This is another comment, since I am Swiss citizen: this is one of the most comprehensive report of the Swiss watch industry. I personally thank you for the great content. P.S. Another part of this industry was during the period 1900 to 1945, the production of relay mechanisms for the manufacturing industries, under contracts; these relay mechanisms were highly customized and consisted of stepwise mechanisms for stepwise process activation.
I would like to see a Part 2 of this video, where you talk about different movements and their approaches to precision and ingenuity:Citizen's Eco Drive,Citizen satellite wave, Seiko's TwinQuartz, Bluva Accutron (tuning fork instad of a quartz crystal, Temperature compensated Breitling/Citizen One and of course Grand Seiko Spring Drive!
By the way the NOT Gate that you have on your account logo was initially created as a clock oscillator. Then the logic properties got on the way and we have stacked on 1984.
i'm glad he sounds better. Last time he sounded really in the dumps like a draft dodger. Maybe this topic is more cheerful for him. He gets depressed when he has to cover Taiwan's uneasy future.
legacy German luxury car makers should study the revival of the Swiss mechanical watches, Let's rethink and ditch the "20-inch" and all (but the entertainment module) dashboard display panels and put the mechanical gauges back where they belong
Greetings from Switzerland, so nice to hear such a well-informed and balanced review of one of this country's most renowned industries. Anytime you're here either for the first time or on a return trip, let me know, I'd love to meet to discuss technology and business topics. Keep up the impressive work and all the best! Valerio, Lugano area.
I think one watch is also worth mentioning: Casio's F-91W. It is the quintessential quartz watch. Cheap, reliable, and somewhat timeless, at least today. I myself wear a more expensive Casio solar watch that can set itself based on radio time beacons like DCF77, because this watch will work until the end of time. It can't run out of battery like my phone, and it's on time. Always.
I own A178WA-1A, A168W-1, and A158WA-1DF, because I've always hated the plastic/rubber straps that eventually break. I know, I had them when I was a kid. I bought the A158WA-1DF only about a year ago in 2023, purely out of nostalgia. I rarely use any of them. Battery life is insanely good (7 to 10+ years on single coin battery) with these modern reproductions.
@@catsspat I've got a plastic band one, but its a G-Shock, and I'm not even sure they *come* with metal bands... Also, I like how the plastic bands slowly wear off over time, showing that you actually use your watch.
The discovery of a crystal that vibrates at a fixed frequency vs a complex train of mechanical components that needs regular cleaning and servicing, is like suddenly inventing the hammer after centuries of using a rock to drive a nail.
@@SineWaveMood It IS a fixed frequency, No idea what you are talking about. Crystal controlled radios were the norm for half a century for matters like the military and avionics.
I use a pocket watch daily. I have 3D printed a stand for it, where I place it. Both at home and at work on my desk. One huge advantage over a mobile phone is that I can simply look at the watch and read the time in an instant. No need to physically pick it up nor press anything on it. It needs to be wound up every day, but that is no problem for me. As for the watch, it is an old Soviet Molnija "Frankenwatch" with a 3603 movement that I picket up at a local flea market in good condition and super cheap and implanted it into an old "railroad style" case which had the older 3602 movement (not shock proof). Got it serviced professionally a couple of years ago. Runs without problems. As for accuracy, the watch tends to run a bit fast, about 5 seconds per day overall, sometimes more, sometimes less. I hate the feeling of anything on my hand, no watch, no jewelry, no bracelet or similar. I need my hands free of anything. And rings are absolutely out of the question. That is why I never liked wearing wrist watches, even when I got them as a gift. I rather take out the pocket watch and check the time on it than to have anything on my hands.
What a *WONERFUL* channel you have. Most Excellent in it's research, scripts, editing, narration and with fantastic images to accompany every segment of your subjects. Your Channel is as Entertaining as it is Informative! 10/10
Some Swiss companies also focused on design during the quarts crisis to differentiate themselves with the Japanese. Though not huge hits at the time models like the Patek Philippe nautilus, Audemars Piguet royal oak are now flagship models for the modern brands.
You must put a huge amount of effort into making videos like this. A lot of research, related history and finance connections all tied in. Very impressive! How you put videos like this together would make a good video!
Citizen makes fantastic machines I fix cnc machines and I will say the art of watch making built my industry. Now we have sub micron machines milling perfect circles.
