Any watch collectors here?
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From: Indy
Rolex Explorer II, white
Oris Williams F1 Ltd Ed. Chrono (not the current one, the one they made last year limited to 2000 pieces, with carbon fiber dial and black rubber "F1 tire" band)
Tag Heuer (beater watch)
Oris Williams F1 Ltd Ed. Chrono (not the current one, the one they made last year limited to 2000 pieces, with carbon fiber dial and black rubber "F1 tire" band)
Tag Heuer (beater watch)
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Originally Posted by tritium_pie,Mar 18 2005, 03:42 AM
IM(not so H)O, Panerai is still overbuilt/over-bulky for the job it does and a "luxury quartz watch" is an all-bling waste of $. 
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From: Vegas baby!!
it just takes much more engineering skill and finesse to do it with a bunch of tiny gears than with essentially a simple computer that counts the vibrations of a quartz crystal. quartz watches "tick" every 1 second... that is, their second hand leaps forward... but a mechanical watch "sweeps" (it really just ticks about every 1/5th of a second) because of the turning of it's tiny gears. it also looks nicer.
which is why watch complications are so fascinating (and expensive). there's something supremely elegant about a watch-- using only tiny gears, springs, and levers-- that will accurately tell you the time, day, date, month, year, moonphase, power reserve, etc... and fit it all in a package tiny enough to fit on your wrist. moreover, some very high-end watches use something called a tourbillon, which essentially is designed to overcome the effects of gravity on the accuracy of a timepiece. I don't think they sell tourbillon watches for under $100K, just to give you an idea. you'll have to google the term though for a better description.
which is why watch complications are so fascinating (and expensive). there's something supremely elegant about a watch-- using only tiny gears, springs, and levers-- that will accurately tell you the time, day, date, month, year, moonphase, power reserve, etc... and fit it all in a package tiny enough to fit on your wrist. moreover, some very high-end watches use something called a tourbillon, which essentially is designed to overcome the effects of gravity on the accuracy of a timepiece. I don't think they sell tourbillon watches for under $100K, just to give you an idea. you'll have to google the term though for a better description.
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From: Vegas baby!!
for example, here's a neat complication, the Gerald Genta Biretro
the hour is indicated in the window, and the minutes sweep the top half of the face. the neat thing is, when the minutes hand reaches 60, it "jumps" back to the zero on the other side. and the hours indicator "jumps" forward to the next. the day of the month is indicated at the bottom... and it also "jumps" back to 1 at the end of the month.
sure, it could be done very easily with some electronic quartz battery operated piece. but to do it using purely mechanical means-- gears, levers, springs-- and fit it in such a small package... is pure elegance.
the hour is indicated in the window, and the minutes sweep the top half of the face. the neat thing is, when the minutes hand reaches 60, it "jumps" back to the zero on the other side. and the hours indicator "jumps" forward to the next. the day of the month is indicated at the bottom... and it also "jumps" back to 1 at the end of the month.
sure, it could be done very easily with some electronic quartz battery operated piece. but to do it using purely mechanical means-- gears, levers, springs-- and fit it in such a small package... is pure elegance.
