[HN Gopher] Mechanical Watch (2022)
___________________________________________________________________
Mechanical Watch (2022)
Author : Akcium
Score : 922 points
Date : 2023-12-10 12:28 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (ciechanow.ski)
(TXT) w3m dump (ciechanow.ski)
| KolmogorovComp wrote:
| Previous discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31261533
| on May 4, 2022, 413 comments
| throw0101c wrote:
| Other topics are gears, floating point, naval architecture,
| cameras & lenses, and GPS:
|
| * https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=ciechanow.ski
| Loughla wrote:
| Holy shit this might be the most functional, clearest website
| I've ever used.
|
| I always wondered what all those bits and bobs inside as
| mechanical watch are.
| matsemann wrote:
| You should check out their other articles. I've previously read
| the Bicycles one and the GPS one, both great.
| https://ciechanow.ski/archives/
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| This guy's stuff is always a joy.
| JR1427 wrote:
| Beautiful.
| pyr0hu wrote:
| This post is what got me into mechanical watches as I've always
| wondered how the analogue clocks/watches work but couldn't bother
| myself to actually read upon it. But after the article, I even
| got myself a clean Seiko 5 automatic, not because I wanted a
| fancy watch, but I wanted to own a piece of mechanical wonder.
| lvl102 wrote:
| Grand Seikos are some of the best mechanical watches. Their
| quartz line is also exceptional. Very underrated and much
| prefer them over overpriced Rolex.
| neor wrote:
| The Spring Drive movement is amazing, very accurate, very
| high quality and that smooth sweeping seconds hand is
| mesmerizing. Availability is good, and the price is a lot
| better than the high-end Swiss brands.
|
| Rolex these days is a joke, even the authorized dealers will
| rip you off shamelessly. They will either refuse to sell you
| a watch they have in store, or they will force you to buy 30
| grand in extra jewelry just to get the Rolex you want.
| DeathArrow wrote:
| Since it has electrical components, I think Spring Drive
| isn't a mechanical movement.
| alpaca128 wrote:
| That's true but it's still driven by a spring and mainly
| mechanical. I understand people who don't like it, but I
| also see it as a reasonable tradeoff and find them just
| as fascinating as purely mechanical models. In the end
| people wear them for the same reasons.
| gurchik wrote:
| It's a mechanical movement regulated by quartz. In a
| traditional mechanical movement, the escapement prevents
| the main spring from unwinding all at once. It is done
| with a fork which ticks at a certain rate governed by the
| balance wheel. In a Spring Drive movement, the escapement
| is replaced with an electromagnetic "brake" governed by a
| quartz crystal. So it still has many of the
| characteristics of a mechanical watch: it's still powered
| entirely by a main spring which can be wound or
| automatically wound by your body movements, it needs
| regular maintenance like other mechanical watches, and it
| isn't as durable as most quartz-only watches.
| criddell wrote:
| Many Rolex models seem expensive, but they are easy to sell
| and you will get much of your money back or even turn a
| profit.
| lvl102 wrote:
| I agree with you. I used to stock up gold Rolexes as
| investment but sold them when their value peaked during the
| pandemic. For collection purposes? Rolexes are duds.
| pyr0hu wrote:
| Never was interested in Rolexes, too flashy for my taste.
| Seikos are sporty, can match with everything and does not
| want to show off to everyone
| bigie35 wrote:
| I feel like most watch folks have at least 1 Seiko in their
| watch case at least once in their collecting journey. Fantastic
| watches, enjoy!
| ddingus wrote:
| Seiko fan here. Seconded.
| quickthrowman wrote:
| Seiko SNK807 and Seiko SKX009, reporting for duty.
| samgranieri wrote:
| This was the most engrossing article I've read in a while.
| quakeguy wrote:
| Check the whole blog, the amount and detail of JS animations on
| all the different topics is awesome.
| dallyo wrote:
| Incredible as usual. Like a visit to a science museum. Wikipedia
| should commission this guy to explain all the things in this
| intuitive, interactive, visual way.
| amitp wrote:
| He's not taking commissions, although maybe he'd make an
| exception for wikipedia.
| jamestimmins wrote:
| Do you know where he says he's not taking commissions? Just
| curious bc I wonder who is trying to commission this kind of
| stuff, and what his reason is for not doing it.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| My favorite watch ever was a self-winding mechanical Swatch. I
| suspect they (Swatch) acquired the company that made it.
| Disappointingly, when the pins that held the band on started to
| slip, there was no good way to repair it.
|
| I've since switched to a smart watch, but I keep getting tempted
| to go back. I generally use my smart watch as a very gentle
| alarm, and for fitness tracking. I just don't want to be the geek
| who wears two watches. Maybe I should only wear it at night?
| ghostganz wrote:
| A self-winding watch needs to be worn for hours each day to not
| run out of power. A manual-wind watch will be a better choice
| for a night-only mechanical watch.
| jgwil2 wrote:
| You can get a watch winder to keep your automatic wound even
| if you don't wear it all the time.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| I took off my self winding watch at night and it worked fine.
|
| > night-only mechanical watch
|
| I said that I was thinking of only wearing a smartwatch at
| night, because I really like the gentle alarm in the morning.
|
| What I didn't say was that I use a smartwatch for tracking my
| sleep patterns.
| massenpunkt wrote:
| The Swatch brand was founded 1983 by ETA CEO Thomke and his
| Engineers. ETA is a watch movement manufacturer.
|
| Speaking of Swatch and mechanical watches: the Sistem51 is an
| interesting watch, since it's the only mechanical watch ever
| fabricated in a 100% automated production line. The parts are
| welded together and held by a single screw.
| https://www.swatch.com/en-us/sistem-51.html
| steezy13 wrote:
| I have been torn between wearing mechanical watches and smart
| watches. I don't need/want/like notifications on my wrist, but I
| really enjoy the activity and heart rate tracking of the Apple
| Watch.
|
| I have been reluctantly wearing a Samsung Withings watch that
| looks mechanical but is actually smart, but a mediocre compromise
| (you need to wear it higher up the wrist than I usually do, and I
| don't believe it gives accurate heart rate and activity
| measurements). 30 day battery life is pretty cool though.
|
| I may just start going back to my Vostok and Seiko watches full
| time at this point. (I don't like spending a lot of money on
| watches, anyone who is curious on getting into them should check
| out both brands as economical starters - the Vostok Amphibia has
| a storied history!)
| mattkopecki wrote:
| Consider something like a Whoop or Oura Ring which monitors
| health metrics but doesn't rely on a watch? That's what I've
| settled on so that I have the best of both worlds.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| Those are subscription based though.
