Does anyone else here remember calling a number for the accurate time back in the 70s/80s?
You’d dial a number and get a recorded/computer generated voice (not sure which) that, once a minute, would tell you the correct time. It was run by the government so it was, literally, the correct time as measured by their atomic clocks. It was the only way I knew to get the correct time to set your watch.
If you called at the wrong moment you had to wait almost a minute listen to an occasional beep till the next announcement came. That doesn’t sound too bad but it was a bit of a bummer waiting for the next announcement.
Yes, I remember those. In some countries such “talking clock” services are still around.
An alternative way to accurately set your clocks and watches to atomic clock-based official™ time were the beeps that announced the full hour at the start of news programs. In my country these beeps are still there, but with IPTV and TV satellites and whatnot, there can be a delay of several seconds between that signal and its arrival on your set. Back in the days of terrestrial television, when live really meant live in the sense that the signal was just arriving from a transmission tower at the speed of light, you could rely on this to set your clock.
Yes, but today you can easily sync up using Network Time Protocol and cheap GPS timing receivers, so you do not have to worry too much about your BBC World broadcast being buffered by a couple of seconds.
ETA: once I got the computer to use a modem to call the government time beeps and get the correct time that way. It was not super accurate, but good enough for some basic astronomy and did not require hooking up a radio receiver.
Now I’m curious… With a statement like that, what’s a SS Sub Date go for in an authorized Rolex dealer’s shop these days?
Mine was somewhere around 3500 lightly used in the mid 2000s. I wear it rarely (Apple watch is so much more practical), but it does get used from time to time.
I have a Curta Type II in excellent condition with the hard case that I bought on eBay around twenty years ago. It’s in mint condition. I haven’t played with it in over a decade. I read an article in Scientific American about them and became obsessed. I think that I paid $800 for it. It might be the only time in my life that I indulged myself like that.
They aren’t all that rare. I just looked and there are a bunch of them on ebay with no bids yet. Looking at completed listings, I think I could not quite double my money. It probably should go to someone who would appreciate it more.
Watch trivia: Apollo astronauts got Omega Speedmaster Professionals from NASA to wear on missions (with a special strap so it would fit outside the pressure suit during moonwalks, etc.) https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/omega.html
IIRC those Speedmasters had a plastic crystal instead of glass or sapphire because a shattered watch crystal would be a bad thing in the space module. Plastic would just crack.
We had General Telephone in West L.A. back in the day. It was a little island surrounded by AT&T. I can still here it. “At the tone, General Telephone time is twelve thirty-one and twenty seconds. BEEP”
This is true. One of my three “nice” watches is a Speedmaster Professional from 1975, complete with the plastic crystal. It had some deep gouges in it, so I had it replaced by Omega some years back. I was quite surprised at the thickness of the old crystal: it seemed to be 2-3mm thick, as opposed to the 1mm thick crystals on cheap Timex watches back in the day.
IMHO, this watch is far more attractive than the Rolex Submariner. If I had to keep only one, it would be the Speedmaster Pro.
This is how I know you’re not familiar with modern Rolex
The MSRP for a submariner (is that date or no-date?) might be $9,150, but good luck finding one at that price. It is almost impossible to walk into a Rolex authorized dealer and find a Submariner (unless you have a large spend history, then they might pull one out of the safe for you).
The average price on the second hand marker for a new model (2021) no-date sub is about $13,000 for a used one, and $14-15K for a new one.
And the submariner is a relatively good deal as far as desirable Rolex models go. A Rolex Daytona is about $13K new from the Rolex dealer. They run $35K-$40K on the used market.
Rolex has an inverted economy. Their goods are worth more used from a second-hand source because it is impossible to source the new from an Authorized dealer.
It makes no sense to folk who are new to this world. It’s crazy.
I said this is what you find on the Rolex website. That is their MSRP for a stainless steel Submariner date.
Also noted YMMV at a retailer.
But you are correct. While I like mechanical watches I do not usually price out Rolex watches. I am not a fan of Rolex. Just personal taste. Although my brother does have a Rolex I would not mind having. I’m not totally opposed to them.
My Grail watch is a F.P. Journe but that will never happen unless I win a big lottery jackpot…and even then it is a stretch (not cost if I won a big lottery but that they are nearly impossible to get).
Also fond of VC and A. Lange & Söhne and Grand Seiko. Kinda like H. Moser & Cie too.
Journe is nice but way overrated for the price (again, on the secondary market, it’s almost impossible for an average schlub to buy one from one of the few boutiques). Even his quartz pieces (which were originally meant to be a somewhat more affordable entry to the brand) are now in the $30K range used.
Personally, if I had that kind of money, I’d buy something from A. Lange und Sohne.
My grail piece would be something bespoke from Roger Smith, but then I’d have to think “on the one hand, nice watch. On the other, a new house…”
A few decades from now, when smartphones will have been largely replaced by another technology (I have no idea what that would be, but I’m sure there will be one), there will probably be upscale brands making old-school smartphones as a jewellery-type accessory for an affluent clientele that will buy them for reasons very similar to those discussed in this thread.
Watchmaking went through the Quartz Crisis. For ages watches were an expensive item that not many could afford and the skill to make really good watches was an art as much of a science.
Then Japan came along and introduce quartz watches. They were inexpensive…really inexpensive…and all of a sudden almost anyone could afford a watch and, better still, it kept better time than all that expensive stuff.
That never changed but I think what people started wanting again was the artistry and skill found in a mechanical watch. If you want accurate timekeeping then there are loads of better choices than a mechanical watch. Cheaper too.
Think of a mechanical watch more as artwork. It doesn’t “do” anything. A picture is more accurate than a painting. But you buy the painting for reasons different than having an accurate photo.
I doubt anyone will pine for the days of an original iPhone and want artisans to re-create something like it (even if they could). Neat machines but they have no soul which is what I think people want.
That said some old Casio digital watches as seen a bit of a revival as a retro thing.
But wouldn’t people up to the 1970s have thought similarly about watches (which, for them, would have meant mechanical watches, because there were no others)? For them, having a watch might have had a status symbol aspect to it because the things were expensive, but getting a watch would, first and foremost, have been a utilitarian matter because it was the only way to have accurate time available anywhere, anytime. And presumably, such mechanical watches were, for them, high-tech and state-of-the-art devices (OK, maybe not in the 1970s anymore, but, say, in the 1890s).
