nickd
1591
Why I lost interest in modern watches...
Sep 09, 2012,03:32 AM
I've hesitated posting this, but here goes...
I got into watches about a decade ago through wanting to understand how they worked. This led to some intensive reading as I tried to get more knowledge. Then I discovered chronometry which led to precision clocks which led to me actually working on them and trying some experiments myself. But this isn't the only reason I lost interest in modern watches.
I find that there's a tendency to talk of finishing as though it's the pinnacle of the watchmaker's skill set, the summum, the nec plus ultra. But once upon a time the highest paid watchmakers, the pinnacle of the profession, were the specialist adjusters and regulators who prepared watches for competitions. Modern balance assemblies use materials and are so designed as to get excellent results "out of the box", but once upon a time adjusting a watch to five positions plus hot and cold was a meticulous, time consuming job that required a lot of watchmaking knowledge, skill and experience, and that added a vast amount of value to a watch.
To my way of thinking, a watch is a mechanical solution to a set of problems and conditions, and decorating it doesn't add value. It's interesting to note that Richard Habring list the number of service-relevant parts in his watches. To me, this says that he's taking one of the major design criteria very seriously - serviceability. A fine finish watch adds significantly to the service difficulties and costs which to my mind is a design fault. Richard's reducing the number of parts in the dopple chronograph or a tourbillon isn't just a technical tour de force, it has a real-world value.
The high levels of functional finishing with minimal decoration that you find on on Habrings, Gand Seikos, solid-back Rolexes etc is more than good enough for me, and I feel anything else is moving into the realms of decoration or even superfluous adornment.
Imagine a Habring jump-seconds with it's basic level of finishing. Finishing it to the standards of Dufour or Voutilainen will probably double the cost (guessing of the top of my head, some correct me), and to my mind it adds nothing. I'd be far more interested in spending the same amount of money having a world-class adjuster/regulator rework the entire movement and prepare it to competition standards.
I'm in total admiration of the skills and patience required to do fine finishing, but I feel it's drifting away from the key requirements of a time piece, and I found it somewhat ironic in the recent chronometer competitions to see bog-standard industrial movements compete with flying colours, while Karis' was removed after a couple of days. A watch that costs many tens of thousands should already be at the pinnacle of time-keeping before it's decorated.
All imho, of course, and your mileage will almost certainly differ
Alex