I'm wearing a Breitling right now
Ooof! Keep talking you filthy beast....
LOL at username/irony/subject collision above.
Is this still going? Have we achieved world peace yet? Anyone changed their position? No, thought not. 🙂
I'm wearing a Breitling right now
Bond never wore a Breitling, just saying. 😉
I have - I was at work, then I went home and now I am back at work again.
Bond never wore a Breitling, just saying.
Thunderball. Just saying.
Bond? Seiko man I heard (for a bit).....
I'm wearing a Breitling right now
Ooof! Keep talking you filthy beast....
It's a self winder, and it's not going flat in a hurry....
LOOK UPON MY MIGHTY WATCHES AND DESPAIR
Best most erudite pisstake of the thread, well done, made me laugh 🙂
I use my phone to tell the time. I wonder if the reason people don't appreciate the engineering that goes into it is because they don't understand it?
If you claim to be interested in engineering you should be absolutely blown away. It makes the contents of these watches look like toys.
Moly, they're electric which dunt count. It's witchcraft dontchaknow 🙂
Electrickery isn't real engineering - that's why this:
[url= http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4153/4949209583_fc8ac00f5a_z.jp g" target="_blank">
Is infinitely cooler than this:
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It's a self winder, and it's not going flat in a hurry....
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Thunderball. Just saying.
Huh, howzabout that...
Electrickery isn't real engineering - that's why this:Is infinitely cooler than this:
Nope. The latter is cheaper, better and more reliable. Any engineer would appreciate that. People who think cogs and gears are better in engineering terms are romantics or blinded by nostalgia I reckon 🙂
The latter is cheaper, better and more reliable.
Cheaper, yes. But that Curta is 60 years old, has never needed batteries, and can still do many calculations faster than an electronic calculator 😉
Cheaper, yes. But that Curta is 60 years old, has never needed batteries, and can still do many calculations faster than an electronic calculator
Many?
Sounds like you are making excuses for it tbh. Plus I've got solar powered calculators that never need batteries.
Romantic. That's it.
Gears and cogs?
Keep it real.
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Is this still going? Have we achieved world peace yet? Anyone changed their position? No, thought not.
No, but we know exactly how long we've been bickering for.
No, but we know exactly how long we've been bickering for.
Only if someone has been timing the thread with a digital watch.
Sounds like you are making excuses for it tbh
Yup 😉
I said many calculations because the reason it's faster is due to the entry method - if you're adding a long list of similar numbers, for instance, it's quicker to change one or two digits and crank the handle than it is to type in the whole number again.
Plus I've got solar powered calculators that never need batteries.
Any of them 60 years old yet? 😉
I dunno, ask me in 60 years.
Age on its own does not confer value.
Age on its own does not confer value.
No, but it's a good indicator of reliability.
ampthill, i will try to answer some of your questions, i like fashion so maybe i can give you some tipsYes, we should care what people look like and you should care what you look like IMO.
Well no-one needs to be upset because it is just my opinion
Oh yes! you could definitely tell when it's a fake very easily!
Yes, your orange watch is definitely better than a Tag Huer for many reasons. 1-Your watch is functional and you use it to jog/run and as timing instrument. For what you do and for your lifestyle it is perfect. Although personally I would never advocate bright colors like that. Some women might not find that attractive.
I would like to give you another little tip/experiment if you dont mind: Try to do something a bit different style wise next time you go out or go to a bar for example. Try to put in some effort and just take it one step up. Like if you normally wear jeans and tshirt to bar, now try with jeans and nice shirt with collar, maybe put some gel in your hair and smell nice or bit different than usual. Shoes are very important too, try wearing some nicer shoes. And also take off your orange watch. Just try it once and see the different response you get, if any. I think you will be very surprised.
I'm touched that you replied and was never upset by your post just amazed
My worry is that the appearance thing is a slipper slope. Do we not employe the ugly. Do we have a max BMI for the receptionist? How do we judge people from other cultures if we judge by appearance
It is true that when I wear a collar to work I get positive comment. But is it just a cheap trick. Shouldn't they be impressed buy who I am and what I do
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15 years old - £30 when new. Getting close yet?
Clothes maketh the man.
So being a city get and working in a dealing room I get to see alot of poncy watches.... (some are really rather serious money)
On one hand they make sense as some high end watches will hold thier value if not actually increase in price while you get to enjoy them. ( so better than buying flash motors or all mountain super bikes for the local woods)
But then on the other hand... there have been a number of watches lost on big nights out.
And that's why I wouldn't invest in one.... I'd forget my own head if it wasn't screwed on.... and anyway I look enough like a city w***er with my stripped shirts and red braces.
What's wrong with a bit of romance?
I have a thomas the tank engine solar calculator which is 25 years old and still works plus it plays the thomas the tank engine theme music.
Cool. As. ****.
No, but it's a good indicator of reliability.
