Hoping and praying the new year brings us ALL peace and justice. We are not free until all of us are free. If you are able to, please use your voices, however big or small. Have a word with whoever you can, your reps, your MPs, your leaders and call for an end to this madness, call for a ceasefire. This is not politics, this is tinkering level 10 to fix a broken world, to save it and restore it so that we can all enjoy it again, so that we can leave it for the future generations to enjoy it without fear. God bless you all. Free the watermelons đ
Whilst trying to restore a rare Heuer carrera with a derivative of a movement that claimed to be the first ever automatic chronograph, I came across this cool article which also has some canny parallels to what is happening in our world right now in the holy land. Whether itâs the industry of horology, war, media, politics and so on, the traits and qualities of a certain type of person(s) always seems to be present. A type of person who is willing to bend the truth, tell a mistruth or even an outright lie to convince others of its reputation and enigma, to convince others why they should revere a certain brand over a competitor. From what we have heard and seen regarding Palestine and Israel over the past few months, I sense that for a lot of people, the veil has somewhat been lifted. Respect has been lost, lies have been called out and our rosey image of certain institutions and certain people has forever changed.
This article is a good read and gives an insight in to the shenanigans that watch brands undertake in order for some reputational and economical gains. A trifling sum if you ask me. This article may also change your rosey view of your beloved watch brands and the watch industry.
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Rewriting history undermines the watch industry
With deference to the prosaic and self-congratulatory press releases that companies love to share with the watch world, Ken Kessler asks why brands canât simply tell the truth.
By Ken Kessler
December 12, 2023
George Santayana warned that, âThose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat itâ.
Conversely, Henry Ford, that poster child of intolerance, spat out, âHistory is more or less bunkâ.
Two opposing views but, for too many in the watch industry, alas, Ford is the one with whom they agree. For some watch houses, history is there for rewriting.
As cavalier with their own stories as they are with the English language, Swiss and not a few German wristwatch manufacturers play fast and loose with the facts.
Nobody wants consumers to be reminded that they made watches for Hitler to hand out to his officers.
The only deterrent to tampering with the past is that the internet places brand biographies at our fingertips, but even Wikipedia isnât free of corrupting when the manufacturers write their own entries.
Almost without exception, brands are guilty of creating faux accounts of two particular aspects of their legacies. The first is exaggerating longevity, in particular uninterrupted production.
In some cases, the original brands never even made wristwatches yet theyâre happy to suggest theyâve been at it for 250 years.
Doh: wristwatches didnât even arrive until the 20th century.
Only slightly less egregious is the second area ripe for revisionism, as there is room for doubt.
Itâs claiming to be responsible for horological firsts, whether milestone technical inventions or other achievements like attaining the greatest depth for diving watches.
Add to this a refusal to provide any disclosure or documentation when called to task by a journalist writing up a story, and you realise that Swiss watch houses take after their fellow countrymen in the banking industry. Silence or secrecy? The phrase âsomething to hideâ springs to mind.
Says watch journalist Simon De Burton: âThere are plenty of reasons why watch brands should never attempt to rewrite their histories â not least of which is that, in an age of instantly accessible facts which might have been impossible to unearth 20 years ago, the truth will always out.â
De Burton and other writers who do care about the facts are drawn to online watch enthusiasts and scholars who, he says, âappear to be on an almost evangelical mission to catch-out the fakersâ.
With forensic approaches such as employed by the tenacious perezcope.com, which exists to expose revisionism and obscurantism, it has become increasingly more difficult to deceive journalists, retailers and ultimately consumers.
Whatâs so worrying in this era of fake news is that journalists who grew up after the arrival of online sources tend to believe press releases and brand-originated puffery.
Theyâre unaware of a time when one had to undertake actual research, when book stores werenât bursting with brand histories and newsstands carried few watch magazines.
One might argue that they have no reason to be suspicious, but more experienced hacks know exactly how disingenuous brands can be.
Industry stalwart and chairman of Time Products Marcus Margulies sums up his thoughts on the relationship between brands and contemporary media, saying: âBrands are, for the most part, commercial entities that ignore their history and tell their clients what they hope will maximise sales. Each journalist is free to share their thoughts, which sadly are often a direct reflection of their relationship with certain brands and the advertising spend.â
Perhaps the least concerning of the claims for being first are the celebrated âperfect stormsâ where three or more manufacturers came up with similar solutions within months of each other.
One on-going debate is who deserves the honour of creating the first automatic chronograph, a fracas dating back to 1969 involving Seiko, Zenith and a collaboration of Heuer, Buren, Breitling and Dubois-Depraz, all three contenders claiming the title.
