How to make a watch
 

MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch

[Closed] How to make a watch

34 Posts
27 Users
0 Reactions
126 Views
Posts: 10340
Free Member
Topic starter
 

A snip at 2.3 millions US dollars per watch.
Pretty staggering video though.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 9:40 am
Posts: 11402
Free Member
 

that reminds of the wonderfully carved chinese furniture, you can admire the craftsmanship but garish and tasteless.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 9:52 am
Posts: 1442
Free Member
 

I do like a nice complication or tourbillion.
I get to photograph watches and visit the manufacturers in Geneva and I'm always amazed at the skill and craftsmanship but I don't lust after watches like that but appreciate them for what they are (a wonderfully engineered faberge egg to wear on the wrist)


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:01 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

pretty useless having a rotatable watch face? you won't be able to spin it while wearing it!


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:04 am
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

You never actually own a Patek Philippe......
you just keep making the payments.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:10 am
Posts: 13356
Free Member
 

Be a bugger when the battery needs changing though!


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:22 am
Posts: 8401
Free Member
 

That's horrible.

Very clever engineering but a Casio F91 will still keep better time.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:26 am
Posts: 6926
Free Member
 

That's brilliant. From a CNC machinist POV it just amazes me how small each component is..most of my swarf is bigger than those parts 😯


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:27 am
Posts: 10340
Free Member
Topic starter
 

I think it looks pretty good until the put all the outer gold/strap on it 🙂

As I was viewing, I was admiring the skill involved, and also thinking what a waste it is that all that expertise, craftsmanship and skill was put into some rich man's status symbol and taste-substitute.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:31 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I love watches, but Pateks do nothing for me. I'm more into quality functional watches than bling.

My all time favourite being the classic Omega Speedy Pro aka Moon watch. A school friend's dad was a watch repairer and he always said that Omegas had the best mechanical movements - comparing against Rolex at the time. I'm sure Patek movements are amazing, but certainly not my thing.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:32 am
Posts: 3190
Free Member
 

I bet that chap's valve/logo alignment is spot-on.

Great vid


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:34 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

In one way I'm glad there's companies out there doing such incredible engineering. In another way it's such a massive waste of money and effort for a status symbol.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:35 am
Posts: 2872
Full Member
 

It's a clock. How much?


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:37 am
Posts: 143
Free Member
 

I love watches. Skeletons in particular - so I guess I've got quite a high tolerance for the over-complicated. But that is utterly, utterly gopping.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:40 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Be a bugger when the battery needs changing though!

Even more of a bugger when you take it all apart and then realise there is no battery...
it just amazes me how small each component is

Also this, watching even the expert watchmakers hands shaking as they put the parts in brings home how bonkers it is.
It's an amazing thing though.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:43 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Lovely, but owning it won't buy you any more time...

G


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 10:44 am
Posts: 4593
Full Member
 

Was surprised/confudled to the technique used to get the black face/numbers onto the watch. It obviously worked.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 11:15 am
Posts: 7100
Free Member
 

it looks like one of those watches you buy for £5.99 down the local market.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 11:18 am
Posts: 10340
Free Member
Topic starter
 

sandwicheater - Member

Was surprised/confudled to the technique used to get the black face/numbers onto the watch. It obviously worked.


Yes, that was nice to see.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 11:41 am
Posts: 10631
Full Member
 

Can you download a pattern for a 3D printer to make one of those?


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 11:45 am
Posts: 2253
Full Member
 

What no calculator or remote control for your TV built in ?! ...

I'm out!


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 2:25 pm
Posts: 33536
Full Member
 

I certainly admire the skill and craftsmanship that went into that watch, but it's like something from the Court of the Sun King, Louis XIV (?) far too baroque for my taste. I'd be interested to know what it's accuracy is like; when I altered my Seiko SPORK a couple of weeks ago it was twelve seconds slow from when the clocks went forward...


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 6:32 pm
Posts: 1442
Free Member
 

You don't buy a watch like that for accuracy do you.
If you want accurate then atomic is the way to go

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 6:57 pm
Posts: 33536
Full Member
 

I'd rather invest in a properly British made watch and movement: http://www.rwsmithwatches.com/series/

[img] [/img]

Still a bit too fancy for my taste, though.


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 7:00 pm
 JAG
Posts: 2413
Full Member
 

That is one severely 'over-egged puddin'

However I can't help admiring the craftsmanship 😆


 
Posted : 11/11/2014 7:45 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I'd rather invest in a properly British made watch and movement

It was that crazy attitude that allowed British Leyland to carry on into the 1980s!

G


 
Posted : 12/11/2014 8:57 am
Posts: 13406
Full Member
 

Not my kind of watch at all but irrelevant of that, the craftsmanship is simply stunning.


 
Posted : 12/11/2014 9:14 am
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Thanks for that, i was a jeweller/model maker for 25 years and can appreciate a lot of the techniques used, still pretty impressive stuff though.


 
Posted : 12/11/2014 10:04 am
Posts: 12079
Full Member
 

Amazing craftsmanship for such an ugly result.


 
Posted : 12/11/2014 10:52 am
Posts: 5909
Free Member
 

I'd rather invest in a properly British made watch and movement: http://www.rwsmithwatches.com/series/

I was going to post something about Roger Smith but you've beaten me to it. Comparing him and Patek Philipe is like, well, I can't think of an appropriate metaphor but Robert Smith makes ten watches a year, compared to ~45,000 at Patek Philippe.

As an aside, did you see the open letter he published last week reaming out Bremont for being creative with the truth about where their movements are made?


 
Posted : 12/11/2014 12:36 pm
Posts: 1442
Free Member
 

that Smith watch is lovely but the name plate makes me cringe, you go to all that trouble with making the dial/movement/hands/crown etc absolutely perfect and your name plate is all over the place. looks like he did a rough outline and then didn’t finish it.

schofield makes some interesting watches, he’s a bit more truthful about origins of movements too.
I can understand where Smith is coming from but Bremont are helping push the profile of U.K. watchmaking higher and you cant design and manufacture your own movement overnight, and without spending a lot of money.


 
Posted : 12/11/2014 2:23 pm
Posts: 5909
Free Member
 

Personally I'd love a Bremont. It's not like my Swatch-Group Omega is any closer to haute horologie 😀 .

I'm not familiar with Schofield, I'll check him/them out.


 
Posted : 12/11/2014 2:25 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

The skill and craftsmanship involved in all the components is truly amazing. The completed piece is an awful gawdy monstrosity.


 
Posted : 15/11/2014 4:04 pm
Posts: 0
Full Member
 

At no point has that bloke ever picked up these two glass domes and pretended they're boobs. No sirree.

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 15/11/2014 4:34 pm
Posts: 33536
Full Member
 

I'd rather invest in a properly British made watch and movement
It was that crazy attitude that allowed British Leyland to carry on into the 1980s!

G


Not even a close comparison.


 
Posted : 15/11/2014 5:09 pm