Comment by Cider9986
12 hours ago
The 8th highest voted HN submission is on mechanical watches. I imagine that's the type the watchmaking school involves themself with because afaik all high end watches are mechanical.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31261533 4 years ago 413 comments
They have a certain beauty in their intricate details working together for function. I do really like looking at the glass back which shows some details and you can see the piece that move to gain power.
Although it seems youd have to pay a lot to get an accurate one because I have a $250 mechanical Seiko and its time keeping is junk. It was mediocre when I got it and has gotten worse. It was $150 when I bought it so I suppose it would have been a good investment if it hadn't got beat up.
That’s why I eventually settled with gshock that has solar charging and syncs time twice a day with radio towers (or bluetooth if you are somewhere in the world where there is no time radio signal)
Even rolex needs time setting, servicing to lube and clean metal parts, etc.
Gshock on the other hand will work for 10-15 years without a single manual time adjustment or battery swap needed.
Absolute unit.
This gold metal square one I especially love for summer:
https://www.casio.com/content/dam/casio/product-info/locales...
So you can understand why the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz_crisis had Swiss watchmakers fearing for their industry. Mechanical watches couldn't hope to compete with electronics on accuracy. Hence their pivot to understanding that watches are jewellery. Fancy, complicated jewellery with moving parts, but jewellery, and priced based on style and cachet, rather than on function.
In Japan they sell the Waveceptor brand Casio watches. I got a nice simple titanium (case back and strap) with solar, LCD alarms and radio control for around $200. It even auto re-centers the hands if they are exposed to strong magnets. You can also get these on eBay and Amazon though 3rd sellers.
Those are not as good as they seem to be. I once had a g-shock mudmaster, seemingly an absolutely overbuilt thing, and it was resetting randomly in wet conditions. Maybe that could be fixed on warranty and it would work next 50 years flawlessly, but it didn’t inspire any confidence in that brand. They re-positioned themselves as a loud fashion brand, not a tool watch manufacturer.
bluetooth on watch sounds disturbing
Is it a Seiko 5 (self winding)? Yeah, those aren't that accurate, but I wouldn't call them "junk" - they do lose or gain a minute or two a day in my experience - I generally correct mine every couple of days against my phone or computer though.
If your Seiko is losing a minute a day it badly needs a service to adjust the timing.
I have a 1950s mark 2 Shturmanskie as my main watch, the same model Yuri Gagarin wore into space. It's a 'frankenwatch' in that it's been assembled from parts of other watches, albeit in this case they're the right parts from the right period except the dial, which is a reproduction to avoid the considerable amount of radium the Soviets liked to put in their pilot watches.
Now that is an unreliable watch! It'll usually lose maybe a minute a day which is actually pretty decent for something from when Khrushchev was in power, but it likes to randomly stop or occasionally start running fast or slow according to its mood. I'm not sure how much of it is because it's a Soviet frankenwatch and how much is that it's hard to find people who'll work on Soviet watches in the UK.
Marshall from Wristwatch Revival has refurbished Soviet watches.
> I generally correct mine every couple of days against my phone or computer though.
Why do you put up with that?
A minute or two a DAY??? I get pissed off that the microwave in my kitchen loses a minute a week!
Yeah, but I'm sure your microwave isn't mechanical. What makes a mechanical watch cool, even a cheap one, is that there are no electronics at all - just gears and springs and things. I think that's worth a trivial bit of inaccuracy even if a boring $10 digital watch can easily beat a $200 mechanical one in accuracy.
3 replies →
What kind of timekeeping do you consider "junk"? I'm currently wearing a $50 Chinese watch with a knock-off Seiko automatic movement in it, and I just now timed it out of curiosity at -5s/day.
> Although it seems youd have to pay a lot to get an accurate one because I have a $250 mechanical Seiko and its time keeping is junk. It was mediocre when I got it and has gotten worse. It was $150 when I bought it so I suppose it would have been a good investment if it hadn't got beat up.
You know you need to service mechanical watches regularly, right?
A 7S26 movement (Seiko's mass-produced budget workhorse) isn't that accurate (I think -35 to +45s per day IIRC?). But if you paid $250 secondhand you most likely have a 6R15 or similar inside, which should keep between -15s to +25s per day at worst if regularly serviced. Often you can get much better performance from these movements than the specs imply.
But ... you need to service that poor thing. For a 6R15, every 5 years at minimum, but as an old watchmaker I knew used to say -- a watch will tell you if it needs servicing earlier. Sounds like yours has been trying to get your attention for some time :)
(Otherwise, it's like complaining that the Porsche you haven't taken to a mechanic in the last decade doesn't drive so well any more ...)
You will never get quartz accuracy from any mechanical watch, but that's hardly the point.
(The ETA 2824-2 movement in the page you linked to -- the movement that powers most mid-range mechanical watches -- is substantially more accurate than these lower-range Seiko movements, although it's more costly as well.)
I took my Seiko 5 in for service mid last year, and after that it kept time well. I don't loose more than a minute over a week or more. But, I specifically sought out a mechanical watch because they're interesting to me. As a software developer, I feel like I don't need another computer strapped to my arm. I appreciate the intricate mechanics.
>You know you need to service mechanical watches regularly, right?
Mostly, yeah, but I have some nicer pieces that have been in my rotation for decades with only the barest minimum of services. Like, I think my Omega (ca. 1998) has been serviced maybe once, and it keeps great time.
If you are using a mechanical watch to keep time (accurately for long) you are doing it wrong
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> all high end watches are mechanical.
No, most high end male jewelry are mechanical watches (and much of women-oriented jewelry as well).
High end watches are such a solved problem we don't even talk about them anymore. Either the G-shock, the Garmin watches, or the Apple Watch run circles around mechanical watches in terms of functionality with each satisfying a different niche (100% self-contained, long lived smart functionality, glance-oriented integration with full-stack personal tech ecosystem).
I think most people when they hear "high-end watch" picture some sort of mechanical jewelry watch. When G-shocks, Garmins, and Apple Watches are a few hundred dollars and well-known luxury watch brands start at a few thousand, it's reasonable to consider the latter more "high end".
Personally I'm not interested in owning a luxury watch, I like the Garmin ones.
I think they were specifically bristling at the implication that 'high-end' was mainly relating to price as opposed to functionality. The most expensive watches are expensive for reasons of fashion while being inferior in terms of functionality.
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> When G-shocks, Garmins, and Apple Watches are a few hundred dollars and well-known luxury watch brands start at a few thousand,
The price of the most expensive Garmin a quick internet search gave me is $3,100; the most expensive G-SHOCK €8,800 ⇒ IMHO, G-SHOCK definitely is a luxury brand.
Apple Watches, relative to those, are cheap at €999 max.
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Well... your high-end is not my high-end.
Truly high-end luxury watches are priced in many multiples of 100,000 $ and are all mechanical.
I will never be able to afford any of them.
For example, this (pre-owned, good condition):
https://www.chrono24.com/patekphilippe/platinum-perpetual-ca...