| 0xffff2 wrote:
| Wow. I had looked at the Oura Ring before and thought it
| looked cool, but I missed that it basically requires a
| subscription, which is wild considering it seems like I get
| all of the same metrics from my Garmin watch with no
| subscription required.
| akshayrajp wrote:
| Try Garmin Instinct? It's a digital watch (not analog) and more
| of a fitness tracker than a smart watch. You can disable any
| notifications you don't want.
| Ginguin wrote:
| That's where I ended up. My Instinct has replaced my
| mechanical watches for every occasion except for the most
| formal. The app is decent, the metrics are awesome, and the
| accessories work without fuss (I pair mine with the Heart
| Rate strap when doing kettlebell stuff). I love my other
| watches and still have one or two I will eventually convince
| myself to buy, but the Garmin Instinct 2 has been on my wrist
| for 90% of the last year.
| atmosx wrote:
| Mechanical watches these days are primarily about aesthetics.
| Although I must say that I find myself reaching less and less
| for my mobile these days to find out the time because I wear a
| mechanical watch.
|
| A smartwatch is about data, primarily.
|
| You can have both. Use the mechanical watch for occasions that
| require a formal attire and use the smartwatch as your daily
| driver and sport companion.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| For me it's the opposite. Notifications and payments are my
| main benefit. I would never wear a watch that shows only the
| time (hence I never wore one since the late 90s until mid
| 2010s). Sleep tracking with SpO2 is a big thing for me too
| though.
|
| I think mechanical watches are much more about being jewellery
| than function, even though it's impressive engineering. But I'm
| not a very flashy guy (I don't even own any shirts that fit
| anymore, just T-shirts lol) so I don't really care.
|
| But it's good to see everyone can get what they like. I'm
| personally really happy with how far smartwatches have come.
| lawn wrote:
| I'd like a watch that does two things:
|
| - Shows the time (and possibly date)
|
| - Vibrates when I get a call (or maybe other notifications)
|
| Other than that I'd like it to be small and have a long
| battery life. Is there anything like this?
|
| I currently use a Garmin smartband, but there are so many
| features I don't use.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| Yes I've seen that kind of watch too. I forget which brand
| it was but it was one of the mechanical brands.
|
| For what it's worth, the amazfit and Xiaomi products also
| have very great battery life (around 2 weeks) and some are
| very light. With the gadgetbridge or notify for Android
| apps they're really privacy conscious too.
| criddell wrote:
| Maybe the basic (and old) Fitbit Charge? It has a
| pedometer, time, and vibrating alarm.
| peebeebee wrote:
| I think Fitbit Inspire would do the job. Loved that multi-
| day battery life too.
| steezy13 wrote:
| If that's your use case, definitely check out the Withings
| Scanwatch line. If you're not using a lot of the other
| features, the battery can prob go well over 30 days between
| recharging.
| naremu wrote:
| If you're cheap/privacy/FOSS focused like myself, I find
| the "PineTime" is largely the modern day Pebble watch.
|
| It may not literally watch every breath you take while you
| sleep, but I haven't wanted that personally anyways.
|
| Only real drawbacks are battery life is only OK (about a
| week or so depending), the IPS screen can be bright in the
| dark (though it's a nice flashlight) and it only has 1
| meter of water resistance, though it seems well sealed
| enough to trust it if I fall into water momentarily. (And
| really, swimming/showering with watches is kind of niche
| anyways)
| DriverDaily wrote:
| For me it was an easy choice. First, I was starting to worry
| about heart health. Second, my mechanical watches could be sold
| for more than I paid for them.
| al_borland wrote:
| I wear a smart watch at the gym to track my heart rate, but
| when not at the gym I wear a mechanical watch (or some other
| normal watch... I recently got a Casio World Time I have love
| way more than I probably should).
|
| I had an Apple Watch, but sold it, as I felt guilty not wearing
| it more, with all that it can do. I ended up getting the
| cheapest Polar watch option, that does everything on-device (I
| don't have an account or anything), and can wear that to the
| gym if I just want to check out my heart rate.
| I_Am_Nous wrote:
| I had both a Pebble v1 and a Pebble v2 and loved them both.
| Pebble went defunct though, so I switched back to a Seiko 5
| automatic dive watch once I found I didn't really care for any
| of the other available smart watches at the time.
|
| There's something beautiful to me about a mechanical watch
| being tied to my personal relativity. Compared to an NTP
| synchronized smart watch, nothing should update the time on my
| watch but me. The actual usefulness of this feature is merely
| philosophical but it makes me happy to consider.
|
| The only thing I miss is weather at a glance on my Pebble. I
| used a watch face with the temperature on it and to this day I
| still look at my wrist when I'm thinking about the temperature
| lol
| HPsquared wrote:
| I have a Pixel Watch and I must say, I enjoy the sweeping
| second hand.
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| Is there any reason you don't just disable notifications?
| That's what I've done on my Apple watch and I've loved it.
| macintux wrote:
| I disabled all but the most important notifications (calls,
| texts primarily) and it's been great. I no longer have to
| drag my phone out of my pocket when someone calls me, and all
| unnecessary notifications can wait until I'm bored.
| bayindirh wrote:
| I was wearing a MiBand and getting ready to get an Apple Watch.
| Then my wife got me a Longines auto. I'll never go back to
| smartwatches again.
|
| I'm not a collector when it comes to watches, and I can happily
| wear that Longines until the end of time, and will be happy.
|
| Having a tactile watch with real hardware with no electricity
| inside brings me more joy than some capable electronic toy
| which needs constant tending and replacement.
|
| If I was climbing mountains, maybe but mere outdoor activities
| I have a ProTrek. More than enough.
| pklausler wrote:
| In a similar story, my wife gave me an Omega calibre 1861
| Moonwatch years ago, and I nearly always wear it. But a few
| years ago, I got an Apple Watch for running, and now I often
| wear _both_ , because I like the heart monitor, the haptic
| hints while driving, and don't always have my phone along. I
| wish the Apple Watch had a face that didn't have a time
| display.
| bpesquet wrote:
| Personal and subjective opinion ahead.
|
| Any smartwatch will become unusable, polluting garbage a few
| years (months?) from now: a canonical example of planned
| obsolescence. Their self-tracking functions are a double-edged
| sword, a source of stress as much as relief.
|
| Any well-built and well-maintained mechanical watch will last
| you decades. No dependencies on electricity and network
| connectivity, it's a self-contained and entirely autonomous
| piece of human engineering. Mine was built in 1975 and is one
| year older than me. In a world where everything fades away so
| fast, wearing it everyday feels like owning a precious relic.
