As a teacher I understand how difficult it is to explain complex topics in a simple step by step way.
The site has some really impressive technical aspects, but the educational angle is the most rare and special! The simplicity of the language and explanations disguise how difficult this is to do.
This is the original use of the internet- giving away free knowledge to people, perfectly suited for the medium of a website.
While I do agree, if the author is reading the comments one piece of feedback I have is the overuse of the phrase "In this article I will...". It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine, and they use a version of the phrase three times in the first four paragraphs.
I've been fascinated by mechanical watches for years. It can become a deep rabbit hole (like most hobbies). I frequently have watch restoration videos playing in the background as I'm doing things and love the process of taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling these watch movements. Wristwatch Revival is probably my favorite. I has encouraged me to tear apart a few watches of my own to give them a good service. As complex as they look, most follow a very similar process to rebuild.
I find there is something indescribably fascinating with mechanical timepieces. I'm more of a clock guy than a watch guy, though I've had plenty of watches apart, and the two disciplines merge in many places. I've learned so many new mechanical skills in my now six year journey to be able to repair these things, and to learn to repair them is to learn to make them, as you need to know how to fabricate every single piece in order to be able to repair any movement, thus why clock and watch repairers are called clockmakers and watchmakers.
I'm in a similar boat and I find it really hard to talk watches with folks who are experienced in the way of the Rolex AD.
I really enjoy cheaper vintage watches that call back to when everyone had one of them on their wrist.
Something about a semi-autonomous machine ticking away on your wrist, whether you're looking at it or not, using no electricity, is just intrinsically satisfying to me.
I got into watch servicing pre-covid, but never got into actual fabrication of parts. I mention pre-covid because it really got popular when everyone was stuck inside and there was a sudden loss of cheap ebay parts watches to pick from.
Rolex ADs are just a para-social gatekeeper for Veblen goods, but there's a huge resurgence in the entry level Swiss Automatic space with some fantastic value propositions in the likes of the enormously popular Tissot PRX 80 line (hello Rolex Land-dweller), or the more recent output from smaller marques like Christoper Ward who are producing COSC certified swiss-made watches for about 4x markup whilst Omega and the rest are jacking up prices quarter on quarter.
Yeah, it's always interesting when I run into watch guys --- my father's 27-jewel Seiko is too large for my wrist, and the date wheel is broken (and I can't find anyone willing to fix it w/o a donor watch), so I wear quite modest watches such as a Timex Indiglo, or a Seiko Solar --- folks are understanding and sympathetic and almost always have stories about repairs, or watches which they are hoping to have the chance to buy.
I've never owned a mechanical watch(did just recently buy an Orient solar watch after I lost my fitbit while traveling and after a couple weeks, realised the only feature I actually missed was having the time on my wrist), but I like watching the channel Wristwatch Revival on youtube. That guy will often repair old watches that most watchmakers won't touch, sent in by viewers, and make content out of it. And he especially loves taking on watches thathave sentimental value for the owner.
He also recently started a watch repair shop specifically catering to cases most watchmakers won't accept, might be worth checking out.
Tempting, but "Services start at $1,750" --- I could buy multiple replacements for that, or make a downpayment on the Seiko Grandmaster or GPS which I want...
That said, I'll keep it in mind and maybe if I come across a windfall will apply thusly....
Wear whatever makes you happy without apology. Rolex, Timex, Apple Watch. Whatever. I find a large inverse relation between people who care about the cost of the watch you wear and people who are actually interested in the mechanical function of a watch.
When studying distributed systems you have to convince yourself
that clocks cannot be relied on. It is hard to do so because
all the clocks around me are always working just fine.
When this article was posted here earlier I got an idea that maybe
wearing a mechanical watch for a while might help.
I bought a cheap mechanical watch. It needs manual winding daily.
If you take it off your wrist it gets out of sync with the other
clocks or just stops.
I recently bought the book 'Watch Repair for Beginners' for reference (a project I slightly unwisely agreed to do).
It has some great diagrams, but obviously nothing on these interactive animations (er, naturally, since it is a book).