Thank you Asianometry! Not too long ago I was reminiscing about an all-black swatch I had back in the late 80's, and how the "all-black" Pixel watch reminds me so much of it! That got me thinking of the evolution of the watch over the years, and how as a patented Watch Destroyer I enjoyed the swatches for their durability. I suspected Swatches were invented to counter the Seiko's and Casio's of my time, but I did know the full story, nor did I know the context. Thank you for this video. And yes: let's see how the Swiss watch industry handles the onslaught of smart watches!
Onslaught is a little much. Most people don't wear any kind of watch, and the smart watches have coalesced around just a handful of makes that are barely more than a specialized display for information already carried on a mobile device, a host device without which most "smart" watches cannot function at all. This trend doesn't seem to be going back to the watch having significant growth ahead as a standalone device. A shrinking market is probably all there is for traditional watches. The rest will just be remote wrist displays of one sort or another.
Absolutely love this,! I would like to see the rise of manufacturing in this industry .IE citizen. I work in the Swiss type lathe industry and I am fascinated how this very accurate machining process increased the market for these beautiful tiny machines . I would love a video on the machines that make these machines.keep up the good work. Thank you
Swatch watches were hugely popular throughout the 1990s, I believe that the kids Flik Flak watches were also made by the same company, all the kids on our school seemed to have one!
My first watch was a swatch that I won at a fair, in like 1997/1998 that was square, but 12, 3, 6, and 9 read “Don’t. Be. Too. Square.” Loved that thing.
A similar explosion occurred years earlier in clocks. For years, clocks were among a home's most expensive items, made with high precesion, and required skilled service occasionally. Then in the very early 20th century, Henry Warren invented the synchronous electric clock (named Telechron) which turned everything upside down. Electrics were inexpensive to build and buy, extremely accurate (except for power outages) and lasted literally decades with no need for service. Quality mechanical clocks needed to reposition themselves as luxury furniture items because there really was no longer a pragmatic justification. This is the split that occurred similarly driven by the quartz revolution. Change is occurring again.. 'traditional' quartz watches are facing increased competition. , the multi instrument smart watch is moving in. While I do have some skeleton mechanicals which I wear for fun, my Garmin has pretty much replaced my quartz watches for daily use. Having geolocation, altitude (I do a bit of hiking) as well biological information in single instrument--why have only the time?
Missed this in my recommended feed but I'll definitely watch an Asianometry video on this topic! Got you second in search for "swiss watch making" btw. Love your channel mate, keep up the hard work
The legacy of the precision manufacturing of Swiss watches can still be seen on semiconductor manufacturing. The best innovations in precision manufacturing are often Swiss. Chips are made on tools with components built by Swiss machines.
That's something that always interested me, swiss suppliers for larger chip manufacturers. So far I could only find semiconductor manufacturers, but I would like to know about suppliers. Can you elaborate on some of them.
@@JC.Denton. there aren't well known toolset manufacturers in Switzerland, at least to casuals. For components, VAT is big in vacuum valving. It's a better than 50/50 that you have a VAT valve between your process chamber and transfer chamber. There's also Inficon which is big in baritrons, gas detectors, and thin film growth monitoring. When it comes to innovative machining, I think of Georg Fischer, but there's a bunch of very good companies in the space.
My 40 watches bear witness to all this. A few vintage 1960s Omegas, a lot of Swiss watches from brands like Tissot, Longines and Hamilton; but also several Seiko and other Japanese brands; also Russian and Chinese watches and a few Bulova… and three Swatches. A lot of history.
I am a bit curious. I own one wristwatch that I wear on a daily basis. What inspires you to acquire so many watches? (I see the need for one, maybe a few, but 40!) How many of your watches see their way onto your wrist regularly?
@@stevebabiak6997 Probably half of them get worn regularly. The rest, occasionally. Why so many? Variety is the slicer of life. How many shorts do you have? Why? Two or three is enough; you can just rotate them. But watches are, just like shirts, a fashion item.
Can’t find the exact quote, but I heard that Swatch standed for “second watch” and not “Swiss watch”, since it became a selling point to own more than one timepiece, as a fashion accessory more than a tool
Could you do a video on the mid-tier of Japanese electronics brands? Like Pioneer, Sanyo, JVC, Kenwood, AKAI and the like? Sharp were pioneers in calculators and LCD, Toshiba invented everything from the electric rice cooker to flash memory, Sony and Matsushita (National/Panasonic) had their inventions, etc. But what caused the decline of the other Japanese electronics brands? Merely too much competition and lack of innovation? Or was there much more to their stories?