|
| Easy choice if you ask me.
| naremu wrote:
| >No dependencies on electricity and network connectivity,
| it's a self-contained and entirely autonomous piece of human
| engineering.
|
| This already veers straight back into the marketing territory
| that everyone in this thread remarks was an eye opener when
| they actually got a mechanical watch.
|
| I have a mild prepper tendency and I had to eventually kill
| my romantic views of mechanicals when I realized it just time
| drift and wouldn't last long without regular maintenance from
| someone with the tools and knowledge/skill, not to mention
| someone in this very comment section mentions a mechanical
| watch suffering a death from drop onto carpeted floor.
|
| Mechanical watches are cool, but I easily spend less time
| without my PineTime (which I'm surprised nobody else in these
| comments has even mentioned) working than my friend spends
| manually syncing his seiko back to time/maintaining it.
| nequo wrote:
| I never heard about PineTime until now! Looks like a cool
| gadget. What has your experience been with it, apart from
| it being more accurate than a mechanical?
| naremu wrote:
| It's an interesting experience, I have github send me an
| email on the odd occasion the community developed "OS"
| gets an update. Then I download the zip file on my phone
| browser and upload the file on Gadgetbridge for the
| update.
|
| I sometimes call it my "soviet in a good way" watch, it
| ended up becoming my "function over fashion" watch, which
| means almost all day every day wear for a few years now.
|
| pros:
|
| decent battery life (1-2 weeks, i turn off bluetooth and
| gps on my phone overnights which helps both devices)
|
| "good enough" design (durable enough for all but
| swimming/showering)
|
| easily replaced or modified (even takes standard watch
| bands)
|
| flashlight, notifications and all traditional digital
| watch functions
|
| multiple community "OS" options
|
| cons:
|
| community development can be slow, buggy
|
| water droplets particularly from natural rain can trigger
| the touchscreen, not amazing if you bike in seattle or
| something
|
| anemic hardware
|
| The charger is cheap and isn't that quick but again, the
| pinetime kind of excels in knowing the difference between
| good and good enough, as I once heard an engineer say
| (about something else), and I rarely find myself bothered
| by it's lack of luxuries.
| nequo wrote:
| Thanks for sharing your pros and cons!
|
| What do you think is the PineTime's biggest strength when
| compared with a mainstream smartwatch?
|
| Have you found the watch to be hackable? Is there any
| sort of customization that you've done to it?
| naremu wrote:
| >What do you think is the PineTime's biggest strength
| when compared with a mainstream smartwatch?
|
| Frankly, I think the combination of price/replaceability
| and privacy are the only things unique (besides niche
| FOSS modding) to it among smart watches; and I like the
| open aspect of essentially every detail.
|
| It makes it the only smart watch I've used that feels
| like it respects my dignity, frankly. A minor
| philosophical quibble but one I take stoic pleasure in.
| It is a tool, and technology that serves me, not another.
|
| > Have you found the watch to be hackable? Is there any
| sort of customization that you've done to it?
|
| I actually got it hoping I'd have the inclination to
| tinker with it, but my only idea that wasn't already
| being worked on by the default "OS" is a red flashlight
| mode, which with the IPS screen is a moot point anyways,
| since the black pixels when turned on make for a low-
| light flashlight anyways, heh. A hardware drawback that
| ironically makes it a more accessible tool in my
| experience.
| bpesquet wrote:
| The PineTime is still an electronic gadget that you won't
| use for very long.
|
| My watch takes 15 seconds to rewind each day, and 5 seconds
| to be time adjusted by one minute twice a week. Service is
| every 5 years, the last one cost me 88 EUR. It gets more
| valuable each year, and I plan to bequeath it to my son in
| a (hopefully) very distant future.
|
| To each his own, I guess.
| naremu wrote:
| Rewind? As in a non-automatic mechanical?
|
| Admittedly, all the mechanical watch issues I've read
| tend to be pertaining to the automatic variety.
| bpesquet wrote:
| Yes, it's manual. I have no experience with automatic
| ones.
|
| Admittedly, it is a rather pricey model (Omega
| Speedmaster). I bought it second hand for 1500 EUR a few
| years ago. Unfortunately, prices have since skyrocketed
| for many emblematic watches like this one.
| runeb wrote:
| I wish I could buy an Apple Watch without screen, crown and
| button. Just a smart disc to record all my Health and activity
| data, worn under my wristwatch
| cloogshicer wrote:
| I've been a long time admirer of the interactive animations on
| this site.
|
| What tool/library would you pick to create similar ones yourself?
|
| Looking at the source [1], the author seems to hand-craft them
| using the canvas API, but man, that seems really difficult!
|
| [1] https://ciechanow.ski/js/watch.js
| naet wrote:
| Bartosz does an amazing job of making custom interactives and
| animations to support his articles. It looks like he uses
| custom canvas with webgl for the 3d renders.
|
| There are 3d engines in JavaScript like three.js
| (https://threejs.org/) that can abstract some of the 3d
| rendering work for you.
| amitp wrote:
| I agree with naet that threejs might be the thing to look at if
| you want to make 3d animations. My own interactive diagrams are
| 2d, and I often use svg with reactive data filling in the
| parameters. [1] I've also tried hand crafting and it's not so
| bad for pages like this. They're _mostly_ write-once pages, not
| software that 's being maintained for many years. Some of our
| intuitions are out of whack when they tell us that we _need_
| abstractions and frameworks for maintainability.
|
| [1] https://www.redblobgames.com/making-of/circle-drawing/
| amelius wrote:
| I was hoping this is based on an open source physics engine,
| but apparently it's all handcrafted.
| bejd wrote:
| Nice to see this again. Such a clear breakdown of a complex
| topic, presented beautifully.
|
| Tangentially related, the documentary The Watchmaker's Apprentice
| [0] is a captivating look at the dedication it takes to create a
| mechanical watch. It's amazing that it's possible for a single
| person to craft each tiny cog and spring from scratch and put it
| all together.
|
| [0] http://www.thewatchmakersapprentice.com/
| lloeki wrote:
| Same fantastic format, different topics:
|
| - bicycle: https://ciechanow.ski/bicycle/
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35343495
|
| - sound: https://ciechanow.ski/sound/
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33249215
| fellerts wrote:
| This blog is what got me into the fabulous hobby of watch
| repairing. Well, this blog and Marshall's awesome repair videos
| over at Wristwatch Revival:
| https://www.youtube.com/@WristwatchRevival
|
| Watch repairing is a very rewarding hobby. It requires copious
| amounts of patience, but there's something fundamentally
| satisfying about disassembling something to its individual
| components, cleaning them and reassembling them meticulously.
| These things are designed to be taken apart, and it shows. I'm
| hard-pressed to think of other modern day objects that are meant
| to do this.
| sricciardi wrote:
| > _These things are designed to be taken apart, and it shows. I
| 'm hard-pressed to think of other modern day objects that are
| meant to do this._
|
| A mechanical film camera (say, a Leica) is similar. They are
| also meant to be opened, cleaned up, lubed, etc...
| j4yav wrote:
| Espresso machines, as well, and vintage stereo equipment. I
| have really come to appreciate the zen of user-serviceable
| physical stuff.
| ce4 wrote:
| I can relate - i took repairing espresso machines as a
| hobby since the pandemic. The parts are not complex at all
| and even 60+ years old E61-machines can be serviced easily
| (apart from not so cool stuff like asbestos as boiler
| insulation, leaded solder for boiler + fittings and mercury
| pressure switches).
|
| But even todays machines (depending on manufacturer and
| origin) are very serviceable. Especially italian made ones.
| j4yav wrote:
| For sure I have a La Pavoni and I can get parts lists,
| diagrams, and everything else I need to rebuild the whole
| thing if I needed to.
| https://www.lapavoni.com/en/technical-documentation
| ce4 wrote:
| Great espresso machine! Very pretty and takes almost no
| space + heats up promptly. I had a pre millenium
| "professional" model until last year (not my daily driver
| though).
|
| I had a Dalla Corte mini as main machine but couldnt
| resist a great offer and upgraded to Ascaso Baby T
| recently :)
| mianos wrote:
| What surprises me about the Italian coffee machines is
| you can buy many of the parts at a local hardware store.
| They look home made. The Chinese ones seem to be 100%
| custom parts, maybe to account for price at scale.
| solardev wrote:
| During the pandemic, I tried to work on my Jura, a Swiss
| automatic espresso machine with an integrated hopper and
| grinder. Totally failed :(
|
| It's a great machine (got it refurbed and it's lasted
| nearly a decade already), but not at all easy to take
| apart. It's a lot of electronics though.
|
| I take it the manual ones are easier to service?
| eggy wrote:
| Lenovo vs. Apple notebooks. My ThinkPad T430u comes apart
| simply and you can remove subassemblies quite easily. I
| replaced the touchpad and battery on my daughters MacBook Pro
| and it was a nightmare.
| mikestew wrote:
| A co-worker keeps a blog of his watch restorations. I have no
| interest in the hobby, but I do have an interest in viewing the
| work of someone that does. Of particular interest to me is that
| what he restores isn't high-end stuff, but common watches that
| might have one particular bit of history that makes them
| interesting. Radium dials, for example.
|
| https://www.westcoasttime.net
| graphe wrote:
| Guns, small engines, and 3D printers are its larger modern
| cousins.
| bluescrn wrote:
| 3D printers have very little mechanical complexity. It's all
| in the software.
|
| If it wasn't for the computing power/software complexity
| required, hobbyist 3D printers could probably have been a
| thing in the 70s or 80s
| graphe wrote:
| They're not complex, just easily taken apart and meant to
| be repaired by humans. The software isn't particularly
| complex either, the reason for their surge recently was due
| to patents expiring for additive manufacturing.
| https://futurism.com/expiring-patents-set-to-
| improve-3d-worl...
| bluescrn wrote:
| Yeah, I suppose the software to control the printer is
| the relatively straightforward bit, the complex part is
| the software that slices the model and converts it into
| an efficient set of G-code commands for the printer.
| (That and the software used to create 3D models to begin
| with...)
| graphe wrote:
| That isn't complex either. There was no reason besides
| patents that 3D printing could have been a reality
| decades ago. Simple math is all you need and gcode isn't
| just 3D printing it's also for CNC, something that was
| able to be done around that time.
| WillPostForFood wrote:
| While 3d printers aren't necessarily complicated they are
| fun to watch. They are like an inside-out machine. Most
| machines are hidden in some sort of casing or under a hood.
| 3d printers are exposed, so you are able watch the gears
| spin, belts turn, and the print head extrude.
| FpUser wrote:
| Watching one right now as it prints power pads for my EUC
| (Electric Unicycle)
| eternityforest wrote:
| Everything about 3D printing seems to be basically free of
| any kind of nonsense. Simple, highly reliable hardware
| (Sometimes you get a clog or something but nothing really
| fails badly for a very long time), made of cheap commodity
| parts, with software constantly being pushed to the limit
| of what's possible.
|
| So many other hobbies feel like they're just excuses to
| bikeshed or gear collect, or they rapidly become gear
| collecting hobbies, sometimes leading to some
| disappointment in yourself when you see the hoard you never
| use.
|
| Plus, it's repeatable, so you don't have to build daily
| routines around something irreplaceable. Some people enjoy
| that, but it doesn't fit well in the high tech mindset
| where anything that isn't repeatable feels like a
| liability, especially if managing physical objects and
| keeping track of your stuff is already a major source of
| stress.
|
| Files don't wear out either, so it's not like software,
| where you assume it will likely need maintenance at some
| point and could stop working in a system update at an
| inconvenient time.
|
| It also doesn't need much space or expensive equipment, and
| doesn't take so long to learn that us modern screen addicts
| would probably just give up before making progress.
| bsder wrote:
| > If it wasn't for the computing power/software complexity
| required, hobbyist 3D printers could probably have been a
| thing in the 70s or 80s
|
| That statement completely ignores enormous quantities of
| engineering that have occurred.
|
| Stepper motors, for example, had _huge_ amounts of
| engineering thrown at them by disk drive manufacturers in
| order to get them where we are now.
|
| Resin printers needed high precision galvanometers to
| direct laser beams. The control of that would have been
| ridiculous in the 1980s.
|
| Modern resin printers rely on high-resolution monochrome
| LCD displays. That requires cheap LCDs (only remotely
| viable after 1990+) as well as enormous quantities of
| embedded RAM (4K monochrome takes almost 1MiB of RAM which
| was _half the total memory_ of Powerbook 100, for example).
|
| And modern printers rely on high-power UV LED sources to
| create uniform flux. Blue+ wavelength LEDs we're a decades
| long research task.
|
| Revolutionary technologies appear when a _series_ of
| engineering barriers drop that allow a synthesis of ideas.
|
| The printing press is a good example. Lots of people talk
| about how the Chinese and the Muslims had the printing
| press, but that wasn't enough. The printing press needed
| engineering in paper, inks, moveable type, eyeglasses, an
| alphabet, etc. before it could take off.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| _Watch repairing is a very rewarding hobby. It requires copious
| amounts of patience, but there 's something fundamentally
| satisfying about disassembling something to its individual
| components, cleaning them and reassembling them meticulously.
| These things are designed to be taken apart, and it shows. I'm
| hard-pressed to think of other modern day objects that are
| meant to do this._
|
| '1337 watch-repairing skillz qualify you to work on nukes:
| https://apnews.com/article/nuclear-warheads-military-bomb-pl...
| There are thousands of tiny parts inside each warhead,
| so steady hands are key. That's why technicians go
| through a skills assessment that includes disassembling
| and assembling a mechanical wristwatch.
| MeImCounting wrote:
| Pocket knives! Nice modern pocket knives should be disassembled
| and maintained regularly.
| maxerickson wrote:
| I have a Kershaw Leek, which while it isn't particularly
| expensive, is easily on the "cost exceeds direct utility"
| side of things, is easy to take apart, and I can't imagine
| what I would regularly take it apart for.
| MeImCounting wrote:
| Well if you carry it regularly, when you take it apart you
| will find there is lots of lint and other gunk on and
| around the detent ball, in and around the pivot and
| elsewhere. Upon cleaning and oiling it you will probably
| notice the action is a lot smoother. In rare cases if it
| gets really gunked up it can actually effect the locking
| mechanism of the knife presenting a potential safety
| hazard. Having your pocket knife close on you while
| breaking down a cardboard is no fun!
|
| Kershaw leek is really a great knife.
|
| Also keeping your pocket knife sharp is another example of
| it being directly maintainable and repairable. I often
| spend several hours a month sharpening my pocket knives
| though I probably have a few more than the average person.
| yabbs wrote:
| I've had spring bars break twice with the Leek. Replacement
| parts were sent for free!
| jrockway wrote:
| That is a great channel. It's definitely made me consider
| getting into that hobby. Seems very relaxing.
| tomchuk wrote:
| Very relaxing. Until impossibly small $15 Incabloc springs
| start flying around the room. I'm convinced these sublimate
| into a vapor the moment they fly out of view of your loupe.
| mianos wrote:
| Not relaxing to me, like the YouTube videos. It is
| difficult and frustrating. It is very easy to wreck things
| like brass threads. Often lots of things are seized up on
| anything more than a few years old. Fun all the same.
| Double_a_92 wrote:
| If screws seem seized up make sure that your screwdrivers
| tips are properly shaped.
| shostack wrote:
| I wish there was a good beginner level entry point with a kit
| or something. But most of what I saw was "you need to build
| your own tools and then you can start" and that's too high a
| barrier for me.
|
| Is there by chance a simulator of this on Steam if a good
| beginner hobby kit doesn't exist?
| kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote:
| Bah, don't listen to 'em. Inexpensive set of jeweler's
| screwdrivers, and pair of precision tweezers, some sort of
| magnifying device, and a couple oils (use Liberty oil for the
| pivots, it's cheap but good enough to start). Cheap oiler
| tools off eBay or amazon. I have maybe $50 in tools.
|
| Buy some cheap movements off eBay, and dive in. Yeah, you'll
| lose parts and break things but you'll learn a bunch.
|
| I have a couple Westclox watches from the 60s that I bought
| for $10/each on eBay, and they both now run at +/- 2 seconds
| a day.
| Double_a_92 wrote:
| A set of small screwdrivers (at least one 0.8mm and one 1.2mm
| or so), pointy tweezers and a movement holder should be all
| you need to try the hobby out.
|
| The screwdrivers and tweezers should be of good quality
| though, at least get the ones that cost 3-4$ each from China.
|
| And you don't even need a mechanical watch. Cheap quartz
| watches also have tiny interesting parts in them that you can
| try to disassemble and reassemble.
| webnrrd2k wrote:
| I think that older film cameras have a very satisfying-to-use
| quality to them. I find that an Olympus OM-2 with a good lens
| feels sooo nice to use.
|
| I know, not exactly the same as repairing fine watches, but I
| think it might be similar.
| systemvoltage wrote:
| Marshall's channel is amazing. He is so humble and always
| curious about learning. It got me into watchmaking as well,
| primarily because his attitude of "If I can do it, so can
| you!".
| Double_a_92 wrote:
| > These things are designed to be taken apart
|
| This is so true. I used to repair phones and other gadgets
| before starting with watch repair... and I was kinda scared to
| take apart something filigree like a watch because it surely
| would never go back togheter properly.
|
| But no, everything goes back togheter fine without having to
| apply any kind of force. If it doesn't it's 99% my fault. E.g.
| even tiny screwholes are slightly tapered so the screws kinda
| fall in there automatically.
| saiya-jin wrote:
| Watches are pretty amazing, a mechanical engineering marvel
| crammed into tiny compartment that can easily keep working for
| 100 years with minimal upkeep, very sturdy, looking great at
| almost any design era and helping with time. I never got the
| lure of 'smart' watches of these days, they all look like
| plastic toys for kids including most expensive ones, definitely
| when compared to good mechanical watches. Also in formal
| environment its one of few 'jewelry' items that are always
| allowed along with wedding ring, anything else may raise
| eyebrows and give negative points depending on
| location/company.
|
| I've seen people's OCD around me or similar issues getting
| worse with arrival of smart watches and nearly constant
| interruptions from notifications. Yet those folks don't turn
| them off even if I mention visible degradation on their part, I
| guess then they would end up with charging-needy expensive-yet-
| soon-obsolete gadget without much else (sport monitoring is
| cool for some folks, again I simply don't get the desire for
| constant measurements and comparisons - for me it takes away
| most of the fun that sports should be in first place, I focus
| on being challenged at my current level, not chasing some
| meaningless numbers).
|
| I guess if one is 'free' from such things the described effect
| is less bad, but why the heck would I ever wanted to be
| notified instantly on my hand when something happens? Peace of
| mind and clear focus are rare and precious things these days,
| and this destroys it for few seconds of dopamine kick.
