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Comment by diab0lic | Hacker News Reader

I’ve got a Poljot de luxe that was made for export (English text on the dial) from the 70s. I am pretty impressed with it on the overall - for the time it’s very thin, reasonably accurate and has an elegant timeless look to it.

> He believes that mechanical watches were created by the best minds of 18th and 19th centuries. "Many modern watchmakers admit that we will never match them," he adds

I think there is some pretty innovative stuff coming out of Japan right now. The high accuracy quartz models from Seiko (under the Grand Seiko brand) and Citizen have insane accuracy measured in seconds per year.

Of course if you want to limit the discussion to the mechanical realm the Spring Drive is for all intents and purposes a mechanical watch with an electromagnetic quartz feedback loop slowing the unwinding to the correct pace to keep time. Not as accurate as the full quartz but very impressive and it truly glides (instead of ticking).

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"right now" is relative, grand Seiko started in 1967 and the spring drive was invented in the 90s. I think in the age of smartphones, internet and gps time innovation regarding high precision independent time keeping almost stopped.

It's still there, but certainly died down after the invention of quartz time keeping.

My hope is consumers start demanding the availability of parts when buying a high end watch though.

It's a good feeling knowing you can repair that hunk of metal on your wrist, with interest, and a fair amount of study.

(There was a guy in the Navy whos boat was torpedoed by the Japanese during WW2. He, and rest of the crew were stuck on a deserted island. One by one the sailors watches were breaking down. Since he was a Watchmaker in life, he took over repair. At first it was difficult. He then got creative and made small screwdrivers, and even made a lathe. Anyhoo--I thought that was neat. A guy fixing jeweled watches with tools he made himself in that enviornment. I saw the article years ago, but haven't been able to find it again.)

>It's a good feeling knowing you can repair that hunk of metal on your wrist, with interest, and a fair amount of study.

That... goes for everything, software included. But watches being something of a Veblen good [1], wouldn't availability of parts just make consumers realize that actually this $700 watch is practically no different from that $70 watch? They wouldn't want to sell parts for that reason, I think.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

Right now being in contrast to the 18th and 19th century mentioned in the quote I was responding to from the article. Between quartz and the spring drive hybridization I would argue that great innovation has come since the 18th and 19th century and watchmakers from Japan have “matched them”.

That said I do agree with you that in today’s world innovation in high precision independent time keeping has stopped. A radio controlled relatively accurate quartz watch will keep excellent time with no user intervention over many years.

There used to be more HAQ watches. Radio sync and gps seems to have taken the wind of their sails a bit. Too bad. I would love a new Seiko SBCM023 dive watch (but secondhand market prices are outrageous).

I was getting impressed with Seiko. They used to be reasonably priced, and ordering parts was easy. They even used to sell parts to customers.

They joined the others (Rolex, and The Swatch Group), and drastically raised prices. Parts are not even available to Independant Watchmakers anymore.

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