However the author (Harold C. Kelley) has descriptions for the diagrams similar to a maths proof - like "Warning lever W is raised in position to engage the pin P ... The unlocking lever U lifts the drop lever D ..." - not easy to follow, but maybe if you have the mechanism in front of you!
I love that there's not only the internals of a standard three-hand, but the automatic mechanism as well. If you're going pure mechanical, an automatic is the best way. As long as you actually move during the day the watch generally stays wound up (though a twist when you put it on is a good measure). There's a ton of great watches out there powered only by walking around, and it's fascinating to look at what they can do with that.
The mechanics of a six-hand are similar, using the mechanism that is described here for the date indicator.
Another fun device, though more from an EE POV, are the solar+radio/GPS versions of the same. Automatics can hold power for a few days and need walking around to wind. Solar needs light (any light, though sunlight is always best) and hold power for over a month. Many higher-end models can self-set over radio time or GPS signals as well.
When the world goes tits-up someday, both classes of watches will suddenly become essential, and are already essential for people who spend a good amount of time "unreachable" for work or pleasure.
Casio Oceanus S100 is made of titanium, adjusts itself over the radio[0], understands 29th of February, sets itself on/off DST, never needs tinkering or battery change, and sells for a whooping $350. It's the watch you can set all your other watches to.
[0] Don't have radio coverage where you live? "There's an app for that" -- or several -- that simulate radio control signals.
Yes, why not. When I posted my comment, year wasn't in the title. I was very excited to see this, sent to my friend and he said to me that it's an old one. So I posted my comment to make people aware of that.
I think one of my favourite things about an automatic is that its design calls for it to be worn and not collected. If you collect them, then you'd either be wnding or shaking them when you actually want to wear them, so they aren't automatic. It forces you to wear, and therefore own, just the one, which is how it should be. I have a seiko 5 which i always wear except in the shower.
Anyone with a few auto mechanicals will tend to be a 'luxury' watch collector and almost certainly have an auto-winder watchbox or similar solution. It gets way too finnicky to constantly reset crown based Chronos, nevermind something with wheel based control like an AirKing.
Those who collect manual-winders tend towards trench watches, marriage watches converted from pocket or 1950-69 era vintage Omegas and the like - as the Timex/Hamilton/Seagull re-issues hold little cachet to a collector. The glaring recent exception being the appalling SwatchxAP collab with the hand-wound version the SISTEM51 movement, bringing the worst aspects of both manual wind movements and the unservicable and ultimately disposable nature of contemporary swatch movements.
I have LOVED the beauty of mechanical watches my entire life. About 15 years ago, I started a little savings account to purchase an Omega Speedmaster. I have long since past the amount needed to purchase that beautiful timepiece, but I now have a wife, child, and house. The money is still there, but I cannot seem to pull the trigger. My wife says she is entirely Ok with me doing this as we are comfortable money-wise, but the "dad" in me keeps saying "You might need that money for a rainy day."
It might be worth purchasing one second hand, then most of the depreciation is already gone. If you need the money, you're likely to recoup most of it by re-selling.
As observed from a comment [1] in a previous discussion: in the first animation the time and date shown are actually correct (per your web browser) when it initially renders, though it does not increment as the seconds hand reaches 12.
My 8yo son plays with this any chance he gets. We've started building watches together as a result (simple "drop in movement mods", but aspirations of building our own movement). The author really made something special.
I also recommend this demonstration from 1949, in that excellent style they used back then with large scale physical models and stop-motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMW-QWPZEm0
If you get any cheapish mechanical watch with a widely available movement (EG an NH35 or NH36), it makes more sense not to service it, and just replace it when (if) it wears out. That's what I do with my Seikos.
What an outrageously cool and informative website. Love it.
I'm back to mostly wearing analog watches. Had an Apple Watch on my wrist for quite a long time, but something about analog appeals once more. No smartwatch beats an analog in the style department, and I see analog everywhere around me ('burbs of NYC)
My wife finds yard sale watches and has me change the battery, but then I open one, a tiny thing and it's not battery powered but there are layers of tiny tiny gears. Mind boggling. (pro tip, a "bench knife" has a tiny blade that's optimized for plying open watch cases)
This piece made me kind of fall in love with mechanical watches. The Orient Bambino I’m currently rocking on my wrist probably wouldn’t be there without it!