| randomcarbloke wrote:
| wearing a wristwatch with full formal is still a bit of a
| faux pas.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| Rich: Rolex
|
| Wealthy: Patek Philippe
|
| True wealth: "I DGAF what time it is _or_ what looks good
| with this jacket "
| Rudism wrote:
| I have a relatively inexpensive Seiko 5 mechanical watch that I
| really like, but as much as I love the idea of mechanical watches
| I simply don't have the patience to tend to it. Accuracy is a big
| problem (at least with my specific watch). Half of the time it's
| magnetized and running a few minutes fast per day, and the other
| half (shortly after de-magnetizing it) it's running a few minutes
| slow per day, meaning I needed to remember to adjust it every
| morning and always had to assume there's at least a minute or two
| margin of error one way or the other any time I read it--almost
| completely defeating my reason for wearing a watch in the first
| place.
|
| For a while I wore a solar-powered Casio that self-adjusted every
| morning using the NIST atomic clock radio signals, and the peace
| of mind knowing that my watch was always accurate was such a
| pleasure in comparison. It was kind of cheap build quality and
| eventually fell apart, but I don't think I'll ever go back to a
| mechanical watch again after that.
| alpaca128 wrote:
| Accuracy can vary a lot even within one price segment. My Seiko
| 5 was pretty inaccurate too, while my current watch cost 30
| bucks more and has less than 3 seconds deviation per day. So I
| set the time once every 1-2 months and that's perfectly fine
| for me. But it's definitely not the most practical tech.
|
| > almost completely defeating my reason for wearing a watch in
| the first place.
|
| Maybe it's just me but I don't need perfect accuracy on a
| wristwatch. If one minute more or less matters I'm already too
| late anyway.
| shimonabi wrote:
| I'm the same. I had several Seiko 5 watches in the past and
| even modded one of them with a hacking mechanism. I would
| monitor the accuracy every week with a timegrapher app on the
| phone and try to make small adjustments.
|
| The convenience of having a modern Bluetooth-syncing cheap
| Xiaomi fitess watch is so great I don't believe I'll ever go
| back.
| WillPostForFood wrote:
| _Half of the time it 's magnetized and running a few minutes
| fast per day, and the other half (shortly after de-magnetizing
| it)_
|
| Wow, that's bad. Do you know what is magnetizing it? A cheap
| Seiko 5 should be able to keep time within a few seconds a day.
| Minutes a day means it is broken. It isn't a just tuning issue,
| there is something else going on.
| bayindirh wrote:
| Yes, it sounds a degaussing and calibration. My simple Seiko
| 5 with 7S36C is within +/- 4 seconds per day, and I never
| adjust it except short-month skipping.
| WillPostForFood wrote:
| Given that is minutes off even after demagnetizing, makes
| me wonder if there has been water intrusion, or it is old
| and the oil is starting to gum up.
| bayindirh wrote:
| Seiko 5s have clear back covers generally, and a water
| intrusion should be pretty visble, in my opinion.
|
| Oil age maybe a factor, but maybe it's dropped? I had a
| Swatch with an ETA movement (with shock absorption
| nonetheless), and I somehow managed to damage its balance
| wheel assembly by dropping to a soft carpet from ~80cm,
| because it started stopping when it was not in dial up
| position. They even opened it and recalibrated and oiled
| it, but it's dead.
| ce4 wrote:
| Put it one a timegrapher and check amplitude, beat rate &
| beat error in different watch positions (watch dial up,
| dial down, crown up, crown down etc.). There are
| timegraphing apps on the iOS/Android app stores (using
| the microphone for detecting beat signals) for a very
| quick test. The watch's tick signal may be a bit on the
| weak side but i usually get some data in a reasonably
| silent environments with direkt contact of the watch to
| the phone's body.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_timing_machine
| encom wrote:
| Can you recommend any (Apple or Android). A quick search
| on the Apple store only returned things that looked
| scammy or terrible.
| drivers99 wrote:
| I also got really into learning about watches and watching a
| watch repair stream on twitch (in 2020), and I even pulled out
| my great-grandfather's pocket watch from the 1890s and got it
| serviced/repaired (or at least running again for a while but
| now it won't run again; I suspect the person I took it to
| didn't do a great job).
|
| When it came to buying a watch for myself I also ended up also
| getting a solar powered Casio with NIST synchronization
| ("Waveceptor"), the type with hands (for the looks). I love the
| idea that it's technology without software updates or battery
| changes (hmm, does the battery you charge with solar wear
| out?), and always keeps perfect time to the second without any
| effort on my part. This one (price seems a lot higher than
| before):
| https://www.casio.com/us/watches/casio/product.WVA-M640D-1A/
|
| Somehow, watching all those meticulous adjustments to make sure
| the mechanical watches kept good time made me prioritize that
| to the point I didn't even get a mechanical watch.
| jerlam wrote:
| Even though my mechanical watch wasn't as inaccurate as yours
| (mine was only a minute or two off a week), the act of
| regularly adjusting it to match the true time slowly changed my
| impression of it from a "serious timekeeping device", the image
| cultivated by marketing, into "this is a silly hobby for people
| who have too much time and money". Doubly so when you look how
| much it costs to repair a mechanical watch.
|
| This single-use timekeeping device was literally the least
| accurate timekeeping device on my person, compared to my phone
| and computer.
| aredox wrote:
| It's also the only timekeeping device that will still work
| after three days away from an electric plug, and the only one
| you would wear _all you life_.
|
| 1 second/day is 10 PPM. Reaching that accuracy with only
| mechanical means in a device small and robust enough to be
| worn on the body is something to admire, not to fault for its
| limits.
| bpye wrote:
| Digital watches also exist, last years on a single cell and
| some have a solar cell to extend that. A cheap Casio F-91W
| is accurate to 1 sec/day and I imagine you'll find others
| that can do better.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| https://www.walmart.com/ip/casio-casual-black-resin-
| digital-...
| jerlam wrote:
| I replaced my mechanical watch with a G-Shock that lasts
| ten years without charging of any kind. Even my current
| Garmin will last a week when charged - it will last even
| longer if I turn off every single feature.
|
| I use the Garmin to track my exercise - I don't care if the
| mechanical watch will last all my life if it doesn't do
| what I want it to do, and it's not even that great at the
| one thing that it does do.
|
| There aren't a lot of normally-priced mechanical watches
| that get 1 second/day accuracy. That precision can be
| admired in mechanical watches, but as I said, it becomes a
| fun expensive hobby.
| ska wrote:
| > It's also the only timekeeping device that will still
| work after three days away from an electric plug
|
| Quartz watches go years on a small battery, and keep better
| time.
|
| Sure, it's admirable engineering, it's just most obsolete.
| And that's ok!
|
| The role of watches as jewellery has kept mechanicals going
| far more than practicality.