One mechanical watch advantage over LCD is that you can look around a hand that's blocking a dial element like the date. With LCD, you can't look behind the hands. They could fix this by having the dial elements move as the hands pass by, snapping back into position after the base position is clear.
PLEASE look into doing a video on the Japanese adoption of FM synthesis technology. The parallels between this and other technologies like the quartz crystal and the semiconductor, which were adopted from Western technology only to be lead by developing Asian companies with the vision of domestic application, is eerily resonant. The tale of how brands like Roland and Korg became dominant using neglected Western technological advances is very interesting and well worth a telling on this channel.
From South Germany its not that far. In Geneva there is the yearly invention fair. I did not expect but that was a very interesting video. I remember the mechanical Kienzle watch (the first watch as child) which unfortunately corroded after i had been fallen into water. Then the first digital display watches (was it a red display only activated when needed) at a similar time than the pocket calculators. The swatch - i think i had two - were loud. The plastic glass was very bad when it comes to scratches. Its good to know that there was not just Nikolaus Hayek. The town Grenchen i got to know as a region in Switzerland which had a very good knowledge of manufacturing micro mechanics. I still wonder that they never - now his son Nick Hayek - never tried a computer based watch. Garmin - which was a surprise - is doing very well.
As a typical middleclass consumer, i'm turned off by the exclusivity and speculation around luxury watches. I'm willing to pay for quality but those qualities are muddied by the industry.
The entire point of mechanical watches is exclusivity. It is, strictly speaking, like owning a steam powered vehicle. It makes no technological sense but some will think it's pretty cool. Especially if it's very well made for what it is. So to answer your question: The quality of a (good) mechanical watch is that it is actually very hard to make them keep time to within a second a week, and to make them durable they use (artificial) rubies as bearings, as that's the only solution to not constantly having to relubricate the watch. So you buy something that something that is hard to make for the sake of being hard to make. This is all by design. There is nothing being muddied here. You just happen to find it pointless. If you like the look of a nice watch, go get quartz mechanism that looks nice to you. If doesn't have to be particularly "up market" to last for decades with only a battery every 3-4 years, and a new watch glass once in a while because scratches are a thing.
I discovered when I started collecting watches that quality peaks in the $2,000-$3,000 range. Above that the cost is going towards arbitrary characteristics. Precious metals and coveted brand logos don't make it a better watch, just a more expensive one.
I love my Rotary skeleton automatic watch. There's something just so soothing about looking at everything moving and spinning. And I consult it for the time about as much as I consult my phone.
Video Idea: go talk to the Hacker Fab folks at Carnegie Mellon University "We design, build, document, and share DIY machines and processes to fabricate semiconductor devices in any room, for anyone with access to the Internet." Found via the Breaking Taps UA-cam channel
Swiss mechanical watches, especially gold watches, hold their value over time. Some watches rise in value. The worst investment you can make is buying a luxury gold Quartz driven watch or connected watch, because it will become obsolete in a couple of years. If you buy a hybrid watch (like Breitling's Emergency pilot's watch, buy it because you need its functions.
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If you need a functioning watch, buy a quartz watch. Why bother with the mechanical white elephant? They are only for show.
Ehh. If the market for that specific quartz watch is good it can absolutely “hold” value. Look up some of the Grand Seiko 9F watches for example Also very few watches actually hold their value
4 місяці тому+3
@@PaoYong Just buy the cheapest quartz watch you can find, and invest the rest in an index fund. That'll most likely appreciate in value over time.
Whilst I have no real interest in watches nor their supposed monetary value, I am tremendously interested in how watches work. Such little marvels of engineering and European manufacturing prowess.
Yes but the introduction of sports luxury segment which resulted in Nautilus, Laureato, Royal Oak and Overseas models among others requires a whole chapter when talking about the revival of Swiss watch industry. These models are most sought after globally.
The part of my family that my last name came from were Huguenots who went to Germany to avoid persecution. Just randomly found that out one day and ever since I've heard more and more about them
A good bunch of Huguenots (pronounced: Hugh-ge-no) came to South Africa, set up a lot of the wine farms… There’s a Huguenot monument in Franschoek, close to where I live.
