
  timing cooking hardboiled seagull eggs as an approximate compass, if it has an hour hand (bisect the angle between the hour hand and noon, that's north or south, depending on your latitude, unless you're in the tropics where this doesn't work) as a heliograph to flash signals to passing ships if there's a date magnifier, you can use it to light fires the engraving on the back may help identify your sun-bleached bones ("So, this poor devil was named WATER RESISTANT")
hollander 3y ago
I have a Seiko watch with capacitor charged by movement that worked for 18 years and it was't finished completely but it depleted in one or two days. It's a pity they stopped with this technique.
Dr_Birdbrain 3y ago
My father has a mechanical watch that he bought in the 70s and he has never serviced it. A Jaeger LeCoultre Memovox, a thing of beauty.
cainxinth 3y ago
> but the thing is: A mechanical watch needs to be serviced every five years (taken apart, lubricated). A mechanical watch should be serviced about every five years. That doesn’t mean they magically stop working if you don’t. I have an inherited Omega from the 60s that hasn’t been serviced in decades and it still runs and keeps good time.
- tadzik_ 3y ago
  Yep. I recently serviced a Tissot from the late 1930s – it was running fine, it was just a reasonable thing to do after all these years to prolong its lifespan. You wouldn't be able to tell that it needs a service without looking at timegrapher readings.
- WillAdams 3y ago
  Yes, but as a counterpoint, I have a vintage Seiko of my father which missed one too many servicings and now has a broken date wheel (but otherwise works perfectly). If I could find someone to fix it, I'd wear it special occasions (my day-to-day is a Solar Seiko) often enough to keep it wound and _would_ get it serviced every 5 years.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
jacquesm 3y ago
If I land on a desert island the very last thing I need is a watch. A watch is there to be able to synchronize with outside events, and those are in short supply on a desert island. If there are no other people that you need to meet, trains whose time tables matter or ships that need conning you don't need a watch. I'd trade you my watch for a book of matches or some canned food.
- nordsieck 3y ago
  > If I land on a desert island the very last thing I need is a watch. A watch is there to be able to synchronize with outside events, and those are in short supply on a desert island. If there are no other people that you need to meet, trains whose time tables matter or ships that need conning you don't need a watch. A watch lets you calculate longitude, which could be very valuable indeed. There's a reason why accurate time keeping was one of the holy grails during the age of sail.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    Why would it be useful to you to be able to calculate longitude on a desert island?
    - TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
      I suppose you could use it to work out where you need to go as you attempt to sail across the Pacific in your improvised raft?
      - jacquesm 3y ago
        Good luck :) I just hope I brought enough books or a musical instrument with me. I'll be fine. And if not, oh well, there are much worse places to be than a desert island, with or without a watch. The thing you don't want to find out is that what you thought was a desert island is in fact inhabited by some tribe that thinks you might be tasty.
    - WillAdams 3y ago
mhb 3y ago
objects that can outlive their owners parrots, tortoises
TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
I honestly find mechanical watches quite ugly, irrespective of cost, brand, or notoriety. To my eyes there's something inescapably crude about mechanical design with moving metal parts. It's still present when there are tiny components with even tinier tolerances.

vesinisa 3y ago

There exist specialized quartz watches with battery lifes in the 15 years range - I am sure if there was any real demand it would be possible to build a digital watch that can survive a century without any service. While I appreciate the craft, let us not pretend the demand for mechanical watches in the modern day is nothing but a luxury vanity driven buy wealthy people with way too much money to spare.

rdl 3y ago

For this “desert island” use case, a solar powered quartz watch seems like it would work the longest, of COTS options today (although a mechanical watch might be fine without servicing). Of course, my favorite watch in this case would be something like the Breitling Emergency (https://www.breitling.com/us-en/emergency/ https://www.breitling.com/us-en/emergency/) which could call for rescue. Looking forward to a satellite connectivity version in the future — iPhones are able to do this now, so something like the Apple Watch Ultra 2 may be able to.

trillic 3y ago
I’ve got a 20 year old G-shock with solar that’s never been serviced that’s been worn for thousands of miles of offshore sailing. It gets the time every day at 3am from some 60kHZ radio signal in Colorado and as long as I wear it a few times a year all day in the sun, it never dies. Its time has been within ~500ms of GPS time continuously since 2004. I leave it on a small metal rack near a south facing window with the antenna touching the rack for increased reception of the nightly time calibration, and a bit of solar in the morning. One day it will die, or some of the rubber on it will rip and I will replace it with the same model from Casio. It’s still only ~$100 and looks identical just with a new battery and more modern antenna/electronics. Hoping for an EPIRB on my wrist or maybe even just a 162 MHz emergency AIS transmitter that fits on the wrist sometime in the next 5 years.

