NickTrop
Veteran
Interesting, the parallels between mechanical watches and film cameras:
- Had your "high end" (Omegas...) and your "working class models" (Timex, Carravelle) ... Both did the same thing - gave you the time.
- The high end boasted superior engineering and came from Switzerland. The high end were accurate to w/in (wha-?) a second a day or something. The workin' man's cheap-o Timex to (shriek) wha-? 1/2 a minute a day? Did any of this matter? No.
- Like megapixel counts in cameras, watchmakers began cramming more jewels into watches because this (again, like megapixels) jewel count became the (erroneous) way consumers judged how good a watch was... 23 jewels was better than 17 jewels, etc. Watchmakers will tell you that mechanically there are only really 7 places jewels do anything...
- Like mechanical cameras - mechanical watches were wiped out by a battery dependent quartz technology. Now even the cheapest of watches were more accurate than the most expensive mechanicals.
- Mechanical watch sales plummeted...
- Manufactures stopped producing mechanical watches, some successfully migrated to quartz others perished.
- Still there were a few of us who resisted the quartz movement (pardon the pun...) because we...
- Like film cameras liked the tactile feel of winding and setting a watch, appreciated the wonderous "old school" gears-works, like to hold it up to our ears and hear the tic, tic, tic... and also dug the fact these things have been kicking around the planet for decades...
- There are still some manufacturers who produce high-end expensive mechanical watches, the counterpart to Leica in the film camera world.
- Long after everyone predicted their demise, they're still around. Some can't understand why anyone would use one, quartzes are "so much better". But we know better... 😉
My mechanical watches (all working):
1. Late 60's pie plate Timex with date complication...
2. Blue dial Carravelle, early 70's with day and date complication
3. High quality 17 jewel Swiss pie plate with date (unknown manufacturer...) EDIT: 27 jewel and it's a mid to late 50's Auerole.
4. New Old Stock late-70's $27.95 drugstore Timex Mercury with day/date in orig box that I'm saving.
5. Big new cheap Chinese skeleton with horrible movement that gains a couple minutes a day.
- Had your "high end" (Omegas...) and your "working class models" (Timex, Carravelle) ... Both did the same thing - gave you the time.
- The high end boasted superior engineering and came from Switzerland. The high end were accurate to w/in (wha-?) a second a day or something. The workin' man's cheap-o Timex to (shriek) wha-? 1/2 a minute a day? Did any of this matter? No.
- Like megapixel counts in cameras, watchmakers began cramming more jewels into watches because this (again, like megapixels) jewel count became the (erroneous) way consumers judged how good a watch was... 23 jewels was better than 17 jewels, etc. Watchmakers will tell you that mechanically there are only really 7 places jewels do anything...
- Like mechanical cameras - mechanical watches were wiped out by a battery dependent quartz technology. Now even the cheapest of watches were more accurate than the most expensive mechanicals.
- Mechanical watch sales plummeted...
- Manufactures stopped producing mechanical watches, some successfully migrated to quartz others perished.
- Still there were a few of us who resisted the quartz movement (pardon the pun...) because we...
- Like film cameras liked the tactile feel of winding and setting a watch, appreciated the wonderous "old school" gears-works, like to hold it up to our ears and hear the tic, tic, tic... and also dug the fact these things have been kicking around the planet for decades...
- There are still some manufacturers who produce high-end expensive mechanical watches, the counterpart to Leica in the film camera world.
- Long after everyone predicted their demise, they're still around. Some can't understand why anyone would use one, quartzes are "so much better". But we know better... 😉
My mechanical watches (all working):
1. Late 60's pie plate Timex with date complication...
2. Blue dial Carravelle, early 70's with day and date complication
3. High quality 17 jewel Swiss pie plate with date (unknown manufacturer...) EDIT: 27 jewel and it's a mid to late 50's Auerole.
4. New Old Stock late-70's $27.95 drugstore Timex Mercury with day/date in orig box that I'm saving.
5. Big new cheap Chinese skeleton with horrible movement that gains a couple minutes a day.
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