I have a serious soft spot for beautifully crafted watches. The craftsmanship and skill that goes into them is just shy of engineering porn. Even though mechanical watches are not as accurate as today’s electronic versions, there’s something visceral about them.
We can all thank an 18th century woodworker for their existence. John Harrison decided to tackle the prickly problem of keeping time at sea to calculate longitudinal position. His mechanical solution was not only accurate to within 3 seconds a day but was also immune to the pitch and roll of a boat, a tricky problem considering all the clocks of the day were pendulum based. That solution was eventually miniaturized and put in pockets and on wrists. Now lets speed up the clock, so to speak, to the 21st century and check out how beautiful mechanical watches are made today. This video is the whole reason for this post. A friend sent it to me, I was floored, and had to share with my maritime friends.
I will probably never have the disposable income required to own a Patek Philippe watch but there’s nothing stopping me from admiring the skill and craftsmanship. Hope you enjoyed the video…
Cheers,
Island Rambler