Not on its own. Something that's been kept in a cupboard for decades doesn't need to be reliable. And people seem to value things that are rare, but of course many things that were common are now rare because they were UNreliable and broke a lot.
What's wrong with a bit of romance?
Nothing, but romance and large sums of money aren't really compatible are they?
So, uh, what's everyone's take on 18 carat gold ones then? Those are impractical to the extreme, and there is no more engineering in hat that a steel one, in fact it probably harder to form the steel. And diamonds?
This is nice n tasteful
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Cant' tell the time on it though. (Belongs to [url= http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.13675/title.kanye-west-buys-ridiculously-expensive-watch-with-his-face-on-it ]Kanye[/url] )
15 years old - £30 when new. Getting close yet?
The squint buttons would drive me to distraction. If it's electronic, it has to be a HP with proper clicky buttons and Reverse Polish operation.
"What's wrong with a bit of romance?"
"Nothing, but romance and large sums of money aren't really compatible are they?"
Depends who you're trying to have sex with doesn't it?
What? Yeah I love re-arranging me equations for fun...
EDIT: I hope you're riffing of the mechanical watch theme.
Attached - the holy grail, presumably
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Yes - you really don't think this is astounding?
The problem with electronic stuff is we're getting close to Arthur C Clarke's thing about how sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I've got an iPhone - it's incredible what it can do. But it's a featureless black oblong. Open one up, and it's full of more featureless oblongs. Whereas something mechanical, you can see the cleverness.
If all these really nice watches cost so much to service they cant be that good !Shouldnt they work for years like a 20 quid Timex does without maintenance?
The problem with electronic stuff is we're getting close to Arthur C Clarke's thing about how sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
That depends how clever you are. 😉
It is extremely clever, for sure.
It is also utterly outdated. Technology has moved on, though it may be physically featureless as you say, it is vastly more practical. While the Antikythera Mech is astonishing for it's age, what it can actually calculate is now the work complexity of a musical birthday card.
See Colossos vs Bombes, throughput of GPUs, the internetz etc etc etc
Just because something is outdated it does not mean it has no worth. Is a painting less worthy than a photograph, does a book have less value than a film?
We all ride and I assume enjoy owning a mechanical device the design of which is over 100 years old. We could all drive, ride motorcycles or go by some other method but we choose an old technology that works. I expect many of us are mechanically sympathetic and enjoy a well oiled silent machine, mechanical watches are similar to that IMO, old yes but still wonderful things..
sure - but it's sentimentality and not a practical decision
try wearing your automatic for a few weeks when riding your bike and see how well it keeps time then
That depends how clever you are.
True 😉
One thing I remember from working for IBM - apart from the depressing corporate culture - was that not one of the several hundred people working at that site knew how the whole system worked. Not really. They each knew their own little bits in great detail. And that was only a few mainframes handling an insurance company.
I doubt there's any one person who truly understands how an iPhone works. And by that I mean they could sit down and write the hardware and software design by themselves.
We could all drive, ride motorcycles or go by some other method but we choose an old technology that works.
There are practical advantage to cycling, not least that it's the most energy efficient mode of transport going. Not disputing your point but that's a poor example.
So, what we are saying is that there's nothing wrong with a cheap watch, or an expensive watch, and that it's all about choice of the consumer.
Who'd have thunk people have different onions on stuff?
My preference is that I love my Brietling (30th from the then g/f now wife), wear a timex when sailing or mountain biking which is also fine, and utterly hate the Kayne watch above, but equally dislike my friends rose gold and diamond studded rolex.
I doubt there's any one person who truly understands how an iPhone works. And by that I mean they could sit down and write the hardware and software design by themselves.
Too true I met some one who worked for imagination. They just design the graphics chip. There might be a few people who get how that chip works but would only have limited knowledge of how the main processor was layed out
Yes - you really don't think this is astounding?
For it's time, maybe. But isn't saying that a disservice to the intelligence of the ancient greeks? Are we expecting them to be superstitious simpletons who made up whatever ideas suited them about how stuff worked? They did a lot of that, of course, but they were still intelligent people and were able to express it in certain areas in a way that still holds today. They were just as clever as us, they only lacked the body of knowledge we have.
Just because something is outdated it does not mean it has no worth.
Of course, but similarly just because something is old doesn't mean it's necessarily wonderful. Old watches and other machines are fantastic things, and it's great that we still have this knowledge.
BUT
The people who make these £4k watches are only making stuff this way because they know that some folk will pay tons of money for them. That's it.
I doubt there's any one person who truly understands how an iPhone works. And by that I mean they could sit down and write the hardware and software design by themselves.
This is true but it in no way detracts from its amazingness, to me. I know enough about it to marvel at the sheer number of man hours that've gone into it. Not just in its development but in everything all the way back to 1947 and further. On the shoulders of giants we all stand.
