Machines and engines

I'm keen on mechanical clocks and watches.  Many hours of amusement.

Pretty much my main mechanical fetish. I don't like anything that ticks though, sweeping hand, hand wound or automatic. Quartz is fine but only if the case is thick enough to hide the tick. The intricate nature of mechanicals is more interesting. German or Japanese mechanicals are best imo. 3 hand over chronograph too. I like field watches, divers, and of course fliegers. Swiss is good, but not at mid budget, generally. Not keen on anything with most ETA movements.

I watched this earlier and found it awesome. I'm not a dress watch guy but I do have a thing for Lange and Söhne. I'll probably never own one but this was great. Attention to detail and finishing excellence.

https://youtu.be/DGAsib-4mCk

All mechanical movements "tick" - it's just a case of how noisy it is.  When you're setting a watch to rate the watch timing machine works by using a microphone to record the movement noise, and you adjust the rate of the watch by changing various things to get the different sounds the movement makes to occur at the right frequencies.  Clocks can be rated differently depending on the movement.

For every day wear I prefer a nice simple face.  I  like the face style of the early "field watches" and "fligers" too, but I'd want a sapphire crystal in the back so I could watch them working :-).

The thing is, for a "Swiss" watch, how much the watch costs bears very little resemblance to what movement it has in it.  And many of the "Swiss watches" have ETA movements. But you could find an ETA movement in a relatively inexpensive watch, but also the same ETA movement in a very much more expensive watch.  The ETA movements often go back to the earlier manufacturers who were  bought up by the Swatch group on the cheap when the Swiss watch industry was taking a battering from Japanese etc. Quartz and digital watches.

I spent a year doing a watchmaking course part-time, and compared to Chinese knock-off versions of an ETA movement the ETA version was light years better quality and far easier to work with!

I'm quite partial to some of the IWC, CWC, Laco watches.

Yeah, it did spring to mind. It could be a managable way of life. I gave up long ago about money, and I think that a modest living inside something I actually care about, plus can cope with is the way forward.

That would be ideal, I'd imagine fixing Railmasters all day woukdn't be too sloppy!

Yeah, it did spring to mind. It could be a managable way of life. I gave up long ago about money, and I think that a modest living inside something I actually care about, plus can cope with is the way forward.

That would be ideal, I'd imagine fixing Railmasters all day woukdn't be too sloppy!