| epcoa wrote:
| "It's also the only timekeeping device that will still work
| after three days away from an electric plug"
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_clock
|
| Lasting years on a battery is easy.
| poooogles wrote:
| Why not both?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Drive
|
| Advertised at +-15 seconds a month, but in reality it's
| much better than that.
| panopticon wrote:
| > _It 's also the only timekeeping device that will still
| work after three days away from an electric plug_
|
| I get your point, but I can easily get >2 weeks out of my
| Garmin Fenix or over a month if I put it in battery saving
| mode.
| aredox wrote:
| It won't do that in 5 years, let alone 10. You'll be
| unlikely to find a replacement battery, too.
| 93po wrote:
| People (including myself) often wear mechanical watches
| because they really enjoy the engineering/history/whatever of
| mechanical movements. To me, I enjoy getting to wind my
| watch/set the date and time/have a reason to interact with
| it. I enjoy that it's a conversation starter for some people
| (hey, nice watch!) and for others it's an opportunity to talk
| about something I enjoy. It's also nice that it's
| aesthetically very pleasing compared to a random seiko or
| electric watch.
| eggy wrote:
| Well, when the collapse happens and you have no batteries,
| satellites, etc., you can use the stars[1] to tell time and
| reset your mechanical watch to within a reasonable estimate
| given the circumstances. I own a relatively cheap mechancal
| watch I adjust every week. I bought a Garmin vs. an
| Apple/Samsung watch too. My Garmin battery lasts about 20 to
| 24 days depending on how I use the watch vs. 24 to 48 hours.
| It does more than I need, but has come in handy in my line of
| work.
|
| [1] https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/tell-time-by-
| stars.htm...
| LegitShady wrote:
| I own a cheap seiko 5 as well. It's basically so close to
| perfect you need a specialized device that measures its error
| to a ridiculous degree to figure out its running slightly fast.
| It's like average 3 point something seconds a day.
|
| There's something wrong with your watch.
| rounakdatta wrote:
| It's almost about time that Bartosz releases his next
| illustration, excited!
| allsunny wrote:
| There's no doubt that smart watches offer way more functionality
| than a mechanical watch which is appealing to most consumers.
| However, what you're buying with mechanical watches is more a
| form of art these days, and, for certain watches (eg Rolex) a
| status symbol. As someone who has always been drawn to watches
| (of all kinds), I really enjoyed this article. I even took off my
| watch (Omega Planet Ocean) and peered through the exhibition case
| back to take a look at the balance wheel and double barrels.
| Thanks for sharing!
| ktt8788 wrote:
| Fanstastic animations!
| ktt8788 wrote:
| Fantastic animations!
| denton-scratch wrote:
| A beautifully made web-page, fitting for a watchmaker. Lovely
| animations. I'm impressed!
| KaiserPro wrote:
| There are semi-electric versions of mechanical watches based on
| "tuning fork" movements. They are cheap and accurate, and are a
| stepping stone between mechanical and quartz from the 60s/70s
|
| I don't have the skills or machinery to make a wristwatch sized
| version, but I did make a _big_ sized version:
| https://www.secretbatcave.co.uk/projects/electromechanical-c...
| aidenn0 wrote:
| For a clock, could a worm drive provide the necessary reduction
| without the microscopic teeth? Tamiya sells small drives with a
| 150:1 reduction ratio.
| dexwiz wrote:
| I imagine the increased surface area of the worm drive may
| cause more loss to friction than desirable.
| KaiserPro wrote:
| Possibly, its less the reduction, more the "stroke" of the
| vibration (ie how far the tuning fork moves backwards and
| forwards.)
|
| I think for a large tuning fork, you _could_ use normal watch
| gears. However I don't have the skill to try that, yet.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| That makes sense; the backlash needs to be much less than
| the tuning fork travel, right?
| KaiserPro wrote:
| Backlash isn't probably that much of a problem, the
| orignal movement has a locking "pall" that stops
| backlash: https://youtu.be/CPS7aNCAwAA?t=161
|
| scaling it up you'd get something like this:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u48n-jvo5N0
|
| to make it practical on a tuning fork, that movement of
| the forks would need to correspond to the tooth size of
| the wheel. For a large tuning fork, its probably in the
| order of mm, so not beyond home shop manufacture
| aidenn0 wrote:
| A ratchet and pawl limits the backlash to the distance
| between the teeth on the ratchet gear; think of it this
| way; if it were to turn less than the radial distance
| between the teeth on the ratchet gear, backlash could
| still happen; similarly in regular operation, it turns
| the ratchet gear slightly more than that distance, and
| there is backlash until the pawl engages.
| Aaronstotle wrote:
| I have an Oris Aquis Date that I purchased for myself a few
| months ago, I love looking at the flywheel movement and hearing
| the tick when I put it up to my ear.
| nicholasjarnold wrote:
| Hugely popular original posting of this -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31261533
| m3kw9 wrote:
| Hard to beat this for explaining how a mechanical watch really
| works
| g9yuayon wrote:
| This reminds me of Dave Sobel's book Longitude, which tells a
| fascinating story on how John Harrison created the first reliable
| marine clock. Such stories humble me and make me deeply
| appreciate the ingenuity of mankind to conquer the seemingly
| impossible challenges to build the civilization we enjoy today.
| nobulus wrote:
| Great article!
| jstanley wrote:
| My project at the moment is to try to make a mechanical watch.
|
| The concept is that it will only have one hand (the hour hand),
| and the mainspring barrel will encircle the entire movement,
| you'll wind it up by rotating the bezel (and therefore the outer
| part of the barrel) clockwise, and the mainspring will drive the
| inner barrel clockwise. The hour hand is mounted directly on the
| inner barrel (which therefore completes 1 revolution per 12
| hours), and the rest of the movement only exists to regulate the
| speed at which the inner barrel rotates. So the rest of the
| movement will be a series of gearings-down, with an escapement at
| the end.
|
| And to set the time, the movement will be mounted into the case
| with a ratchet, such that when you turn the bezel _anticlockwise_
| , the entire movement (and therefore the hand) rotates
| anticlockwise allowing you to set the hand. You'll only be able
| to set it as precisely as the ratchet (i.e. you'd need 720
| positions of the ratchet to set it to 1-minute precision), but
| the watch will never keep particularly good time anyway so I
| don't think this is a problem.
|
| Yesterday I got an escapement at almost-watch-scale ticking for
| the first time, albeit erratically and requiring enormous drive
| torque: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvNODOp6uBc (3d printed
| for expediency, the real one will all be machined; and I say
| "almost-watch-scale" because although it fits inside the 50mm
| diameter that I am aiming for, it is obviously too thick to go
| inside a sensible watch).
|
| I have more info in this post:
| https://incoherency.co.uk/blog/stories/the-watch-project.htm...
| knodi123 wrote:
| wow, that's really impressive for 3-d printed and being built
| from first principles!
| fuzzfactor wrote:
| Looking at drawings 3 & 4, these linear vs rotational springs are
| analogous considering they are each at rest in the center of the
| user control slider. They can act like a spring in either
| direction, and are basically sitting there in the neutral or non-
| energy-storing condition (zero-sprung or zero-wound respectively)
| until you move the slider away from the center position.
|
| Take a look at the 9th or 10th interactive drawing, where you can
| move the slider to the right to wind the mainspring, then release
| the slider to watch the mainspring unwind.
|
| When the energy is depleted, all the bands in the coil are
| bunched up around the outside of the barrel. It's not much of a
| spring any more.
|
| This is the same type of torsion spring as in drawing 4 but with
| the mainspring being used for primary energy storage there is no
| desire for recovery to a neutral position from both clockwise &
| counterclockwise directions like you see in drawing 4. Instead
| you only need to ever draw energy from storage to use in a single
| rotational direction. Opposite rotation is used only to store
| externally applied energy.
|
| So you wind it in one direction to store energy then it releases
| the energy in the opposite direction.
|
| But without the precurvature shown in drawing 11 the torsion
| spring would tend to be exhausted when it was "zero-wound" like
| the one in drawing 4, with the coils widely spaced away from each
| other, free to absorb & recover energy from either rotational
| direction. And since we only need to draw energy in one
| rotational direction, that amounts to only half of the energy the
| spring is capable of storing for our purposes. Notice how about
| half the length of the spring is coiled similarly to drawing 4,
| with the upper half of the loose spring coiled less tightly and
| in the opposite direction.
|
| Because when our mainspring is exhausted, we want it to be
| bunched up along the outside of the barrel so we get the most out
| of it before it needs to be retensioned. And when it's fully
| retensioned we want to get maximum energy storage from the
| hardware so at that starting point we want the coils to be tighly
| wound, bunched up around the arbor.
|
| But not too tight.
|
| Or it could be _overwound_.
|
| As long as there is some space in between the coils, when
| recovering rotational energy you have access to what is stored
| along the entire length of the free portion of the coil. But once
| it's wound tightly enough for the coils to be in significant
| direct concentric contact, the free portion of the coil becomes
| so small it does not contain enough energy to drive the
| timekeeping mechanism.
|
| It could get so tight that it's not much of a spring any more.
| Closer to a solid cylinder with a slight tab hanging off.
|
| Which is more of a problem when both ends of the torsion spring
| are permanently attached to their substrates.
|
| Instead in these drawings, the color-coded _metal strip_ is used
| to provide a friction grip between the outer end of the coil and
| the barrel, strong enough grip to drive the timekeeping mechanism
| but designed to slip counterclockwise within the barrel if manual
| winding proceeeds more than necessary, slipping before the coil
| can get wound too tightly.
|
| Basically, overcharge protection for a non-electric hardware
| device.
| asylteltine wrote:
| This guys blog is crazy how does he have the time and knowledge
| to make all these intricate animations
| incahoots wrote:
| Did anyone notice the animated example was giving the proper real
| time, right at the precise second too.
| vietvu wrote:
| Damn, when I decided that I don't want a mechanical watch
| anymore, you convince me otherwise with this.
| bvan wrote:
| These animations are just phenomenal - best I've seen by far.
| redbell wrote:
| This is the type of content that never gets old.
|
| The original post [1] was ranking #4 as the highest-upvoted story
| on Hacker News before it got kicked to #5 last August by Bram
| Moolenaar's death announcement [2], then to #6 after Altman's
| saga ranked #3 a few weeks ago.
|
| Over all, this story is classified as #1 in creative content that
| is not in the genre of news or announcements.
|
| _____________________________
|
| 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31261533
|
| 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37011324
| mikestaub wrote:
| Bitcoin is like a virtual Swiss watch, with the base layer being
| the center wheel and PoW mining being the mainspring. The third
| wheel is the BIP300 protocol and the fourth wheel is LN and other
| L2s. The nodes are the balance wheels.
| https://youtu.be/9_QsCLYs2mY
| aswinmohanme wrote:
| I bought a mechanical watch after reading this blog post and it's
| been my daily driver since. It always brings a smile to look at
| it and see what fine craftsmanship and mechanical intelligence
| can achieve.
| lldoraMay wrote:
| Diving into watch repairing? It's like the DIY version of a
| puzzle game - tricky but super satisfying. Hats off to the
| internet for turning casual viewers into budding horologists. And
| for those who just enjoy restoration blogs, it's cool to be a fan
| without getting your hands dirty. As for beginners seeking an
| easy start, a watch repair simulator game sounds like a fun,
| stress-free way to dip your toes in. Whether you're a hands-on
| tinkerer or a digital-only enthusiast, every tiny screw and
| spring brings its own adventure.
| waltwalther wrote:
| I worked at a local-owned jewelry store for years (starting out
| as on-call computer guy). The kind with an old fashion in-house
| jeweler who did all repairs himself (setting stones, resizing
| rings, cleanings, etc). We did everything EXCEPT most watch
| repairs. We changed batteries in the quartz watches, and replaced
| and repaired bands, and performed some minor repairs of
| mechanical watches, but we sent out most watch repairs to a
| watchmaker several cities away.
|
| The boss, who was an old jeweler who had started out in the
| business as a boy in the fifties working under a jeweler and
| watchmaker, always said that watchmakers are a dying breed, and
| could pretty much name their price.
|
| When I started working and learning the trade we had two
| watchmakers that we shipped to. Within two years one of those had
| retired, and we were unable to find a replacement for him.
|
| I loved working and repairing jewelry (even more so that my
| fulltime job in IT for local gov), and wanted to become a
| watchmaker, but my life took me elsewhere. Now that I am older
| and in a better place in life I often think of those three years,
| and have been considering obtaining the tools to start up a hobby
| in one or the other...or both.
|
| Thank you, OP, for an awesome post and link.
| hotpotamus wrote:
| Like any hobby, there is a YouTube culture around mechanical
| wristwatch maintenance/repair these days if you want to learn
| more. If I remember correctly, there's a channel called
| Wristwatch Revival that is quite good.
| yolkedgeek wrote:
| OMG this was such a beautiful and interesting article. I was so
| impressed I HAD to leave a comment
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