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Jul 12, 2019, 01:05 AM
#521
Originally Posted by
tribe125
The story from Wikipedia (also available elsewhere) -
1763
Harrison only showed him his H1, H2, and H3 watches (in exchange for a payment of £500.
1765
Harrison demanded a payment of £4,000 for a description of his watch, an exorbitant and dissuasive amount.
And the calculation -
Attachment 87489
Attachment 87490
So quite a change in just a couple of years.
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Jul 12, 2019, 01:45 AM
#522
A time of wars and economic instability, I guess.
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Jul 12, 2019, 09:19 AM
#523
Originally Posted by
tribe125
The story from Wikipedia (also available elsewhere) -
But you ..... I thought you were the fount of all these stories !!
Wikipedia indeed !!
So quite a change in just a couple of years
A time of wars and economic instability, I guess.
I guess he just didn't want him to see it , and if he really wanted to he'd have to pay very dearly for it.
Besides I bet he thought I've got £500 a piece for a gander at the lesser clocks....... so he can pay to look at the pièce de résistance.
Last edited by Seriously; Jul 12, 2019 at 09:23 AM.
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Jul 12, 2019, 03:12 PM
#524
Originally Posted by
tribe125
- 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.
Now that explains a lot - do you remember your source for it by any chance? Would love to learn more about their tolerances on things.
Originally Posted by
tribe125
- 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.
Yet another gem from this thread; I've just been reading a bit more about Mr P after reading this line, fascinating!
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Jul 12, 2019, 03:31 PM
#525
Originally Posted by
Pip
Now that explains a lot - do you remember your source for it by any chance?
I’m afraid not. It’s a long time ago that I wrote that one, and I’m not sure I can remember, either.
I do recall that it was a direct quote from Seiko, and it may have been made to someone questioning the alignment of something.
Derek Pratt was a great watchmaker. As you have probably read, he was making a copy of Harrison’s H4 when he died, which was completed by Frodsham & Co. There are good reasons for replicas and copies.
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Jul 12, 2019, 03:45 PM
#526
Originally Posted by
tribe125
I’m afraid not. It’s a long time ago that I wrote that one, and I’m not sure I can remember, either.
I do recall that it was a direct quote from Seiko, and it may have been made to someone questioning the alignment of something.
I’ve just google-fued it , and it comes from a dealer response to a misaligned dial/hands situation on tz-uk ... but there’s also a similar-situation thread on WUS about a tactical anko watch where a similar tolerance is quoted. (But it’s slightly tighter on that, namely 1 to 1.5% of 360degrees.)
I didn’t look too closely for the seiko one, cos the threads involved are quite long (pages and pages)
You only have to google seiko and 1.5% and you should find it.
I’m not ‘on’ either site.
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Jul 12, 2019, 04:02 PM
#527
Originally Posted by
tribe125
I’m afraid not. It’s a long time ago that I wrote that one, and I’m not sure I can remember, either.
I do recall that it was a direct quote from Seiko, and it may have been made to someone questioning the alignment of something.
Derek Pratt was a great watchmaker. As you have probably read, he was making a copy of Harrison’s H4 when he died, which was completed by Frodsham & Co. There are
good reasons for replicas and copies.
http://frodsham.com/commissions/h4/
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Jul 12, 2019, 05:45 PM
#528
Originally Posted by
tribe125
I’m afraid not. It’s a long time ago that I wrote that one, and I’m not sure I can remember, either.
I do recall that it was a direct quote from Seiko, and it may have been made to someone questioning the alignment of something.
Derek Pratt was a great watchmaker. As you have probably read, he was making a copy of Harrison’s H4 when he died, which was completed by Frodsham & Co. There are
good reasons for replicas and copies.
Coincidentally Harrison’s H3 cane up in my IG feed a few hours ago. @BettsHorology had tracked down the (now deserted) buildings where RTGould worked on its restoration. So now I have to read about RTGould as well; I expect it’ll be another fascinating person.
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Jul 12, 2019, 06:10 PM
#529
Originally Posted by
Strela167
Very good.
The decoration on the H4 is astonishing, considering that it was a functional maritime instrument.
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Jul 12, 2019, 09:22 PM
#530
Originally Posted by
tribe125
- To settle all possible debate, the Seiko Spring Drive is a mechanical movement electronically improved.
The Seiko Spring Drive is not a mechanical movement electronically enhanced. It's a hybrid movement, and therefore not properly categorized as either mechanical or quartz.
A spring drive cannot be a mechanical movement, because the implication is that it’s totally mechanical, which it isn’t. It’s almost entirely mechanical, but the most crucial part of the whole movement is the tri-synchro regulator, so named because it regulates kinetic (mechanical), electric and electromagnetic energy. It is partly electronic by its own admission, therefore, it cannot purely be mechanical.
But is it a quartz? Well, certainly not under the conventional understanding, where a battery powers a motor to move the hands. Sure, a crucial component is a quartz oscillator but to put it in the category of quartz watches is to dismiss the fact that there is much more to the function of a watch than simply a time base...In other words, there’s much more to being a quartz or mechanical watch than just an escapement or quartz oscillator–you can’t reasonably reduce movement taxonomy to that fundamental level without losing crucial detail. We can’t talk about spring drives like quartz watches without specifying that they’re spring drives–they’re too different. And there’s a reason for that–they are different.
https://timelessluxwatches.com/revie...g-drive-works/
People get too hung up on labels. That it isn't a mechanical watch doesn't make the accomplishment or engineering any less impressive, it's just not a mechanical watch. Just as, say, a Ferrari GTC4Lusso is no less fast or capable if we accept that it's simply not a sports car, but rather a hatchback. We shouldn't try to shoehorn things into categories they don't belong just because it makes us feel better to attach that label to it.
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