How to make a watch

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

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

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)

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

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

Be a bugger when the battery needs changing though!

That’s horrible.

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

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 😯

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.

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.

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

Great vid

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.

It’s a clock. How much?

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.

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.

Lovely, but owning it won’t buy you any more time…

G

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

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

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.

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

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

I’m out!

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…

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

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

Still a bit too fancy for my taste, though.

That is one severely ‘over-egged puddin’

However I can’t help admiring the craftsmanship 😆

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 my kind of watch at all but irrelevant of that, the craftsmanship is simply stunning.

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.

Amazing craftsmanship for such an ugly result.

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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.