Yesterday, I got a text from Caliber Works Watch Repair, informing me that my great-grandfather’s pocket watch was ready to go after 18 months. The 18 months was fine — it’s an old family heirloom, it’s not as if I needed it right away, since it was just going to be displayed on a shelf. This watch was made in 1908, my great-grandfather the dairy farmer owned it as his work timepiece, it got passed on and mostly neglected. I did wear it on my wedding day, but then my grandparents took it back and stashed in a drawer. After they died, it bumbled about in various storage containers, neglected and ignored, and was damaged in major ways: the watch crystal was smashed, one of the hands was broken off, it had run down and was allowed to freeze up for decades. I got it a few years ago.
I wound it up and put it to my ear, and it worked! So I took it in to be restored and repaired. I was supposed to be grading papers today, but instead I drove all the way into Minneapolis and back — a 6 hour round trip — and got the watch back. It’s beautiful. I’m wondering now whether I should get rid of the iPhone and carry this robust, elegant piece of machinery instead. It wouldn’t ring and take calls, but that might be a positive advantage.
And here it is without my noise:
Now I better get to work on all those papers.
It’s indeed beautiful and functional – well worth the effort of fixing.
Thanks for preserving something beautiful.
Beautiful.
Nice. It has another advantage, the blackshirts at airport security can’t impound it to download all your files and contacts to investigate you as an enemy of the state.
My uncle inherited my grandfather’s watch the he used as an engine driver on the railways. It was also a fine timepiece. Later he brought a railway station clock at auction and when he checked the maintenance sheets tucked inside found that it had been used at the station my great grandfather managed when he worked there. Later he retrieved my Great grandfather’s diary and my great grandmothers household accounts book discovered by a builder who was renovating the old family home. The diary has a meticulous daily account of his voyage from Ireland and his early days working on the railways. Both books are now in the historical archives of the state library.
From my father I have his childhood catholic catechism book from the 1920’s, his old post office whistle from his days as a telegraph boy and his air force log book as well as an engraved keeper ring he gave to his girlfriend when he went to war. It turned out she wasn’t a keeper. From my mother I have some small gold nuggets and gold ore from her hometown. My sister has her bible and my fathers service medals. In today’s throw away society you have to wonder what will be handed down to the next generation.
ditto!
For a while, I went on a jag of watching watch restoration videos.
I remember PZ’s original quandary.
It is tricky stuff, doing it right:
One wonders what fun Holmes may have had X-D
https://www.thescienceofdeduction.org/post/2018/11/04/sherlock-holmes-the-watch-deduction
Time (ha ha) to dust of the vital question of: “why to watches and clocks use ‘IIII’ rather than ‘IV’ “. Not all do, the Great Clock of Westminster is the most famous exception. My assumption for years was that a fob-watch can be read upside down more easily, but… then my cheap Dutch clock also uses ‘IIII’. Throwing the topic at the internet returns multiple opinion…
How wonderful!
My grandfather was a clock repairman and somehow I managed to not inherit any of his clocks but I do have several nice old clocks around my place.
Another huge advantage of your watch is that it’s analog. You can glance at it and see a representation of how long it is until you need to be somewhere without having to do any calculating.
You’re fortunate to have it, Dr. Myers. All of my grandparent’s heirlooms – a fantastic coin collection promised to me, a gold watch my telegrapher grandfather carried for many years, and a collection of Civil War memorabilia – were all stolen and hocked by an alcoholic uncle.
Weylguy @ 10
Oh no! 😱
Not clock-related, but something PZ and others can use when looking at the garden and chilling out. I will not call it “shirking”, we all need peace and quiet.
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What the Birds in Your Yard Are Actually Saying to Each Other — And What they are saying about you. Heterospecies communication.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=VBsn3CF2Cl4
I gave a Funko Pop Rocks Michael Jackson figurine to a young woman and huge fan and I adore her.
I told her it’s something you stick in your closet for 20 years.
Horologist doesn’t mean what you probably think it does.
Well, that is one thing that PZ won’t get ‘all wound-up’ about! It’s not a patek philippe, but, it’s just as valuable to PZ.
This is an important perspective about time, too. https://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur