Hobby Thread - June 15, 2024 [TRex]

Hobby Thread - June 15, 2024 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Do not adjust your interweb. This thread is going to have an edge. A spin of the Ace of Spades "wheel of hobbies" has come up with timepieces. Happy horology!

TRex is not wise in the ways of collecting or making watches, clocks, or other timepieces, but the horde has shown in various posts and threads that there is deep and wide interest.

Do you collect watches? If so, do you collect modern or classic watches? Do you have a watch that was handed down from an ancestor? Do you have a grandfather clock that chimes to mark each quarter hour? Do you have a story of finding a gem at a garage sale or antique store? Have you been on antiques roadshow with a rare Rolex with original box and paperwork? Do you repair or restore watches? Have you worked selling or repairing watches or other timepieces? Do you have a soft spot for old-style pocketwatches with a chain? Do you have traditions to give watches as gifts? Did you receive a watch as a special gift?

As usual, keep this thread limited to hobbies. Politics and current events can wait for other threads.

Let's get started with some Huey Lewis:

Top photo - the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona is one of the few watches that you can't buy at a Rolex store. Rolex sponsors the 24 Hours of Daytona each year, a sportscar endurance race in Flordia. The winners get engraved watches that are based on the Rolex Daytona, but the winner versions are not publicly available for sale.

Five-time race winner Scott Pruett has a watch from each victory. Pruett tells the story behind each in this MotorTrend article.

This may be one of the most well known Antiques Roadshow moments:

Did you know that Rolex watches is run by a charitable organization? Hans Wilsdorf, a Bavarian, was born in 1881. In 1903, he moved from Switzerland to London. In those days, watches were pinned to a garment or carried in a pocket. Wilsdorf thought that accurate wristwatches worn by lifelong owners would be the future.

In 1905, Wilsdorf joined with Alfred Davis, who provided funding. They put small and accurate watch movements from Aegler, a Swiss maker, in watch cases made by other companies. Early watches were stamped with "W&D" on the inside of the case. In 1908, they trademarked the Rolex name. The name was easy to remember and pronounce in any language.

British excise taxes caused the company to move from London to Geneva in 1919. Wilsdorf bought out Davis and renamed it as the Rolex Watch Company.

In 1945, Wilsdorf established the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation and gave his 100% ownership stake in Rolex to the foundation. His wife died in 1944 and he had no descendants. Hans died in 1960. The Foundation maintains ownership and control of Rolex. The ownership structure also means there is little to no public information about the Rolex business.

This thread won't be all about Rolex but how does Rolex test its diving watches?

How a mechanical watch works:

Looking for tips on collecting watches?

This isn't the art thread, but how about an artistic interlude with a melting clock theme?

Dali reportedly said melting watches and clocks were inspired by the surrealist perception of Camembert cheese melting in the sun.

There are plenty of opportunities to get lost in Youtube videos showing restoration and repair of old watches. Check out this restoration of a 100+ year old pocket watch:

Since we've talked a little about Rolex and Rolex history, let's include a restoration of a very early Rolex watch (1923-1925 era). All the pieces are taken apart and displayed at about the 4:10 mark:

One of the most treasured possessions of Japanese Emperor Hirohito was his Disney watch, presented to him on a visit to Disneyland in 1975. When Hirohito died in 1989, he was buried with a few personal items - including his Mickey Mouse watch.

The Dresden astronomical clock was manufactured between 1563 and 1568. It was one of the most mechanically sophisticated and artistically refined clocks of the period. It has lived in Dresden since its completion. It and many other scientific masterpieces are on view at the Zwinger museum in Dresden. More info and a video at the link.

Patek Philippe has a four-level museum in Geneva that looks amazing.

Patek Philippe is one of five watch museums on this list - the first is the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, Pennsylvania (about 30 miles southest of Harrisburg). I've never heard of it either but it is the only one on the list located in the US. The others are in Germany, Switzerland, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Time for science. The word "minute" comes from the Latin "pars minuta prima," meaning "first small part." The word "second" comes from "pars minuta secunda," which means the "second small part." There are 60 seconds in a minute, but how how long is a second? Quartz vibrates at a consistent frequency when prodded with a precise electrical pulse. In a watch, the battery sends electricity to a small piece of quartz. The quartz vibrates at 32,768 times per second. The elecric circuit measures the vibrations and translates those into pulses to move the gears and hands of the clock around the dial.

What if quartz is not precise enough for you? Official sources of time currently rely on cesium atoms. The best of these clocks is accurate to within one three hundred millionths of a second per year. For perspective, a quartz wristwatch may be accurate to within about 15 seconds per month. Atomic clocks aim electromagnetic waves at a collection of cesium atoms that absorb this radiation and make a "quantum jump" to a different energy state. The frequency waves are consistent - 9,192,631,770 cycles per second. The waves are counted to determine the length of a second. Anything deeper than that makes my head hurt.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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