Ineffably magnificent... no words may express how simply ingenious and incredible both the website work and such the marvel the work is attributed to...
What if schools would provide children such marvel? Yes, that requires a sufficient time to achieve, but dear... it's just... a miracle...
" it may be hard to believe that merely a few decades ago the most convenient way to keep track of time was a mechanical watch."
I guess quartz is more convenient if you often take the watch off for more than a day. But my swiss automatics dont need a regular battery change, just a servicing every decade (or longer). I guess there are solar powered quartz watches though.
Because new people see it, find it fascinating, and upvote it. As it turns out, in a feed like HN's, it's easy to miss things if you don't happen to see them within a day or so of them being posted.
The site has some really impressive technical aspects, but the educational angle is the most rare and special! The simplicity of the language and explanations disguise how difficult this is to do.
This is the original use of the internet- giving away free knowledge to people, perfectly suited for the medium of a website.
I really enjoy cheaper vintage watches that call back to when everyone had one of them on their wrist.
Something about a semi-autonomous machine ticking away on your wrist, whether you're looking at it or not, using no electricity, is just intrinsically satisfying to me.
I got into watch servicing pre-covid, but never got into actual fabrication of parts. I mention pre-covid because it really got popular when everyone was stuck inside and there was a sudden loss of cheap ebay parts watches to pick from.
He also recently started a watch repair shop specifically catering to cases most watchmakers won't accept, might be worth checking out.
https://www.youtube.com/c/WristwatchRevival/
https://restoration.sutcliffehansen.com/
That said, I'll keep it in mind and maybe if I come across a windfall will apply thusly....
When this article was posted here earlier I got an idea that maybe wearing a mechanical watch for a while might help.
I bought a cheap mechanical watch. It needs manual winding daily. If you take it off your wrist it gets out of sync with the other clocks or just stops.
Few weeks with that clock convinced me.
It has some great diagrams, but obviously nothing on these interactive animations (er, naturally, since it is a book).
However the author (Harold C. Kelley) has descriptions for the diagrams similar to a maths proof - like "Warning lever W is raised in position to engage the pin P ... The unlocking lever U lifts the drop lever D ..." - not easy to follow, but maybe if you have the mechanism in front of you!
The mechanics of a six-hand are similar, using the mechanism that is described here for the date indicator.
Another fun device, though more from an EE POV, are the solar+radio/GPS versions of the same. Automatics can hold power for a few days and need walking around to wind. Solar needs light (any light, though sunlight is always best) and hold power for over a month. Many higher-end models can self-set over radio time or GPS signals as well.
When the world goes tits-up someday, both classes of watches will suddenly become essential, and are already essential for people who spend a good amount of time "unreachable" for work or pleasure.
[0] Don't have radio coverage where you live? "There's an app for that" -- or several -- that simulate radio control signals.
Those who collect manual-winders tend towards trench watches, marriage watches converted from pocket or 1950-69 era vintage Omegas and the like - as the Timex/Hamilton/Seagull re-issues hold little cachet to a collector. The glaring recent exception being the appalling SwatchxAP collab with the hand-wound version the SISTEM51 movement, bringing the worst aspects of both manual wind movements and the unservicable and ultimately disposable nature of contemporary swatch movements.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31261533#unv_31268444
I think this should be used in schools.
Really easy to understand and instantly captivating.
Please do more topics!!! :)
I'm back to mostly wearing analog watches. Had an Apple Watch on my wrist for quite a long time, but something about analog appeals once more. No smartwatch beats an analog in the style department, and I see analog everywhere around me ('burbs of NYC)
https://www.google.com/search?q=bench+knife
https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-ihwnd7z21q/images/stencil/12...
https://diplomatwinders.com/cdn/shop/products/55035knife_102...
https://www.youtube.com/@chronovaengineering
What if schools would provide children such marvel? Yes, that requires a sufficient time to achieve, but dear... it's just... a miracle...
Related: https://ciechanow.ski/archives (Bartosz Ciechanowski...)
Neurospiceys tread carefully.
<3
In all seriousness I should read the cameras and lenses one again; it'll be useful to me now
I'm not sure why this is a mystery.