I see he has a copy of "Watchmaking" by George Daniels. That is the "Knuth" of watchmaking.
Here in Britain, we have Roger W Smith, the only watchmaker in the world who makes everything by hand. He was the principal disciple of George Daniels, a truly legendary watchmaker, who sadly died a few years ago.
Daniels famously taught himself watchmaking by taking apart old clocks, putting them back together and repairing them when he was young. If he had been born in the digital age, he'd have been a hacker comparable to Woz.
He didn't just make his own watches, he also made all the specialised tools needed. These days he is perhaps best known for the Daniels Co-Axial Escapement found in some Omega watches, which for many years was believed to be impossible to make.
If you google Roger Smith, he has lots of interesting videos on Youtube showing various parts of the watchmaking process from raw materials.
There are a few interviews with George Daniels too. Here's one talking about his first complete, from scratch watch:
I'm going to echo your sentiments regarding "Watchmaking" by George Daniels[1]. Anyone even remotely interested in watchmaking should order that book immediately.
I hate to be overly pedantic, this is HN after all, but Roger Smith still gets mainsprings, balances, sapphire crystals, and screws from outside sources. This of course does nothing to take away from his timepieces.
> Roger Smith still gets mainsprings, balances, sapphire crystals, and screws from outside sources.
I wasn't 100% sure about that and knew someone would point out if I was in error. I also want to be clear that my comment should not detract from the work of Masahiro Kikuno either, which looks incredible. Whether there are one or two people in the world doing this makes little difference to what an achievement it is.
Also Roger Smith now has a fairly large workshop with apprentices doing some of the work for him. He's no longer one man working in his spare room, although that is how he started.
In fact, when he first approached George Daniels about becoming an apprentice, Daniels told him to make a watch by himself and he'd appraise it first. So he did. Daniels told him it wasn't very good and made him do it again. So he did. After that, Daniels gave in.
Wonderful anecdote about Smith getting his start in Daniel's workshop, I had never heard that before.
It seems like the late 90's and 2000's saw somewhat of a renaissance in independent watchmaking. You've had people like Smith, Voutilainen, Dufour, Laurent Ferrier, the Gronefeld brothers, Romain Gauthier, Daniel Roth all become successful to varying degrees. I feel like the internet played a huge role in making this all possible since it allowed them to gain exposure on watch forums and now Instagram without the heavy cost of marketing.
This is what George Daniels has to say about bringing his Coaxial escapement to the Swiss manufacturers (experts at the time):
"I took a watch and a drawing and showed them how it worked and they said, "oh well, its complicated, and in any case we don't make pocket watches". So, I went home and got a wristwatch and put the same escapement in the wrist watch, took it back, "oh well we make thinner wristwatches". So, I went home and got a very thin wristwatch ... then there was some reason they couldn't accept it, then they did try to make it and failed, therefore it was no good ... went on like that for 15 years"
If you listen to some of Douglas Engelbart's interviews he says the same things. Let's not do this to the up and coming young people in our field. Yes, lots of dumb ideas (really just learning mistakes) but know when to let them pass.
I think you're swinging too far in the other direction. From my perspective, the problem with software is the reverse: noophilia. Our dumb young people (and by some estimates I'm still one, though I think the dumb part is fading over time) build dumb things and people adopt them because they're "cool". Conservatism in the face of upending our everything for the newest trend is not something to look down upon, and yet there is a large segment of the software development community that does exactly that.
> Here in Britain, we have Roger W Smith, the only watchmaker in the world who makes everything by hand.
I don't know if Roger Smith literally makes everything from scratch, but if I recall correctly Philippe Dufour and FP Journe are approximately as "in-house" as he is (though Journe is becoming relatively mainstream these days).
I would say Dufour is approaching the same legendary status Smith has, especially considering the waiting list (and auctions) for Simplicity models.
If anyone is really interested in Watchmaking, I wouldn't start out with G. Daniel's book. It's really about making a watch from raw materials.
I would start with books by Fried. If you feel comfortable with 90% of Practical Watch Repair in a year, or two; go for Daniel's book. I guarantee most will not get through Practical Watch Repair, but might come back to the hobby/profession later in life. When time is more cherished?
George Daniels was a brilliant Watchmaker. The book is o.k. There are parts of the book where it seemed rushed. George expects the reader to have a working knowledge of basic watch repair, and know exactly how a mechanical watch function. There's not much on repair, cleaning, or oiling.
I really liked Kikuno's workshop. That is years worth for tooling too. It's not cheap stuff either. My point is don't go out and spend a fortune on tooling until you can clean, oil, and time a 17 jeweled wristwatch with under $500 worth of tools.
It's a really a good feeling resurrecting an older watch, and knowing how to fix it if it breaks down, or runs slow.
That said, I'll get political. Many of the major watch houses will not sell you parts for your watch. You buy a $10 grand Rolex, and can't buy a new crown. They claim it's for quality assurance, but it's a money grab. That's it. The govenemment knows it violates The Sherman Anti-trust Act, but they have bigger fish to fry--I guess? They said it was a rich man's problem? This said while they wearing Rolexes(couldn't be gifts?), with Lobbyists scurrying around in the chambers.
If you do get good at watch repair, you will look at watches, maybe the world, differently?
Since I got into watch repair, I stopped looking at the outside of many mechanical things. It just happened? Maybe because I used to be an auto mechanic, but I believe it was the watch repair that changed me.
I agree 100%. I wouldn't recommend trying to teach yourself programming from Knuth either, hence the comparison :)
On the political side, you might want to keep a close eye on Anthony Cousins' ongoing lawsuit against the Swatch group (ETA). If he wins, it will affect Rolex and others too.
To be fair to Rolex, their big problem is not with QC, but fakes incorporating genuine parts. It's a pretty unique problem that doesn't affect any other brand to the same extent.
Here in Britain, we have Roger W Smith, the only watchmaker in the world who makes everything by hand. He was the principal disciple of George Daniels, a truly legendary watchmaker, who sadly died a few years ago.
Daniels famously taught himself watchmaking by taking apart old clocks, putting them back together and repairing them when he was young. If he had been born in the digital age, he'd have been a hacker comparable to Woz.
He didn't just make his own watches, he also made all the specialised tools needed. These days he is perhaps best known for the Daniels Co-Axial Escapement found in some Omega watches, which for many years was believed to be impossible to make.
If you google Roger Smith, he has lots of interesting videos on Youtube showing various parts of the watchmaking process from raw materials.
There are a few interviews with George Daniels too. Here's one talking about his first complete, from scratch watch:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CSeTi93f2eU