The Patek Philippe Caliber 89 and Horology’s Easter Problem

It's a fantastic museum. Several floors jam-packed with incredible watches. Really helps you understand where modern Patek's price tags come from :)

  From: Jonathan Leffler
  # [British Summer Time] is fixed annually by Act of Parliament.
  # If you can predict what Parliament will do, you should be in
  # politics making a fortune, not computing.

The earth's rotation changes by unpredictable amounts, so it would be impossible to predict in advance purely based on celestial movements.

[1] http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/www.tracyplatt.com

I just can't get into it. I think an impressive electronic watch is more interesting to me; though there doesn't seem to be much interest in these being made, so the most fun I can have is with Timex. I think smartwatches are the electronic equivalent of mechanical watches: inelegant, gaudy, and utterly pointless.

Hopefully I don't offend anyone, but I have noticed that many software devs these says are just that, software devs, instead of being engineers with a passion for designing and building amazingly complex machines/systems.

If you call yourself an engineer and can't bring yourself to appreciate the beauty of a jet engine or the construction of a F1 race car or the craftsmanship of a Patek Philippe watch, then I actually lose a bit of respect for you.

It's often said among watch collectors that you start out wanting a Rolex because it's all you know of in haute horlogerie. Then you learn more and want nothing to do with the brand, and finally you settle in and appreciate it for the legitimate workmanship.

I started out just loving Rolex Bubblebacks--years ago. I loved all watches. I started learning about the repair of watches. It took me a awhile to accumulate the right tools, at the right price. In order to be be efficent, it did take me a few years, but it was a hobby for myself.

The love of mechanical watches will just come around for a lot of people. I haven't figured if it's because certain people like precisely engineered items, like Apple products, or it's kinda the only acceptable form of adornment for men in all cultures, or men are subconsciously aware they die earlier than females.(Yes--some women just love all aspects of horology, but in my experience, it a different passion than men. Plus--I can't sell women's high end watches. It's so difficult, I don't even buy them for resale anymore. It's changing a bit though, especially with the Fitbit, and even female Rolexes are not sitting on a website for years anymore.

That said, once you imerce yourself in watch repair, there's a moment where you look at an older Rolex movement, and a say a modified(usually just engine work on the movement) on a better ETA movement, and don't see why a Rolex costs so much more. Yes, their are differences quality differences, but not to the tune of thousand of dollars more. Basically, a Rolex, Patek, IWC, etc., were machined to be easily taken apart. A lot of thought was put into ease of repair. It's ironic you can't buy parts for said watches from the factory?

And here I go, that Rolex some of you are wearing on your wrist, when it goes out of warranty, you won't be able to have just anyone repair it. Rolex, the Swatch Group, along with most of the other watch brands will have you send your timepiece back to the factory when it needs a service, or repair. At factory prices. I refuse to spend $800 on a clean, and lube.

See, when you buy that $10,000 watch, even if you spent years learning how to repair, they won't sell you parts, or even offer service diagrams. It's like buying a car, and having to take it to the dealership fir repairs forever, and not being able to buy parts for it.

Seiko is one watch company that still sells parts to consumers.

O.k.--what's my point? Certain high end watch companies, appear to be guilty of The Sherman Anti-trust Act. Yes--the federal government looked into it, but figured it wasen't a top priority, and called it a rich man's problem.

To those interested, a grey market watch, like those at Costco, were bought overseas at overseas prices. Rolex warranty will not honor those watches if they stop, even if under warranty.).

I just read the post about GI's not being able to code. If you happen to like watches, there's a few watch repair schools left on the world. Rolex is sponsoring many of them. They need technicians at their factories. Many schools offer free tuition, but not boarding. It's not a bad deal.

And again--if you're about to spend thousands on a fine watch, call the watch company and ask about parts, and "just what will happen when it goes out of warranty, and needs a service?".

The lack of interest from my side is due to the inferiority of mechanical watches in accomplishing their main purpose: keeping time. I know my smartphone always has the right time, because it's internet-connected and uses NTP. For a mechanical watch, that trust just isn't there: either it has the right time, or it's run out of power.

Surely, I can appreciate the craftsmanship, but when it comes to knowing what time it is, this is not relevant for me at all. When I look at a clock, I really appreciate knowing that if it has run out of power it doesn't display the wrong time, as opposed to a mechanical watch.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/catholics-built-secret-...

> Until 2005, the start and end of IDT each year was established in an ad hoc fashion as the result of haggling between political parties representing various sectors of Israeli society. Parties representing religious groups wanted the start delayed till after Passover and the end to precede Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, while the secular parties would argue for starting it earlier and ending it later.

Sounds like business as usual for a modern 2-party state. What was more interesting to me, as a programmer, was the next line:

> In the past, the unpredictability of IDT in Israel became frustrating enough that Microsoft Windows stopped trying to track changes and just made Israeli time be Greenwich Mean Time plus two hours (GMT+2) (and disabled the daylight saving option). This has led to various ad hoc solutions to the problem in Windows systems and other Microsoft software (e.g. Outlook calendar entries are often off by an hour when shared, due to the lack of IDT support). On November 17, 2009, Microsoft released an update that has daylight saving time enabled for Israel. However, the date for transition back to Standard Time is set as the Second Sunday of September, regardless of the Hebrew Calendar date.[4] Windows 7 does contain correct IDT times up to 2023, but not all software makes use of this extra information.

OK, I know that I'm supposed to just import my system date/time library for timekeeping functions. Because it's too complicated for mortals like me, while Microsoft, Apple, Google, and other major institutions can handle all the inanities.

But Microsoft gave up on this one? Ouch.

Patek does not make these pieces to make a profit, but to position themselves at the top of the pile when it comes to engineering as their customers want "the best", and are willing to pay a huge markup for it over "the next best".

It sounds crass to call such a beautiful thing "marketing", but it is - these show-off pieces are what sells the rest of the line (cheap at $20k starting price).

A Casio F91-W. Durable, water resistant, stopwatch, alarm, calendar, timer ++. Cost: $6.68. Best selling watch on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Casio-F91W-1-Classic-Resin-Digital/dp...

addendum: Rolex sells around 1 million watches per year (they don't release numbers). Maybe 100-200,000 are Submariner diver watches which are, of course, water resistant and have a one-way bezel designed to track how much time until you need to surface. Most of those will not used by professional or even amateur divers. Most will never see a drop of water.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarch_Kirill_of_Moscow#The...

Such approaches are of course not only modern, but it's good to recognize the other facets through which Christian believers have viewed Christ, such as the idea of "Christ as King" or "Christ as Warrior." The long history of, say, the Vatican's art and riches need not be snarkily dismissed as mere hypocrisy but also another dimension through which people saw their connection with and reverence for the divine.

Of particular interest to this article is the idea of "God as mathematician" or "God as watchmaker," which was something held by intellectuals around the time of Newton. The focus on craftsmanship in a timekeeper has a certain applicability.

"While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anointing_of_Jesus

...And we're now talking about Jesus on site where he is not normally discussed. As a method of spreading the gospel, you could certainly think of less effective methods.

I don't own such a watch but I do admire them.

A second hand, the date, the day of the week, etc... all complications. I'm not saying some don't go overboard for the sake of going overboard, but complications are just features.

Difficult calculation? Pre-compute it!

The idea of Celestial Spheres alone dates from greek antiquity.

Hard to see why this is considered a difficult problem at this point, 2000+ years after the Antikythera Mechanism.