it’s about time: part one

As of late, watches and horology as a whole have become a passion of mine. It started with the YouTube channel Wristwatch Revival - a channel dedicated to mechanical wristwatch restoration. As the host Marshall states, there aren’t many hobbies that require that an object be completely taken apart to every last screw (quite literally). After consuming dozens of 45+ minute long videos, mesmerized by the infinitesimally small gears, springs, and jewels that make a mechanical watch run, I was hooked. Plus, it’s just beyond satisfying seeing the transformation of a daily worn 1970s Rolex to state of when it practically left the factory. Though as much as mechanical watches are absolute marvels of engineering, with quartz and digital watches being the norm (and smart watches too), mechanical watches have largely become obsolete when it comes to modern, accurate time keeping.

With mechanical watches, the power source of the watch comes in the form of a wound up metal spring called the mainspring. The mainspring is tightly coiled around an axle called the arbor and sits inside a flat cylinder called the barrel. The outside of the barrel acts as a gear (considered the first gear in the wheel train) and has teeth which mesh with the center wheel, which then meshes with the third wheel, which then meshes with the fourth wheel, and finally the escape wheel. There’s a TON I’m glossing over, but I think that gets the point across. Mechanical watches are, well, purely mechanical - relying solely on gear ratios and reductions to turn the watch hands in convenient, human-understood time units of seconds, minutes, and hours. Since we live in this universe and our mortal gears are not 100% efficient (nor our manufacturing tolerances 100% perfect), mechanical watch accuracy is measured in seconds gained or lost per day. Contrast that to commodity quartz watches whose accuracy is measured in seconds gained or lost per month. And high-accuracy quartz movements: per year.

Quartz watch movements utilize an electric oscillator that produces a signal which resonates a literal, tiny tuning fork-like quartz crystal at an incredibly precise frequency - 32,768Hz to be exact. This flip-flop (on/off) signal is fed into some circuitry, which can then power a motor to drive the watch hands. To power this grossly oversimplified description of a movement is a small battery that needs to be changed every few years. Don’t confuse this technology with being synonymous with “inexpensive” however. Life…uh…finds a way. Brands like Cartier have the Tank Française with a quartz movement that sells for $30,700 (okay it’s also 18K yellow gold and set with 27 diamonds…but what does that have to do with anything…) and Omega has the De Ville Prestige quartz for $16,600 (also 18K gold, but we’re moving on here). Quartz movements are objectively better at keeping accurate time than mechanical movements. But in our modern age, that’s not necessarily all that a wristwatch is for, is it?

As of March 2023, Apple has a market cap of over $2 trillion (that’s trillion with a “T”). In October 2022, it was reported that 30% of all iPhone users owned an Apple Watch. There is no denying that Apple has dominated the smart watch industry with its watch. It’s a literal computer on your wrist - You can make phone calls, send text messages, and check email (if only Dick Tracy could see us now!). Nevertheless, and as someone whose career is in Information Technology, it can be a bit much; Instant alerts and push notifications to every text and email and news story that comes your way. Sometimes, you just want to know what time it is. In August 2022, Timex ran a brilliant billboard advertisement campaign taking a light jab at smart watches: A stark white background with an image of an analog Timex wristwatch front and center and this single line in sans serif font below it - “Know the time without seeing you have 1,249 unanswered emails”.

So, after that digression, back to mechanical wristwatches! After being thoroughly captivated and enraptured by what videos and images I’ve seen online, it was time (ha! get it?) to take this hobby into the real world. I needed to physically hold and touch and see these watches in person to see if they were for me…and boy, were they ever for me. Out of recommendation from a friend, I headed to a watch store called Right Time Watches, off of Colorado and Florida - family owned and operated since 1979. After walking in through the unsuspecting door in this little strip mall, Owner and Master Watchmaker, Felix, could not have been nicer and more accommodating. While I explained to Felix that I was relatively new to the world of horology and mechanical timepieces, he remained extremely patient and showed tremendous knowledge and enthusiasm. Passionately, I weaved in what jargon I knew and clarified that I had absolutely no idea what I was looking for and what style of watch suited me. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I knew that if I were to get a mechanical watch, I’d want one that I could wear every day and not worry about water damage or scratches. I wanted a workhorse, but an elegant workhorse. Slowly, we made our way around the store looking and trying on different watches within my price range. At last, we reached the glass case with the Seiko Prospex Alpinist 1959 reinterpretations. Then I saw it: a transfixing blue dial, a date window, a metal bracelet, a sapphire crystal, an automatic mechanical movement, and an elegant case with 200m of water resistance. I tried it on and realized it was exactly what I wanted as my first step into the rabbit hole (I go through a lot of those). I stood there looking at this watch knowing I was going to walk out with it that day. I purchased it and now every time I look at it, it brings me joy. Knowing that there’s not a lick of digital technology in this watch’s movement and that those gears are keeping accurate time (+7 seconds/day), is pretty darn cool.

Now, as wonderful as my experience at Right Time Watches was, that’s not always the case at other dealers and for other people. Once you start getting into luxury brands and timepieces that cost multi-thousands of dollars, there is sometimes an air of superiority amongst the patrons and even (at times…especially), the sales associates.