throw0101a 3y ago

> So there’s the notion that —-in case your air plaine crashes and you land on a desert island—- a quartz watch‘s battery will drain in 5 years and you’re left without a watch, but the thing is: A mechanical watch needs to be serviced every five years (taken apart, lubricated). Except if you get a watch with Citizen's Eco-Drive, which is where the power comes from ambient light and not a battery: * https://www.citizenwatch.com/ca/en/technology-eco-drive.html https://www.citizenwatch.com/ca/en/technology-eco-drive.html

akavel 3y ago
I own a Casio solar (brand name "Tough Solar") watch, which is generally the same technology IIUC. I believe they indeed have long life, but there is actually still something of a "battery" inside (specifically, I think a kind of a capacitor, though not 100% sure), which still has some life expectancy and a number of cycles it can survive. Not to mention that even this kind of a watch has a number of potential other failure modes as well... just recently I stumbled and dropped it, and the back-plate sprung away. Surprisingly, even a watchmaker took a while to put it back in, and was similarly mildly amused that what looked like a trivial job proved to not be exactly so. That said, it was more of a suit watch, totally not a G-Shock.
- stateofinquiry 3y ago
  Some data: I had a "Tough Solar" G shock for field work- it was very long lasting. I got it in 2002 (if memory serves) and it lasted about a dozen years. By that point the capacitor could not hold a charge very long at all, and it became unusable. I set it aside and a few year later the rubber bits fell apart including stuff around the case. I'd say by 15y it was totally toast. Not bad considering I never did a single bit of service on it, but definitely a reminder that time always wins in the end. Even when it comes to your timepiece!
- Animats 3y ago
  G-Shock basically solved the what-time-is-it problem when they got ruggedness, solar power, and remote time signal update into a cheap package. Expensive watches that don't have those features are jewelry.

mchanson 3y ago

If you were stranded on the desert island, what would you need to watch for?

Dr_Birdbrain 3y ago
Watches can be used to find fresh water sources. (Joking, of course you are completely correct)
submeta 3y ago
Well, you can navigate with the help of the sun. And keep sane having some sort of structure (when to wake up, when to go to bed, when to eat), monitor tidal changes. There is lots of value in knowing the time, even on a desert island.
- hirundo 3y ago
  > And keep sane having some sort of structure (when to wake up, when to go to bed, when to eat) Without other people to coordinate with, the signals from the environment and your body are a more sound structure for these. The time of day is at best a good proxy.
- jlg23 3y ago
  > And keep sane having some sort of structure (when to wake up, when to go to bed, when to eat), monitor tidal changes. Though you could just stick a piece of wood into the sand, mark shadows thrown at sunrise sunset and divide the circle's span however you want for your time system..
  - akdor1154 3y ago
    My desert island will be a metric time paradise.
bazzargh 3y ago
timing cooking hardboiled seagull eggs as an approximate compass, if it has an hour hand (bisect the angle between the hour hand and noon, that's north or south, depending on your latitude, unless you're in the tropics where this doesn't work) as a heliograph to flash signals to passing ships if there's a date magnifier, you can use it to light fires the engraving on the back may help identify your sun-bleached bones ("So, this poor devil was named WATER RESISTANT")

hollander 3y ago

I have a Seiko watch with capacitor charged by movement that worked for 18 years and it was't finished completely but it depleted in one or two days. It's a pity they stopped with this technique.

Dr_Birdbrain 3y ago

My father has a mechanical watch that he bought in the 70s and he has never serviced it. A Jaeger LeCoultre Memovox, a thing of beauty.

cainxinth 3y ago

> but the thing is: A mechanical watch needs to be serviced every five years (taken apart, lubricated). A mechanical watch should be serviced about every five years. That doesn’t mean they magically stop working if you don’t. I have an inherited Omega from the 60s that hasn’t been serviced in decades and it still runs and keeps good time.

tadzik_ 3y ago
Yep. I recently serviced a Tissot from the late 1930s – it was running fine, it was just a reasonable thing to do after all these years to prolong its lifespan. You wouldn't be able to tell that it needs a service without looking at timegrapher readings.
WillAdams 3y ago
Yes, but as a counterpoint, I have a vintage Seiko of my father which missed one too many servicings and now has a broken date wheel (but otherwise works perfectly). If I could find someone to fix it, I'd wear it special occasions (my day-to-day is a Solar Seiko) often enough to keep it wound and _would_ get it serviced every 5 years.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

jacquesm 3y ago

If I land on a desert island the very last thing I need is a watch. A watch is there to be able to synchronize with outside events, and those are in short supply on a desert island. If there are no other people that you need to meet, trains whose time tables matter or ships that need conning you don't need a watch. I'd trade you my watch for a book of matches or some canned food.

nordsieck 3y ago
> If I land on a desert island the very last thing I need is a watch. A watch is there to be able to synchronize with outside events, and those are in short supply on a desert island. If there are no other people that you need to meet, trains whose time tables matter or ships that need conning you don't need a watch. A watch lets you calculate longitude, which could be very valuable indeed. There's a reason why accurate time keeping was one of the holy grails during the age of sail.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Why would it be useful to you to be able to calculate longitude on a desert island?
  - TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
    I suppose you could use it to work out where you need to go as you attempt to sail across the Pacific in your improvised raft?
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      Good luck :) I just hope I brought enough books or a musical instrument with me. I'll be fine. And if not, oh well, there are much worse places to be than a desert island, with or without a watch. The thing you don't want to find out is that what you thought was a desert island is in fact inhabited by some tribe that thinks you might be tasty.
  - WillAdams 3y ago

mhb 3y ago

objects that can outlive their owners parrots, tortoises

TheOtherHobbes 3y ago

I honestly find mechanical watches quite ugly, irrespective of cost, brand, or notoriety. To my eyes there's something inescapably crude about mechanical design with moving metal parts. It's still present when there are tiny components with even tinier tolerances.