https://youtube.com/@WristwatchRevival
Which I only knew about through Marshall’s Magic: the Gathering links, but the watch stuff is surprisingly soothing.
Mechanical watches are diamonds for men.
— Plautus (c.254-184 BC)
Might I suggest you reach out to Marshall @WristwatchRevival and ask if he wants to give it a proper service? I'm sure he'd be delighted by this project.
Edit: you say "I glued the movement to the dial". That sounds like the dial will never come off, making servicing night impossible, or am I misunderstanding this? Also: "in a normal watch the dial would get sandwiched between the glass and the case somehow" no, typically there are holes drilled through the mainplate with screws that grab or hold the dial feet. The movement complete with dial and hands normally floats in the case, held in place with a couple screws.
I'm sure he would be but I think he must get lots of requests and I am not sure it is his usual victim for a repair =)
It is glued with B7000 glue commonly used for phone repairs and the same glue used on the back glass. It softens right up with some heat and isopropyl alcohol.
True, thank you for that I will change it in the write up. I was thinking mostly of these Seiko movements which to my understanding are normally just sandwiched by the case back but that is certainly not the norm across other watches.
I'll probably replace it when a new watch comes out with a feature I really want (unlikely) or the battery stops lasting a full day, which might take a few more years as I don't even get close to running out unless I forget to charge it overnight.
Tiny ass battery + daily full charge discharge = toast well before 10 years
If they actually cared about sustainability the screen and battery would be user replaceable
While I'm with you in spirit, I'm not sure that's strictly accurate.
The F-91W battery is rated for 10 years: https://support.casio.com/storage/en/manual/pdf/EN/009/qw593...
The calculator version (which I use) is rated for three years, assuming you only let the alarm go off for 20 seconds per day, and use the calculator function for less than one hour per day: https://support.casio.com/storage/en/manual/pdf/EN/009/qw320...
What would you consider the average life of an Apple Watch? If it's 5 years, OP is right.
I'd say the Apple Watch is too new for anyone to know. I still use my six-year-old Apple Watch.
use the calculator function for less than one hour per day
SEK 587.14 = $54.23 USD at Amazon Sweden: https://www.amazon.se/Casio-Herrar-Digitalklocka-hartsrem-F-...
Duties, tariffs, out of control regulations and taxes to pay for underperforming civil servant's pension funds. It all adds up.
You'll quickly find that the price differences mostly reflect some combination of various laws and taxes. E.g., I recall reading (pre-Brexit) that UK law required shops to have a two-year warranty period for durable items sold. As in, you bought it from them, you could return it to them and get a new item. Or make them deal with the warranty. In the US, almost anything other than dead-on-arrival can (doesn't always, but can) require the consumer to ship it in the original packaging to the manufacturer's service center at their own cost. That is not a free service. And there may be tariffs involved.
My point being that they’d have to sell a hell of a lot of services to outpace the iPhone, and those services are mostly popular because they integrate into the iPhone. And people want the new shiny ones.
[0] https://ultimatestockpicker.com/company-detail/AAPL/
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertanaas/2020/02/07/apple-wa...
An apple watch will intentionally brick itself (to preserve battery life, honest) after 8 years.
If something is broken, sure. It might need replacing. But that's rarer, I think, than people realize, and rarely is it more than one or two parts of the movement.
I recently repaired my great-grandfather's pocket watch and the only replacement necessary was the mainspring.
Heh I feel bad when I'm 10 min late to a call, but if I had your watch I'd be 20 min late!
If I need the precise time, I can pull out my phone or just ask another human who nearly because they will surely have a phone :)
(Note to non-watch enthusiasts: we are talking about the tolerances on very old watches; a modern $100 mechanical is usually accurate to within 5-10 seconds a day)
It only "lives" when you wear or wind it. It's only a few seconds of active "work" on your part per day but I find myself feeling kind of paternal toward them, or like I'm caring for a little mechanical pet buddy or something.
Quartz watches and computers in general are also miracles to me, as well!
But mechanical watches are their own special sort of miracle that I really appreciate.
For those who want to learn more about it, this is an awesome interactive explanation of the functioning of mechanical watches: https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/
Mechanical watches are a deep and expensive rabbit hole though.
But it can also be very affordable! Can get a perfectly great mechanical for around $100!
(Although, now that Seiko has abandoned that price level and prices on everything have gone up in general, $150-$200 is perhaps a more realistic starting point. Still a lot of "new old stock" Seikos at that $100ish price though if you look...)
While I realize these dollar amounts are not affordable to everybody, I have noticed that many people who scoff at these prices happily spend hundreds or thousands per year on their hobbies and entertainment....
Seiko 5 SNZG09K1 $245 Vostok Amphibia 420059 $154 Casio A158W-1 $30 Orit CS201 $34 Wilk Classic Skeleton $970
All prices in Canadian dollars. Each of these has a place in horology; meaning; or use for me. The Wilk is a custom piece; there will never be one that is the same. The Casio is for "geek cred". The Orit is for health monitoring. I normally wear two watches. Both the Seiko 5 and the Amphibia have cemented their place in watch history.
They make me happy... these watches are, in general, not looked down upon by "watch snobs".
This story (making an Apple watch into a mechanical) makes me smile... now I want one!
Note that the Seiko 5 SNGZ09K1 is now $281 (Canadian) from Amazon. But the Vostok is $148 now (again, from Amazon).
A measurement only ankle bracelet would be a perfect solution
[1] https://www.casio-europe.com/euro/products/watches/radio-con...
Everybody else sees an affordable Casio. But those who know, know.
BTW, you forgot to mention that the LCW-M100TSE has a sapphire crystal, which is quite a feature in that price class.
They are different kinds of marvels to me, and I deeply appreciate them! I'm a big G-Shock fan in particular.
I am (among many other things!) a computing enthusiast, a quartz watch enthusiast, and a mechanical watch enthusiast. I find that appreciating each one of those things enhances my appreciation for the others.
https://community.carbide3d.com/t/watchmaking-on-the-nomad/4...
and I found an animated overview:
I think a lot of techie types might not realize what an engineering marvel a mechanical watch movement is. I'm sure you all realize there are a lot of teeny tiny gears.
But does the HN crowd realize there are 24 precious gems (lab-grown rubies and sapphires!!!!) inside the NH38 movement, serving as bearings and such?
While the Apple Watch is in some ways orders of magnitude more advanced than a mechanical watch movement, in some ways the mechanical watch movement is more impressive. It could be argued that while the Apple Watch is the sum of roughly 100 years of electrical engineering, the mechanical watch is the sum of several thousands of years of mechanical engineering. It took mankind an incredible number of years to really master timekeeping to that level.
(Not that the two are mutually exclusive. I find that the more I understand electronic timekeeping, the more I appreciate mechanical timekeeping, and vice-versa)