I submitted this a week ago and sadly it sank without trace (poor choice of posting time I suspect), so I'm trying again. I have no affiliation with the builder.
Me and maybe a dozen others vastly prefer this. I almost never want video.
I know what you're referring to and it is exactly what I thought of immediately.
Thanks for pointing out that this is not that!
I enjoy a channel called "wristwatch revival" that covers servicing and repair of watches of various types - that guy often sends off for parts so it was a natural thing to wonder I think.
The only truly independent watchmaker I've ever heard of machining absolutely every component is Masahiro Kikuno.
> In total he (George Daniels) created 25 handmade watches which were completely made by himself (23 pocket watches and 2 wristwatches) other than the crystal, the mainspring, the engraving of the dials and the hairspring. One pocket watch remains incomplete and is not included in this total number of pocket watches produced by George Daniels.
https://www.ahci.ch/members/valerii-danevych/
https://www.keepthetime.com/blog/valerii-danevych-wooden-wat...
That man doesn’t cheat.
At a certain level, watches aren't about quality. Only exclusivity.
If you are in a critical situation and surrounded by electronics an analog watch can survive conditions like power failure and temp electronics cannot.
Irrelevant to business people but as a safety feature and emergency backup something fully mechanical and accurate could save your life.
Annnnd at this level I'm out.
I mean, cool engineering solving a particular problem, near impossible tolerances, astounding art/materials all appeal on some level - but "exclusivity" on it's own doesn't mean anything.
For most people, no. But for some people, who can buy anything, whose friends can buy anything, it means a lot to have something others can't buy.
I'm with you though. I'm happy wearing a Seiko or other well-built but not expensive watch.
I use my phone these days. But if I wanted a watch I'd probably go for a Casio G-Shock solar - may or may not go for a variant with fancy GPS timing or scuba-proof. Features that take care of problems I might have.
...Seiko.
They even make their own lubricants.
(Wearing a nifty Seiko as I type this, but also own a handful of other Japanese, Swiss and German watches.)
Like this one which retails for a cool $365,000 USD: https://www.grand-seiko.com/us-en/collections/slgt005g
Or you can get a nice everyday mechanical watch for as little as a couple hundred.
The majority of expensive watches, even handmade, are only so expensive because of brand...or the fact that the case is solid fucking platinum/gold. That's cheating!
I posted this several years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32447630
(link no longer works)
These are the things I expected him to have to source and I was correct, even Daniels bought springs.