Yeah and it's called luxury consumption. It's not a very healthy sign when this happens. It usually means that the wealth ends up in the possession of those who prefer to squander it just for kicks or for self flattering. There goes inflation, everyone gets poorer, social unrest, etc etc
Heh... Funny how most of the Brands in this Video at some point found themselves into my family... Be it the Swatch when they were first released and bought by my grandfather and distributed to his family members ( Wife, 2x Kids, 3x Grand Kids, etc... ). Me getting a Rage Boner for my first Casio G-Shock, then a Tissot T-Touch followed by my now Oris Propilot Altimeter Rega Edition ( and a Porsche Design 6020 Globetimer ) with my mother sporting the obligatory Omega & Rolex ( and an Apple Watch to ensure I get notified if she trips and hits the floor again ).
Hey, have you had cycling (industry) on your radar so far? I mean, regarding to components every bike needs, Japan (Shimano, Keirin (almost) Monopoly), Italy (Campangnolo), USA (SRAM), Germany (SRAM/Sachs), Taiwan/China/etc Microshift/several more...
@@szurketaltos2693 Oh yes, SR Suntour of course! And Open Mold frames from well known factories. And quality control of "well known" brands making frames and stuff in well known factories, not so well known brands selling the same stuff, and so on 🤪
Thank you. I remember the 1993 Swach advertising campaign. For some strange reason I though Golden Eye came out in 1997 (WRONG) so that explains why I saw it for the second time in a theater with monaural analog optical sound. (the first time was digital sound, that I remembered correctly). Cheesy but epic. ANYWAY
As a Swiss, that has Omega HQ in eyesight and Rolex right in the neighborhood: Very well done! hits it a 100% - and, did you know? Today, they are as conservative and their unflexability is still there! Unbelievable... but well, there we go :D
But Rolex was the most 'aspirational' brand, the sort of thing that ordinary people want to own. So in that sense it is prestigious. But people used to wealth bought something like Patek Phillipe or one of the smaller brands, or at least they used to. In these times of everyone carrying a phone with them all the time, watches have ceased to be practical tools and are really just optional jewelry.
oh the irony. my first quartz swatch got corroded with large holes in the - aluminium (?) alloy - body, works quite precise after decades now. the leather band degraded sadly, but the springy metal band is ok. my second swatch, again an irony, but automatic "body & soul" was late several minutes a day despite normal wearing regardless of supplemental winding. got replaced, glad i had to fly to Zürich (or Basel) once more. this second one is accurate, but i only wear it when feeling cute. never feeling cute nowadays tho. i still remember an old "cheap" lcd watch of mine, which could be converted from stopwatch to calculator band watch. having press-sensitive surface buttons and large green corner buttons for stopwatch i had a one of a kind device in the era where 16 or 20 buttoned calc watches and 16 melodies made you king or peasant.
I don't understand why Rolex was not included in the essay. Trying to stay focused on that "accessible luxury" price point? Would that have made the thesis unwieldy?
As of recovering escapee from what is basically Calvinistic Christian Young Earth creationist cult, ' The calvinists and their austerity' was not on my bingo list for today
Funnily these cults and their secretive equivalents are the reason for the technological push the last 400 years. We might assume to live in a world of information and pluralism, but the conditions are fully controlled.
@@NathanaelNewton at least Ken Ham is a scientist who chose stupid beliefs. Kent Hovind isn’t even literate in science. Hovind got his degree from a diploma mill. He also spent time in prison for tax fraud. My local “creation science” expert was a guy named Russ Hanson. He just had a Bachelor’s degree in geology.
@@morganmorse2086 I was also homeschooled so I remember in high 'school' I had books from a guy named Jay L. Wile who was convinced that radiometric dating didn't work and that there was no magnetic Dynamo in the earth, that it was rapidly decaying since the creation and eventually would gone in a few thousand years. Luckily for me, my parents thought that I was going to be The next big creation scientist and let me read all the science books from the public library.. that didn't go well for them hahaha
All I knew was that the Huguenots brought watchmaking knowledge to Switzerland from France. And the only reason I even knew what Huguenots were is because Alexander Hamilton was descended from them.
