Five Things

[skywatch]

cf. - the equal tempered scale

Did you know I often work in just intonation? Just curious... it's not something that most people think about.

[mlcor]

Did you know I often work in just intonation? Just curious... it's not something that most people think about.

I’ve listened to some of your stuff, so I knew.

[KennethRSloan]

Did you know I often work in just intonation? Just curious... it's not something that most people think about.

People who move air are completely different from those who press keys.

[tribe125]

• The Hans Wilsdorf Foundation doesn’t disclose the names of its Trustees. They are: Costin van Berchem (President), family head of a long-established legal firm; Serge Bednarczyk, head of an organisation that cares for people with disabilities; Nicolas Brunschwig, family head of a long-established retail chain; Nathalie Canonica, finance manager and charity organiser; Dr Christian de Saussure, psychiatrist working with the elderly; Henri Turrettini, co-founder of an asset management company; Kurt Weissen, historian and business leader. Although the Foundation is Rolex’s sole shareholder, the objective of the Trust is to perpetuate the company as custodians rather than as owners or shareholders.
  
  
• Orient produced a watch with 64 jewels to commemorate the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. They called it the Grand Prix Almighty 64. Not quite satisfied with that, they released the Grand Prix 100 with 100 jewels. Seiko was the official timekeeper of the Tokyo Olympics and Orient was not yet associated with Seiko. Most of the jewels were in the rotor and outer edge of the movement to prevent ‘rotor scrape’.
  
  
• A dispute between Serbia and Kosovo made European clocks run slow. Mains-powered clocks are regulated by the frequency of the electricity, and most European countries are linked together in a grid that operates at a synchronised frequency. When Kosovo had problems generating enough electricity it disrupted the frequency of the grid, resulting in the clocks of twenty-five countries losing six minutes in three months. Serbia was legally obliged to help but didn’t, because of Kosovo’s unilateral secession from Serbia in 2008.
  
  
• Until 1872, time divisions in Japan during the day were different from time divisions at night. The day was divided into day and night in accordance with sunrise and sunset, and then further divided into six. The length of the time divisions varied according to the season. Making clocks was tricky. After 1872, and with technology introduced from the West, Japan began to build a clock and watch industry.
  
  
• “If you don’t do personalisation, then you aren’t luxury” said unassuming George Bamford, pausing to point at his brand’s Instagram page for evidence of mould-breaking creativity and exclusivity.

[Dan R]

• ...
• Hanhart is a stopwatch maker that also produces watches. Eighty percent of its production is of stopwatches and timers, but eighty percent of its revenue comes from watches. Watch production is around 1,000 a year. The stopwatches are made at the Hanhart factory in Germany, the watches come from a Swiss supplier. Hanhart is one of the few manufacturers of stopwatches in Europe and its products are used in athletics, rallying, general industry, and in TV and film production.

For sure. I've come close to getting a stopwatch of theirs just to have it. But I will settle for their Swiss-made watches...

[tribe125]

• An Indian businessman making costume jewellery under the name ‘Rolex’ claimed in court that he chose the name because the jewellery was made of rolled gold and it was a way of incorporating ‘rolled’ with the name of his son Alex. He hadn’t heard of the Swiss Company with the same name. He lost the case.
  
  
• Just as the Zenith El Primero was saved by its production machinery being hidden in an attic, so was the Valjoux 7750, although maybe not in an attic. Edmond Capt was the creator of the 7750, which debuted in 1973. Just five years later, and with quartz dominating the market, he ignored an order to destroy the machinery and drawings. The Valjoux 7750 was later to become the default chronograph movement of the mechanical renaissance. It was also one of the first movements to be developed with the aid of a computer.
  
  
• Exhibitors at Baselworld visit each other’s stands to check that their models haven’t been copied. If they think they have, they can lodge a complaint with a panel called The Panel. The Panel (consisting of six lawyers and a technical expert) meets every afternoon and can examine live cases until late in the evening. There is no comparable system at the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair, where in 2016 forty-seven fakes were exhibited.
  
  
• If you do a tour of the Lange & Söhne manufactory, the watch you'll see most often on the wrists of the technicians is a Nomos. No surprise perhaps, with the cost of a Lange, and with the Nomos shop a two-minute walk away - in the buidling where Ferdinand Adolf Lange opened his first workshop.
  
  
• In 2016, the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie published a ‘White Paper on Fine Watchmaking’. The FHH sought to define fine watchmaking and produced a list of sixty-four brands that merited the description. TAG Heuer made the list but Longines didn’t. Tudor and Nomos didn’t make the list but were added in 2018. Non-European brands weren’t specifically excluded but none were considered.

[geoffbot]

Superb Alan. Interesting and funny - just like Raza.

[skywatch]

• An Indian businessman making costume jewellery under the name ‘Rolex’ claimed in court that he chose the name because the jewellery was made of rolled gold and it was a way of incorporating ‘rolled’ with the name of his son Alex. He hadn’t heard of the Swiss Company with the same name. He lost the case.
• Just as the Zenith El Primero was saved by its production machinery being hidden in an attic, so was the Valjoux 7750, although maybe not in an attic. Edmond Capt was the creator of the 7750, which debuted in 1973. Just five years later, and with quartz dominating the market, he ignored an order to destroy the machinery and drawings. The Valjoux 7750 was later to become the default chronograph movement of the mechanical renaissance. It was also one of the first movements to be developed with the aid of a computer.
• Exhibitors at Baselworld visit each other’s stands to check that their models haven’t been copied. If they think they have, they can lodge a complaint with a panel called The Panel. The Panel (consisting of six lawyers and a technical expert) meets every afternoon and can examine live cases until late in the evening. There is no comparable system at the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair, where in 2016 forty-seven fakes were exhibited.
• If you do a tour of the Lange & Söhne manufactory, the watch you'll see most often on the wrists of the technicians is a Nomos. No surprise perhaps, with the cost of a Lange, and with the Nomos shop a two-minute walk away - in the buidling where Ferdinand Adolf Lange opened his first workshop.
• In 2016, the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie published a ‘White Paper on Fine Watchmaking’. The FHH sought to define fine watchmaking and produced a list of sixty-four brands that merited the description. TAG Heuer made the list but Longines didn’t. Tudor and Nomos didn’t make the list but were added in 2018. Non-European brands weren’t specifically excluded but none were considered.

