I have this feeling that despite being kind of cool, at $250K (what a house used to cost), this watch has a slightly higher profit margin than an iPhone or iPad.
An extremely complex case stages the show. The three overlapping cylinders on three levels are configured to deconstruct time. The main circle is the hour’s domain, flanked by two pavilions. One shows the minutes on a jumping disk for the tens and a running disk for the units. The other, slightly lower, displays the regular beat of a big titanium balance-wheel.
Anarchy takes hold of the hours indication beneath the sapphire-crystal dome every 60 minutes. The numeral of the hour, assembled in the center of the circle, explodes into chaos before instantly reassembling as the new hour. It then remains still until the next disintegration. Instead of a hand, 24 placards revolve and rotate on a complicated system of gears mounted on an epicycloidal gear-train.
BTW, how many of you, like your Uncle Dave, still wear watches instead of using the smartphone that’s grafted to your hand?
A watch where the numbers change?
Oh… my… God, what have you done ?!?
That’s not wacky.
If the (blind?) watchmaker had people strap cuckoo clocks to their wrists and walk around with the chains dangling, that would be whacky.
If you need to know the exact time that is a very poor watch. I’d call it a bracelet.
I wear an old Timex that keeps on ticking. How ever I stopped wearing one for years and went back to it because the clocks where I work don’t all show the same time. At home I look the lower right corner of my computer screen when I want to know the time.
I do carry a Trac phone which I keep turned off and use to make a few calls. The batteries last a very long time. Thanks for reminding me to recharge it. It’s been a few weeks. You can call me at work, you can call me at home. You can’t call me when I take a walk or mow the yard.
Wonder why it has 24 placards (12 pieces * 2 sides) to make 12 hour symbols? Maybe the other sides make Roman numerals.
I still wear a watch and would feel naked without it. Besides, my watch is also an altimeter, depth gauge, digital compass, multiple timer, and barometer. And it is water proof to 100 meters and solar powered so it never needs batteries or runs down. My cellphone can’t do that…
GMT Master II here.
Haven’t wore a watch since the 1970’s.
No need. There are so many reminders of the time everywhere that you would have do be in a desert not to find something flashing the time and temp in two different systems of measurement.
Cursor_
@KD Martin
12 numbers to display, each number split into 4 segments. 12*4=48
12 pairs of placards, each double sided. 12*2*2=48
[My bad. KD]
@Tom
I got a watch like yours, mine’s not quite as good (doesn’t have altimeter) but is also solar powered. In fact, I have just recieved it back from the manufacturer because the battery needed replacing. The solar cells top up a rechargable battery, which has a limited life. When it goes, make sure you get a decent company to replace the battery and keep it waterproof.
I wear no jewelry and some strap around my wrist would drive me crazy. Like Pedro, I prefer the sun dial or estimate the time.
#5 Frys has a huge sale on power supplies and you get a free laser pointer.
I have a G-Shock which I bought on eBay, it’s solar powered, best feature at night I place on a window sill. it does day-light savings time change on its own.
“$250K (what a house used to cost)”
Jeez, Boss! My wife and I bought our first house for just under $25,000. Sure, that was 40 years ago but, still, I think you could find a house to buy for under $250K. With so many foreclosures flooding the market, probably WAY less than $250K!!!
And, yes, I still wear a watch. An old Seiko. It’s my dive watch, my jungle watch, my mountain watch my anywhere-there-ain’t-no-cell-signal watch. BY the way – if you can afford a quarter million dollar watch, I doubt you need it to be waterproof to 1000 meters. How deep IS your damned marble bathtub?
Watch wearer here as well, Seiko 6309 divers circa 1981. I have a cell phone my job pays for which I only use as a phone. Watches are WAAAYY cooler than some Chi-com made “smartphone”….at least to an “old” 33 year old like me.
I wear an Oris F1 with a rubber strap but on the job-site where it can get banged up I just wear some cheapo $10 watch from Bass Pro Shops. I actually considered going to a watchmaking school years ago, now there are not many watch repair guys around and you have to send it somewhere to repair it. A watch with an automatic movement needs maintenance every four years or so.
Mickey Mouse goes borg.
Watch = Wannabe pimp.
What an utterly fatuous jerk. You sure wouldn’t want to go swimming with that weight strapped to your arm, you’d be dragged down into the blue quicker than a flash.
It’s a very cool watch but:
I have a nice Casio watch that displays the time, date and day of the week simultaneously, is solar powered, sets itself and cost around $30.
cool watch..
However, I’ll wait until the chinese provide me with a wall clock that does the exact same thing for $10..
I’m more than happy with my old Seiko and newer Fossil..
-s
A little special effect for just a quarter of a million. I got your special effect right here.
Effect THIS!!
I wear a Casio G-shock Waveceptor/Tough Solar day to day. Self-setting by the US atomic clock signal, never runs out of power, can quickly change time zones, and I only have to lift my arm to see the time.
I can see something handmade and this intricate running that much since it has both the standard handcrafted swiss internals and the extra parts that make up the hour hand. And hey, they wouldn’t build it if SOMEONE wasn’t going to buy it. Just not the people who think $250K is a lot of money like us normal folks.
#4 Europeans normally use 24 hour time instead of AM/PM.
Worthless junk for rich pricks!
I wear one of these:
http://skagen.com/item/233LTTM.fx