As an example of how independent watchmakers are way ahead of the general watch industry: IWC
proudly announced the creation of their Eternal Calendar perpetual calendar. A nice, though a watch that wears huge, addition to their perpetual calendar line, they say that their moon phase indicator will be accurate for 4500 years (a feat no doubt but i...
You can laugh but I intend to outlast Andersen's 11,000 year moon phase watch.
I might need Vlad to bite me a few more times.
IWC say that their moon phase is mathematically accurate to 45 million years, not just a paltry 4,500 years!
But I guess that reinforces your point that no one will be around to check!! Personally, I love the look of the Eternal Calendar and it’s smaller than my Deep Sea Sea-Dweller. The problem is that the price is a bit higher than the Rolex! All the best, Jon...
Not to mention that it's of course wrong.
It may be mathematically accurate for 45 M years but to an astronomical point of view it is not as the watch does not take into account that the Moon is slowly but constantly drifting away from the Earth.
Interesting, I didn’t know that.
I still think the Eternal Calendar looks pretty, apart from the hole in the dial. All the best, Jon
Fascinating point. Thanks. I’m sure Einstein
Would have something to say as well as time is changing as the universe expands
It's a bit off-topic but...
In this specific case Einstein as little to say. General relativity is not a factor when things are small enough and by "small" I mean the Solar system, where only the Mercury orbit is affected by relativistic effects and everything else is described perf...
Brilliant - I should know not to put a toe into an ocean. Physics is something that is way above my head no matter how many times I read the same thing.
Thanks for putting me in my proper place (I mean that sincerely). mk
I really didn't mean to lecture you or something like that.
I'm sorry if I did, it wasn't intentional.
No worries at all. I appreciate the education
I know when I’m out of my league. We’re just raising the educational bar of the website. 😉
I don’t even listen to the hype.
The point of this hobby is that you have to love what you’re wearing / collecting. At least IMO. Many brands from conglomerates have lost their soul. This watch is absolutely beautiful. I have never heard of this before. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thanks Gary
So many of the independents fly under the radar and their contributions to the field of horology is either lost or overwhelmed by the hype that consumes much of the public’s time and journalistic space.
To be fair...
...the IWC is not only a secular perpetual calendar but it's an "Eternal" perpetual calendar and as such not only it takes into account the non-leap year centuries but if works (or should work, as no one would be here to verifiy) until the year 4000, for ...
Point well taken.
But I also think independents (and I am throwing in brands like Patek, AP and Rolex in this bucket) are the driving force behind the industry. It appears that brands that are a part of the bigger groups lag behind and play catch up. There are examples of ...
Very long accurate moonphases...
And calendars are academic if your watch gets serviced ever 5 years or so.
100%.
In my mind the two most useful features are calendar and gmt. I have never used my chronos to actually measure anything itself 🤪.
Agreed though I would be more specific. Now that I’m retire I have no idea what’s the day or date. Now am sure to have some watches that tell both. And now that I’m traveling more the GMT is useful.
I do like the chronograph function which I use when I do consulting as that is time dependent (the best would be GMT + chronograph)
I don't have a WT because of the issue with the time change. Most WT watches do not account for the time change to daylight savings. Would drive me crazy
to have the time off by an hour. Yes I capital OCD and tend to alphabetize it to CDO.
Ya it does but that’s for information and not on the dial so I’m fine with the UTT
The Place Vendome model is beautiful