[HN Gopher] Calendar types in watches
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Calendar types in watches
Author : farslan
Score : 84 points
Date : 2024-04-29 17:43 UTC (1 days ago)
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| joshlemer wrote:
| Anyone know about any mechanical wall clocks, grandfather clocks,
| or mantle clocks (? I mean ones that stand on their own) which
| show the date? It seems that this is a really commonly sought
| after feature of wrist watches but for some reason hard to find
| or non existent in mechanical non-wrist clocks.
| quartesixte wrote:
| Unfortunately they're not really a thing. Some
| grandfather/grandmother clocks came with moon phases, but
| innovation never made it further.
|
| IMO mostly has to do with the fact that mechanical clocks
| didn't see much innovation over the past century. The most
| talented watch makers have gone on to watches and people
| largely stopped buying Grandfather clocks.
|
| Not to mention, other obvious problems of weight, material
| costs, and the increased size requiring more power to turn all
| those gears.
| joshlemer wrote:
| Dang that's a shame. One would think though, if the
| mechanical design is already done for wristwatches, it should
| be trivial to port that design over to full-sized clocks,
| literally just scale the mechanism up!
| al_borland wrote:
| I think at this stage of the game, none of these things are
| made for utility, they are made to flex watchmaking skill.
| Building something big isn't as impressive and building
| something small. Unless you're talking about the air clocks
| of Paris. Those are still rather impressive, because of the
| scale [0].
|
| [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gol_p2aWrJg
| dylan604 wrote:
| Every 24 hours, advance the DoW through 360deg/7 increments.
| At the same time, every 24 hours advance the DoM through 28,
| 29, 30, 31 increments. How do you now keep DoW and DoM in
| proper sync when DoM needs to be updated ~every other month?
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| Probably because you can more easily refer to a calendar on a
| wall when the clock doesn't move.
| knodi123 wrote:
| Imagine how well it would be received if you said "My
| grandfather clock has a date display- except it's manual, you
| have to twist a little knob once a day to keep it correct."
|
| That's how I feel about wall calendars.
| WillAdams wrote:
| I have a mechanical wall clock in storage which shows the day
| of the week as well as the date --- it was made in Japan ---
| it's in storage 'cause it was over-tightened and the main
| spring broken, and rather than being repaired, it was just re-
| fastened, so now it runs fast and gains a couple of minutes
| each month (the chime is also rather loud for a 1,200 sq. ft.
| home).
| joshlemer wrote:
| FWIW I've seen some DIY enthusiasts do some really cool things,
| I think this one for instance turned out really cool and would
| be a breathtaking wall piece. Even better if it ran and was
| powered fully by the counterweight mechanism rather than
| electronically https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_8_N8HKOXw
| mik1998 wrote:
| Calendars is a part of why I've been wearing Casio digital
| watches for a long time.
| knodi123 wrote:
| The display on the Timex Expedition is my favorite. For some
| reason I just find it more readable than a casio- maybe it's
| because the display segments are closer together? Or the
| greater font-size contrast in the time vs date?
| al_borland wrote:
| I spent years looking for my perfect travel watch after being
| bit by the watch bug. After looking for years (literally 10
| years), I've found it and couldn't be happier... the Casio
| world time.
|
| My first thought was to go for a GMT, but those can't handle
| time zones that aren't on the hour, like India. Trying to find
| a mechanical watch that solves for this is very difficult. I
| was stuck in this purgatory for so long.
|
| I don't remember what led me to the Casio, but whatever it was
| made me completely reevaluate what I wanted out of the watch.
| The quartz movement became a feature, thanks to the 10 year
| battery. I can grab it and go whenever I need, and change the
| battery whenever I renew my passport. The low cost is a
| feature, as I don't have to treat it well or worry about it, or
| worry that it will make me a target. If anything happens, oh
| well, it was $40. It has 37(?) timezones and can handle the odd
| ones, and handles DST independently for each timezone. Its
| fantastic. I don't think any mechanical watch can do what it
| does, and if one can, it would cost more than my house and take
| the better part of a day to set.
|
| The Casio is one of the cheapest watches I own, but whenever I
| put it on it makes me so happy, because it reminds me I finally
| solved my travel watch problem. I just finished my first trip
| with it and already saw the value of the independent DST
| function.
|
| I've found some mod sites that sell nicer cases and bands to
| make it more durable, but I decided that defeats some of the
| purpose, as the cheapness is a feature. It was helpful to find
| out an eraser can be used to remove some of the ridiculous text
| on the case. That makes it look much better.
| throw0101b wrote:
| Personally I find it more handy to know _day_ (of week) than
| _date_ (of month), but I don 't think I've every seen a watch
| that does day-only, usually either date-only or day-date.
| madcaptenor wrote:
| I think the idea here might be that people already know what
| day it is but they have to think about the date.
| throw0101b wrote:
| > _I think the idea here might be that people already know
| what day it is but they have to think about the date._
|
| I don't know about you, but for myself I find the days kind
| of blur together (especially (during-COVID, post-COVID) WFH).
|
| I rarely need to know day-of-month.
| tialaramex wrote:
| That might even be true for many of the population, but I'm
| exactly in the target demographic of people who get unsure of
| such things.