The ambiguity is down to definitions: Are we discussing first produced? Modular vs integrated? First sold? First shown at a watch fair?
More recently emerging from the briny is a similar battle about credit for the first diving watch â not merely water-resistant but actually made for deep sea dives, as opposed to the less rigorous demands of scuba diving.
This three-way rivalry dates back to 1953 and involves Rolexâs Submariner, the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms and the Zodiac Sea Wolf.
Muddying the waters even further â again thanks to what criteria you wish to apply, e.g. does it have a rotating bezel? â are Paneraiâs brutally rugged watches first seen in the late-1930s, and Omegaâs double-cased Marine of 1932, neither of which sport said bezel.
But they were designed to go deep, so add them to the mix. All can claim the honour with some justification, and â being generous â the confusion might just be down to sloppy research.
Such examples arenât so much about lying as they are pedantry.
In both of those debates, you could argue a case for each according to the definition. So heated is the battle to own the title of the worldâs thinnest watch, a distinction which seems to change monthly, that the categories increase to spread the glory.
Thinnest repeater, thinnest chronograph, thinnest automatic, thinnest watch made on a Tuesday â take your pick.
There remains a litany of stories which keep watch enthusiasts fired up in bar disputes. The creation of assorted watch case designs and movement details have been declared by later users who categorically inherited them when they bought the companies which did devise them.
A perfect example is the design of the first successful automatic wristwatch, which belongs to British watchmaker John Harwood whatever anyone else might declare.
The worst abuse of this brands is often âdisappearâ independent designers, claiming in-house artistry.
But only an idiot would erase the involvement of a rock star designer like the late GĂŠrald Genta.
Another problematic area is the reviving of long-dormant brands â some out of action for centuries.
The definitive work, Kathleen H. Pritchardâs Swiss Timepiece Makers 1775-1975, lists over 8,500 entries, and that stops 50 years ago.
A phone call to a solicitor, some deep digging, and you, too, can own a forgotten name with horological roots in the 1700s. Bang! Instant provenance.
Peter Roberts, instrumental in the rebirth of famed British maker Dent, says: âWe didnât need to gild the lily. The history was genuine, it was admirable, and it was a name worth reviving without any fiction.â
The same is true for Duckworth Prestex, legitimately reborn as it was revived by a family descendant, as was Vertex.
Says Don Cochrane, âI grew up with stories about Vertex but it was my grandmotherâs passing which served as a catalyst to bring it back to life. Our history is a genuine British-Swiss collaboration â we produced watches for the âDirty Dozenâ during the Second World War â so we didnât have to fabricate a thing.â
As De Burton says: âA watch brand should not have to rely on the past for its future.
History is important, but when the need arises to manipulate that history in an attempt to boost sales something must be wrong.â
Deserving of respect are the long-extant brands satisfied with their genuine histories. Omegaâs NASA connection, Hamiltonâs dominance of Hollywood when films need tool watches, Doxa producing the first orange-dialled diving watch for better legibility â there is no reason to spill porkies.
When brands are caught lying, the distrust this creates will never go away. De Burton sums it up perfectly.
âThe key is to research diligently, stick only to the facts whether they are good or bad and, if thereâs the slightest uncertainty, say nothing at all. Otherwise, a level of trust that might have been built-up over decades, even centuries, could be lost in a heartbeat.â
Or the tick of a timepiece.
Credit: watchpro December 2023
Greetings and salutations my dear friends
Many of you will be walking around with heavy hearts right about now. I too have been pondering how to use my small voice to provide some comfort to anyone that I can. We are all programmed to be partisan in nearly every aspect of our lives. wether it be sports or politics or even which brands we buy. Coke or Pepsi, apple or android. The power of partisanship is so strong and blind that some of us will support a football team that loses week in week out, causing us misery and pain, yet it is easier to get a divorce than it is to stop supporting that team. Some of us wonât touch Rolex with a barge pole and others will queue up for days for a plastic omega. Itâs the same with politics, instead of us collectively interviewing the politicians from all parties to see who will do the best job for us, we just support one party because we have labelled ourselves as left wing or right wing without realising that both wings belong to the same bird. The most powerful tool in this day and age is not a Bergeon or horotec but the narrative. Whoever controls the narrative has the most powerful tool/weapon at their disposal. So itâs hard to find the real truth in these dreadful moments. But we can all agree that in this day and age we are always lied to. And there can only be one objective truth. Just look at the lies that we have been told over the past few years regarding a certain virus. Most of us believed these lies only to now realise we were duped. And this happens over and over again. There is good hidden inside everyone and people want to use their voices to try and do some good in the world but first we need the truth. So instead of us mere mortals trying to tell each other what the truth is, I advise you all to sincerely with an open heart ask the almighty to show you the truth and surely the truth will show itself and then you can decided if and how you should use your voice. In many political situations people will throw their voices around either for what they believe in, or some will jump on the bandwagon to virtue signal based on a trend that they think will benefit their appeal to others . Actors will act and idiots will be idiots based on the mask that suits their face, however the Middle East situation is where we really see peoples true faces as I have seen over the past few days. It is hard sometimes to accept or see the the truth because it may require us to go against our own tribe and that is human nature I guess. It may cost us socially and financially to do so and it will also sting if it doesnât confirm our own biases. So whatever side of the electric fence you sit on I ask you to please put aside your biases and your partisanships and ask the creator with an open heart to guide you to the truth. I have been sitting here for days not being able to do anything. Usually I try and say something at the end of my videos but I canât even concentrate on filming or working at the moment. All I can think about is using my platform to say something without alienating or dividing more people. I asked the almighty to allow me to do something good as most of us normal folk are always helpless to do anything in these situations as our actions and voices are usually drowned out. And it seems like a hollow platitude to ask for peace but thatâs all I have in my limited vocabulary is to pray for peace.
P.s please please there is no need to engage with this post as it would suggest that some of us have the truth whilst others donât. Let it be a private Q+A between you and the almighty. Ask him for the truth. He is the all knowing but If you want, tell him joe sent you.
The power of public opinion is probably the only thing that will stop this thing escalating in to WW3. So itâs important to know the truth before we influence that public opinion. Uphold the truth even if it means going against yourself and your tribe.
Peace and love to you all.
âLet my people go because they are usâ
Thank you guys for all the feedback yesterday on the ânekkid acornâ watches. It was a mixed bag of comments and feedback but all of it was very constructive and respectful. So for now it looks like my little acorn is not going to grown in to an oak. Itâs hard to design a watch from scratch and would probably add to the cost and be very time consuming. Iâm pretty sure I would have to do some wind tunnel testing to see if it was aerodynamic enough while youâre walking about. Wouldnât want it to drag you down and consume extra energy, thus causing you to stop every ten minutes for refuelling at the local coffee shop. I would probably have to do a crash test to see if it would survive a head on collision with a Rolex or a lamppost. But I hear you. I think homages may have to be a side dish alongside a nekkid unique design. Below are some famous companies who have also done the Royal Oak design just to give you an idea of the popularity of this iconic design hence why I thought it would be a safe design. Back to the pipe it is for some more dreaming. Peace and love to you all
Hello friends. Just testing the water with this post to see how many of you would be interested in some nekkid branded watches. Not trying to re-invent the wheel here. Many companies over the years such as bulova, Casio and others have used this same design and least you wonât have to say itâs a knockoff AP. Itâs a nekkid oak, hehe. There will be an automatic with swiss eta 2824 and a quartz chronograph with Swiss Ronda. Both will be available in blue, black and green. If there is enough interest then Iâll make a private video explaining all the details. Iâll also open and strip these down to see the quality of work since they are made in china with Swiss parts.
So do you guys remember part 1 of the omega jedi video? Many of you noticed the box. Well as I finish off editing the full video, I keep hearing the cries from you guys telling me to restore the box. So shall I do it, shall I do it, shall I do it?
Sorry everyone who was in the middle of watching this video. YouTube put a copyright strike on a small sound/clip I had in the video so Iâm uploading again
Another turd muffin trying to scam people using my logo. He is replying to your comments using my logo and pretending to be me, so please ignore and report. Stay vigilant my fellow vigilantes
Greetings, remember me? I was abducted by little aliens over the summer holiday but theyâve returned me back so Iâve done a video for my people. Itâs a dive watch from the 1960s and should be uploaded tonight. Missed you guys. Peace âď¸
Hi everyone. Thereâs someone using my logo and replying to your comments with a scam offer about a giveaway so please be careful. Itâs a scam. I have reported him to YouTube. What an absolute tool!!!
Greetings and a warm welcome to you all.
The mission of The Nekkid Watchmaker is to strip away all the BS and snobbery in watchmaking and to encourage a new generation of watchmakers in to this wonderful art. In essence we are all Nekkid watchmakers.
My name is Joe and I'm a watchmaker specialising in service and restorations. I am a bit late to the youtube party but I thought I would start this channel for any watch lovers out there looking for some help, advice or just a discussion about watches. I have many years at the bench and also handle many watches each day, so I thought it would be a good idea to talk about some of the watches that pass through my hands. I will be doing reviews and tutorials on the subject.