Thanks for these, Alan. So much fun. Easy to make comments on all sorts of items, but these ring strong:

1) "If you do a tour of the Lange & Söhne manufactory, the watch you'll see most often on the wrists of the technicians is a Nomos."
- Imagine the town of Glashutte, where a 2000 Euro watch is considered affordable? (Nomos fan here as you may know.)

2) I can't help but think these two threads might be related: "There is no comparable system at the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair, where in 2016 forty-seven fakes were exhibited." and "In 2016, the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie published a ‘White Paper on Fine Watchmaking’.... Non-European brands weren’t specifically excluded but none were considered." Although personally I fall on the side of giving fair attention to Asian watchmaking, as a once-fan of Sea-Gull I have become saddened by the lack of respect for original design.

[Raza]

• An Indian businessman making costume jewellery under the name ‘Rolex’ claimed in court that he chose the name because the jewellery was made of rolled gold and it was a way of incorporating ‘rolled’ with the name of his son Alex. He hadn’t heard of the Swiss Company with the same name. He lost the case.
• Just as the Zenith El Primero was saved by its production machinery being hidden in an attic, so was the Valjoux 7750, although maybe not in an attic. Edmond Capt was the creator of the 7750, which debuted in 1973. Just five years later, and with quartz dominating the market, he ignored an order to destroy the machinery and drawings. The Valjoux 7750 was later to become the default chronograph movement of the mechanical renaissance. It was also one of the first movements to be developed with the aid of a computer.
• Exhibitors at Baselworld visit each other’s stands to check that their models haven’t been copied. If they think they have, they can lodge a complaint with a panel called The Panel. The Panel (consisting of six lawyers and a technical expert) meets every afternoon and can examine live cases until late in the evening. There is no comparable system at the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair, where in 2016 forty-seven fakes were exhibited.
• If you do a tour of the Lange & Söhne manufactory, the watch you'll see most often on the wrists of the technicians is a Nomos. No surprise perhaps, with the cost of a Lange, and with the Nomos shop a two-minute walk away - in the buidling where Ferdinand Adolf Lange opened his first workshop.
• In 2016, the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie published a ‘White Paper on Fine Watchmaking’. The FHH sought to define fine watchmaking and produced a list of sixty-four brands that merited the description. TAG Heuer made the list but Longines didn’t. Tudor and Nomos didn’t make the list but were added in 2018. Non-European brands weren’t specifically excluded but none were considered.

How do I get a job on that panel? Seems cushy and well paying, two things I really look for in a job.

[tribe125]

• Omega was the making of Rolex, assisted by the advent of quartz watches. In the 1950s, a gold Constellation was more expensive than a gold Day-Date and the two companies were more or less equal in terms of status. In the 1960s, Omega went for growth but lost definition in their model ranges. Rolex persisted with known models and made few changes. Rolex went to number one. In the 1970s, Omega followed every fashion going until you hardly knew what an Omega was. Rolex persisted with known models and made few changes. Rolex went further ahead. With the advent of quartz, Omega made some watches that looked like Seikos and came close to accepting a takeover by Seiko. Rolex made some quartz variants of known models but didn’t try too hard to sell them. Omega nearly died because of quartz. Rolex might nearly have died too, but gave the impression of sailing on like an ocean liner. Approaching the turn of the century, Omega was a conglomerate brand that had seen better days, Rolex was the inscrutable independent with well-known models that were growing more iconic by the day.
  
  
• Very few watchmakers can make a watch, and of those that can, very few would take the trouble to make the case, crown, dial and hands. ‘Technician’ is a better term for most of those employed in the manufacturing and servicing of watches. Some factory service technicians are trained to perform a single function on a single caliber, with the whole service being completed in assembly-line fashion. Technicians can be trained in a few weeks and can be hired and fired quite easily. Kari Voutilainen has customers who ask him to service watches from other brands because they don’t trust the brand to service their own watches.
  
  
• For mass-produced models, Seiko has a tolerance of 1.5° in the alignment of bezels and chapter rings, equivalent to a quarter of a minute on the dial. Many customers have a lower tolerance.
  
  
• Philippe Dufour, probably the greatest living Swiss watchmaker, says the reference for watchmaking is no longer Switzerland but Glashütte. In particular, he likes Lange & Söhne, Moritz Grossman and Nomos.
  
  
• George Daniels had help with the co-axial movement. There’s no doubt that he invented it, but for many years he spent Sunday mornings on the phone to Derek Pratt in Switzerland. Drawings were exchanged by fax. Derek Pratt is The Greatest Unknown Watchmaker because most of his work appeared under other names, most notably that of Urban Jürgensen. Pratt made complete watches for Urban Jürgensen - not just the flying tourbillon movements, but cases, guilloché dials - and even the crystals, formed in a furnace. When not making watches, Derek Pratt helped to develop black box flight recorders and made 25-micron soldering nozzles for use in micro-electronics. With a friend, he invented a thermostatic mixer valve that became the basis of the Aqualisa shower company - making his friend a millionaire. Derek Pratt also made components for George Daniels, including the dual escape wheel of the thinner co-axial movement presented to Omega.