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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back alley
IMAGES
mine is a kinetic...
finguanzo
Well-known
I like mechanical watches, I guess its the same as mechanical leicas, the gears, no electronics, or minimal electronics. The craftsmanship and history behind them.
I have a bunch of watches, all mechanical movements, someday hopefully those and my cameras will go to my son..
I have a bunch of watches, all mechanical movements, someday hopefully those and my cameras will go to my son..
back alley
IMAGES
i have 2 mechanical pocket watches...an old elgin railroad watch and a newer store brand one...
NickTrop
Veteran
BackAlley - kinetics are cool but I've stayed away because you still have to replace the capacitor.
- Like cameras, these things give you occasional GAS, and you wind up with too many of them...
- Like cameras, these things give you occasional GAS, and you wind up with too many of them...
finguanzo
Well-known
Yes, before leica gas, i had watch gas, and that gets really expensive..
Peter^
Well-known
Very good analogy. But what are the differences?
- There is nothing that a mechanical watch can do that a quartz watch can't do better ( except maybe battery independency). There are still a few things film cameras can do better - or at least differently - than digitals.
- Mechanical watches are not bought for their time-telling ability, but for their value as jewelry and for the brand experience. Ok, there may bit a bit of analogy here to Leica, but Leica is still not Rolex.
Wasn't there a poll some time ago about how many people on the forum wear mechanical watches?
- There is nothing that a mechanical watch can do that a quartz watch can't do better ( except maybe battery independency). There are still a few things film cameras can do better - or at least differently - than digitals.
- Mechanical watches are not bought for their time-telling ability, but for their value as jewelry and for the brand experience. Ok, there may bit a bit of analogy here to Leica, but Leica is still not Rolex.
Wasn't there a poll some time ago about how many people on the forum wear mechanical watches?
Pablito
coco frío
The difference is that there is ZERO advantage to a vintage time piece, nice as they may be, if all you want to do is tell time.
Whereas for some photographers, using certain mechanical cameras may be the ONLY way to achieve a certain very particular result.
Whereas for some photographers, using certain mechanical cameras may be the ONLY way to achieve a certain very particular result.
back alley
IMAGES
could you provide an example?
yoyo22
Well-known
I love the ticking in my mechanical watches. Sometimes when I am at work, sitting in front of a computer all day, I hold the watch near my ear and listen to the wonderful mechanical sound or I watch the gears through the glass bottom.
Travis L.
Registered Userino
Rolex GMT Master
Omega Speedmaster Pro
50's vintage Omega Seamaster
Seiko Orange Monster
70's vintage Seiko Dive watch
Late 60's Bradley Mickey Mouse watch
and a few others
I've always been into mechanical items and other things of quality manufacture.
Try to explain to someone who is wearing a $20 digital watch why you wear a $5000 Rolex.
Or someone who is taking pictures with a cheap point and shoot digital why you use a Leica and Tri-X.... They ain't gonna get it.
ruby.monkey
Veteran
My mechanical watches have languished in a drawer for so long that I couldn't tell you who made them without having a look first; my mobile phones have played address book, watch, and alarm clock for as long as I've owned one.
In contrast, my sole digital camera - a Pentax K20D - spends most of its time being a five-year-old's plaything while my stone-age cameras accompany me wherever I go.
In contrast, my sole digital camera - a Pentax K20D - spends most of its time being a five-year-old's plaything while my stone-age cameras accompany me wherever I go.
Vickko
Veteran
My every day watch is an IWC Portuguese Chronometer.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Large format cameras give far more resolution than any electronically controlled camera, except for some of the $40,000+ digital backs for 645 cameras. No large format camera has ever been made with an electronic shutter, so far as I know.
taskoni
Well-known
I wear a Jean Marcel automatic swiss chronometer watch from Leica M2 era. I got use to it so much that I would never change it as long as it go (and it still does). Very beautiful and affordable.
Rolex, phew, it's for golfers
Rolex, phew, it's for golfers
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Contarama
Well-known
Rolex's and other gold watches remind me of my F2 in another way...they're heavy enough you could probably put a big bump on someone's head if you had too...
Try to do that with some puny quartz model or some P&S...lol
Try to do that with some puny quartz model or some P&S...lol
NickTrop
Veteran
I think there are a lot of interesting parallels...
I think the "jewel" count was a precursor to the "megapixel wars". They were used as bearings and they only needed to be put in 7 places - but manufacturers started sticking them in places they didn't need to to "up the count". The watch in my original post (I'm now wearing...) that I didn't know - checked, is an Aureole - British with a Swiss movement, pretty rare (not a lot on the web about them... seem to still be in business though...) but this is a "25 jewel" movement deco piece probably from the mid-50's, actually.
They were also wiped out - largely, by "digital" innovation. They reached a nadir, people thought they were done for... But are still around and rebounded, especially the automatics.
There's a tactile pleasure in winding and setting them that's difficult to explain - like advancing a frame of film. They have the charm aspect all over their quartz counterparts, which no matter how fancy they are... just lack a certain something.
- If you want to rationalize, you can say you prefer not to be dependent on batteries... etc.
And - as this thread already illustrates, and others have said, some people just won't "get" why you'd use an old mechanical watch. No use explaining it to them... Or they assume it's your dad's who's passed on... (Mine hasn't - and he wears quartzes...)
And - if you're a Leica shooter, you're apt to sport an Omega... If you're a Yashica GSN or Konica Auto S guy (like me), you're pleased as punch with a working Timex or Carravelle... so long as it keeps reasonably accurate time and "tics" when you put it to your ear.
Also - I've revived a couple of these with the "lighter fluid trick" as one does with stuck shutters (believe it or not...) Not worth getting an old Timex Mercury serviced, so pop off the back and squirt it with lighter fluid. Works a charm, actually...
I think the "jewel" count was a precursor to the "megapixel wars". They were used as bearings and they only needed to be put in 7 places - but manufacturers started sticking them in places they didn't need to to "up the count". The watch in my original post (I'm now wearing...) that I didn't know - checked, is an Aureole - British with a Swiss movement, pretty rare (not a lot on the web about them... seem to still be in business though...) but this is a "25 jewel" movement deco piece probably from the mid-50's, actually.
They were also wiped out - largely, by "digital" innovation. They reached a nadir, people thought they were done for... But are still around and rebounded, especially the automatics.
There's a tactile pleasure in winding and setting them that's difficult to explain - like advancing a frame of film. They have the charm aspect all over their quartz counterparts, which no matter how fancy they are... just lack a certain something.
- If you want to rationalize, you can say you prefer not to be dependent on batteries... etc.
And - as this thread already illustrates, and others have said, some people just won't "get" why you'd use an old mechanical watch. No use explaining it to them... Or they assume it's your dad's who's passed on... (Mine hasn't - and he wears quartzes...)
And - if you're a Leica shooter, you're apt to sport an Omega... If you're a Yashica GSN or Konica Auto S guy (like me), you're pleased as punch with a working Timex or Carravelle... so long as it keeps reasonably accurate time and "tics" when you put it to your ear.
Also - I've revived a couple of these with the "lighter fluid trick" as one does with stuck shutters (believe it or not...) Not worth getting an old Timex Mercury serviced, so pop off the back and squirt it with lighter fluid. Works a charm, actually...
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NickTrop
Veteran
Beautiful, I bet... Something like that... get it serviced, last forever.
Gid
Well-known
Rolexs are surprisingly light.
darkkavenger
Massimiliano Mortillaro
Interesting thread... what about people like me who enjoy their mechanical russian-made watch? The FSU of watches