|
| My favourite ever gift from friends was that people bought me
| (last century, long before smartphones) a _24 hour_ radio
| synchronized digital alarm clock which knew the day and full
| date including year. Because while often I know 0600 from
| 1800, not always, and on a particularly bad day maybe I 'm
| not even sure which week this is. I didn't _need_ the year
| really, but it felt appropriately completionist, just in
| case.
| akira2501 wrote:
| I've gone into the office on Saturday more often than I care
| to admit.
| dylan604 wrote:
| not once ever have I made that mistake. I might have woken
| up on a Saturday and thought it was a weekday, but well
| before appearing at work was that confusion cleared up. How
| does one do that more than once?
|
| Even work from home is immediately cleared up once I look
| at my computer screen.
| berkes wrote:
| I'm also that demographic.
|
| In my case, a combination of having no kids, being
| entrepreneur (self employed) and having ADHD.
|
| I have to ask people "is it tuesday or monday today" at least
| once a month. It gives strange looks. People often look at
| me, clearly trying to figure out if I'm bullshitting them.
| But I honestly forget such -for me- unnecessary details.
|
| But I guess having children, or a regular job, or both, gives
| a firm anchor of weekends and weekly rhythms. I've had long
| periods of jobs were I too had such anchors.
|
| Best way to explain it, is when you are on holiday (in one
| place), for a few weeks, you also don't know what day it is.
| I guess I always have holidays?
| aidenn0 wrote:
| That's me as well; I had to look through so many watches that
| show the date with so few that show the weekday. I wish my
| Seiko didn't show the date because I have to adjust it 5 times
| a year, but the day-of-week is always right.
|
| Also, Seiko's watchfinder won't let you filter based on whether
| or not it has a DoW complication; very annoying.
| al_borland wrote:
| This would actually be a very nice complication, as it would
| never need to be reset, as long as the watch stays wound. I'm
| surprised it's not something I've seen, or even thought of.
|
| I ended up settling on no-date watches, as I find setting the
| date to be annoying, and it's not something I need that often.
| When I do need it, I have my phone. I think I'd ultimately feel
| the same way about a day of the week complication.
| mmcgaha wrote:
| My eyes are so bad now that I would rather have a no date.
| Strangely the no-date watches tend to be out of my price range.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| The Seiko Essentials series has several watches without
| complications; some have a street price of under $200.
| buescher wrote:
| Some even omit the second hand which is the most technically
| correct version of "without complications". Also the most
| traditional/formal for a men's dress watch or women's watch.
| jddj wrote:
| For an automatic with no date, the bulova hack is quite nice if
| the vintage field look works for you.
|
| The one I had was great for the price, probably the most
| accurate automatic I ever owned but that could well be luck.
| al_borland wrote:
| There is also an issue where some cheap no-date watches use a
| complication with a date, and just don't cut out the dial to
| show it. I try to watch out for this whenever I'm looking for a
| watch.
| jmyeet wrote:
| Patek Phillippe has a complication not mentioned on this list
| that is one of the most complex complication ever built: the
| Calibre 89 [1] that can keep track of when Easter is (to a
| point).
|
| Another contender is the Vacheron Constantin 57260 [2].
|
| Here [3] is a good demonstration of how a perpetual calendar
| works.
|
| [1]: https://hausmann-co.com/en/the-patek-philippe-
| calibre-89-the...
|
| [2]: https://www.prestigetime.com/blog/worlds-most-complicated-
| wa...
|
| [3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YERho3Q4Abo
| beckerdo wrote:
| A very good article, well explained, and I appreciate the photos
| of fine watches.
|
| As shown, date complications are very tough to calculate and
| there are many levels of features.
|
| However, the phases of the moon complication is not discussed in
| much depth here. Is it a simple calculation independent of the
| date?
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| Not a watchmaker, but I would expect those complications to
| just use average values to show the current lunation[1].
|
| 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase#Calculating_phase
| int08h wrote:
| The average duration between any two moon phases is 29.530589
| days.
|
| Many watches use 29.5 days between phases for simplicity. This
| results in the watch's moon phase display being off by one day
| for every two years the watch operates.
|
| There are a few watch manufacturers that use epicyclic gear
| trains to make the moon phase calculation more precise. An
| example: the Ochs und Junior moon phase watch will operate for
| 3,478.27 years before its moon phase display is off by one day
| (https://www.ochsundjunior.swiss/watches/moon-phase/).
| zokier wrote:
| Perpetual calendar complications are approaching the territory of
| mechanical computers and thus hold interest to me. It is
| interesting challenge to think of how to accomplish some other
| alternative calendars mechanically.
| user_7832 wrote:
| As much as I will most likely never spend 6 figures on a watch, I
| greatly appreciate their engineering. Tangential, does anyone
| know how easy is it to design and build your own movement?
| sndean wrote:
| I don't know about the difficulty, but you can look at the
| complexity of this ETA 6497 movement on GrabCAD [0]. After
| seeing this a while ago, it made sense to me why small/new
| brands generally use a Seiko NH35 or something similar that
| they can buy in bulk.
|
| [0] https://grabcad.com/library/eta-6497-1-complete-watch-
| moveme...
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