Tick Tock Influences

I wrote this for fun! That's the only preface needed. I also turned this into my first video essay too! You can find that on my YouTube through my Link Tree.

The Intricacies of a Very Expensive Hobby and the Importance of One of Functional Artisanry’s Last Holdouts

No, I am not referring to the popular social media app. I mean watches—specifically automatic and mechanical watches. Though, we will start by indulging in the observation of Quartz watches, as they have their place in the “Watch-dom” I have found myself observing. It is the observation of the modern Quartz watch that is integral to the understanding and appreciation of their ancestral mechanical watches.

Seiko invented the Quartz watch in 1969 with the Seiko Quartz Astron 35SQ, ditching “Watch-dom’s” strictly mechanical past for a quasi-mechanical, battery powered future. With the Atomic Age’s “Machine-O-Matic” appeal, lower prices, and astronomically better timekeeping, Seiko hit it off and started a revolution in the industry that wouldn’t be matched until the Pulsar LED in 1970—the first true entirely digital watch. Seiko had achieved every manufacturing engineer’s dream—fewer moving parts, easier and faster manufacturing, and lower costs. However great that revolution may seem, like most, it caused a denigration of a past of artisanry, craftsmanship, and dexterous handicraft in the eyes of the mainstream. Why own a slow, clunky piece of art when you can own a lighter, more-accurate, self-sufficient, and “better” Quartz watch? (Don’t forget cheaper too).

Quartz watches are convenient. My go-to down and dirty work watch is a cheap, yet stylish Quartz watch. One can rely on it for all its advantages, and the Quartz revolution is just that—revolutionary… you can buy a much less worrisome watch that looks just as good and stylish as a mechanical one. In appearance, they are “great”. In convenience, they are “great”. However, I am not letting the dominion of Quartz manufacturing off that easy.

The Quartz circuit board has disengaged generation after generation from their timekeeping. One can set their Quartz watch down and put it in a drawer for five years, should one want, never having to worry about getting it maintained, wound, oiled, or even thought about. Sure, one might have to change a battery every so often… But rarely so, if ever. One could just disregard the effort and buy a new one instead. Despite the Quartz Dominion, it is very impressive how well some watch manufacturers have preserved the mechanical art and jumped over the hurdles of our modern Throwaway society.

Fortunately, market trends suggest that mechanical watches are seeing a come-back (Babish, Oct 25, 2021). But why? Is it just for aesthetics? Perhaps to show off? Though maybe part of the equation, that did not feel like the answer to me.

Mechanical watches typically lose between five and ten seconds a day, need maintained every three-or-so years, and are susceptible to more wear. Are mechanical watches just worn to show off? So, why are mechanical watches still produced, despite being so outdated an expensive? Well, let us go straight to the source and see if contemporary watch manufacturers know. I would hope they know!

Rolex provides a catchy, but seemingly useless mission, “to make the planet perpetual.” For proper context, their slogan comes from a 2019 initiative to encourage exploration and the average adventurer’s “protecting of the planet” — all good things, but not very revealing of why they make mechanical watches. Albeit a good watchmaker, and a huge player in modern watch-production, I would say their name and prices are a bit unjustifiably inflated. Apparently, their current mission is too. From this, one should learn that the most popular does not necessarily mean the most meaningful. My mistake for going to the most popular first, I suppose. I moved on to the next watchmaker.

Patek Philippe, a Swiss watchmaker founded in 1839, had this to say for a mission statement, “'To be the leader in high quality watchmaking for the next 100 years.” Okay, fair enough—I will admit simplicity is better with things like mission statements. Patek Phillipe obviously sees a future in the production of mechanical watches… but why? Why keep producing mechanical watches for that long? Why pour a hundred years and millions of man-hours into designing thousands of mechanisms for watch after watch? Why put in the time to engrave part after part? By HAND, no less, for some watch collections.

Do any watchmakers know why they are in the “obsolete” watch business? Has the ubiquity of precision timekeeping caused them to forget? For some companies, yes. But obviously not for all, as they still produce them, and I have a theory as to why. To me, it appears that the modern production of these ornate mechanisms of the past is perpetuated on an unspoken desire.

From all my reading and personal observation, here is what I believe that desire to be.

Mechanical watches are an engaging unknown with a legacy. Let me delve into what I mean by that.

For the mechanical watch consumer, myself included, there is something primal and mysterious to having mechanical mechanisms working behind the scenes to make your day a little bit more enjoyable. When you are forced to engage with physicality, to wind a watch, when you are forced to learn the intricacies of a machine, to have it maintained, and when you need to know a machines inner workings to properly maintain that machine, you are connected at a primal level to that machine. You can’t work on a precision Quartz watch. You cannot engage and contend with it. You can’t dial a Quartz’s movement by hand. All Quartz movements do predictably the same things—keep time as accurate as possible. Quartz’s only room for engagement is every year when Day Light Savings time comes around, and every two years when you need to change the battery.

For the watch producers that don’t know why they produce antiquity, I believe this:

I believe it is the upholding of hundreds-year long legacies, and the challenges of pushing the mechanical limits of that legacy from one watch design to the next that drives them.

To summarize, mechanical challenges and its legacy engages the observer. It is the mechanical limitations that drive the consumer to engage and the manufacturer to improve.

Limitations matter. Engagement intrigues. Therefore, mechanical watches are inherently more meaningful than Quartz watches, even if they are less accurate and costlier to produce. They have a “soul”.

I call the combination between function and art Function Artisanry (a stretch I know). Though I believe mass-production, consumerism, and high-level technology should remain free to operate, it hurts me to see art and handiwork be traded in for disengaging, meaningless technology. With that said, I will end my master watch-thesis with this statement: Your Apple Watch cannot and will not be a family heirloom.

Bibliography

Babish, S. (Oct 25, 2021). Mechanical watches are back in style. Why are they suddenly so popular? Retrieved from WFLA News Channel 8: https://www.wfla.com/reviews/br/fashion-accessories-br/watches-br/mechanical-watches-are-back-in-style-why-are-they-suddenly-so-popular/#:~:text=Why%20are%20mechanical%20watches%20popular,high%2Dpriced%20designer%20mechanical%20watches.

Rolex. (n.d.). From Exploration to Preservation. Retrieved from https://www.rolex.com/en-us/world-of-rolex/perpetual-planet.html#:~:text=Rolex%20continues%20the%20legacy%20of,to%20make%20the%20planet%20perpetual.