4 місяці тому+3
Btw, the name Huguenots themselves is likely a pun on the Swiss: > A term used originally in derision, Huguenot has unclear origins. Various hypotheses have been promoted. The term may have been a combined reference to the Swiss politician Besançon Hugues (died 1532) and the religiously conflicted nature of Swiss republicanism in his time. It used a derogatory pun on the name Hugues by way of the Dutch word Huisgenoten (literally 'housemates'), referring to the connotations of a somewhat related word in German Eidgenosse ('Confederate' in the sense of 'a citizen of one of the states of the Swiss Confederacy').[6] See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenots#Etymology
Another great video. A favorite saying of fans of free trade / laissez-faire capitalism is "a rising tide lifts all boats". Even adding ", just maybe not all at once if at all" doesn't seem to make that statement true. I laughed at the Dukes of Hazard watch. It reminded me of the plastic helmet with a rotating beacon on top and a sticker on the front that said, "Star Trek Spock". I have a smart phone and still wear a solar casio water resistant watch. I really like this watch but want a Seiko self winding 100% mechanical watch. I'm weird.
This is another comment, since I am Swiss citizen: this is one of the most comprehensive report of the Swiss watch industry. I personally thank you for the great content. P.S. Another part of this industry was during the period 1900 to 1945, the production of relay mechanisms for the manufacturing industries, under contracts; these relay mechanisms were highly customized and consisted of stepwise mechanisms for stepwise process activation.
GREAT comment!!!
I would like to see a Part 2 of this video, where you talk about different movements and their approaches to precision and ingenuity:Citizen's Eco Drive,Citizen satellite wave, Seiko's TwinQuartz, Bluva Accutron (tuning fork instad of a quartz crystal, Temperature compensated Breitling/Citizen One and of course Grand Seiko Spring Drive!
By the way the NOT Gate that you have on your account logo was initially created as a clock oscillator. Then the logic properties got on the way and we have stacked on 1984.
And the rise of counterfeits.
Asianometry talking about watches? This channel only gets better
Makes one want to watch.
i'm glad he sounds better. Last time he sounded really in the dumps like a draft dodger. Maybe this topic is more cheerful for him. He gets depressed when he has to cover Taiwan's uneasy future.
Highly recommend "Wristwatch Revival" really awesome channel
Probably already subbed though right ?😂
legacy German luxury car makers should study the revival of the Swiss mechanical watches, Let's rethink and ditch the "20-inch" and all (but the entertainment module) dashboard display panels and put the mechanical gauges back where they belong
I Fully Agree!!!
Greetings from Switzerland, so nice to hear such a well-informed and balanced review of one of this country's most renowned industries. Anytime you're here either for the first time or on a return trip, let me know, I'd love to meet to discuss technology and business topics. Keep up the impressive work and all the best! Valerio, Lugano area.
I think one watch is also worth mentioning: Casio's F-91W. It is the quintessential quartz watch. Cheap, reliable, and somewhat timeless, at least today.
I myself wear a more expensive Casio solar watch that can set itself based on radio time beacons like DCF77, because this watch will work until the end of time. It can't run out of battery like my phone, and it's on time. Always.
I own A178WA-1A, A168W-1, and A158WA-1DF, because I've always hated the plastic/rubber straps that eventually break. I know, I had them when I was a kid.
I bought the A158WA-1DF only about a year ago in 2023, purely out of nostalgia. I rarely use any of them. Battery life is insanely good (7 to 10+ years on single coin battery) with these modern reproductions.
@@catsspat I've got a plastic band one, but its a G-Shock, and I'm not even sure they *come* with metal bands... Also, I like how the plastic bands slowly wear off over time, showing that you actually use your watch.
The discovery of a crystal that vibrates at a fixed frequency vs a complex train of mechanical components that needs regular cleaning and servicing, is like suddenly inventing the hammer after centuries of using a rock to drive a nail.
More like inventing nails after centuries of using mortise and tenon technique to connect wooden beams.
It's not a fixed frequency. It has to be cut to shape to vibrate at that frequency. Other shapes vibrate at other frequencies
@@SineWaveMood
That makes it all the better.
@@SineWaveMood It IS a fixed frequency, No idea what you are talking about. Crystal controlled radios were the norm for half a century for matters like the military and avionics.
@@frequentlycynical642 the frequency is determined entirely by the shape of the crystal
As a big fan of Omega, Seiko and Casio, I enjoyed this video immensely. Thank you.
Average wristwatch enjoyer
I'm using Casio as calculator.
Horology is an interesting field in itself.
I use a pocket watch daily. I have 3D printed a stand for it, where I place it. Both at home and at work on my desk. One huge advantage over a mobile phone is that I can simply look at the watch and read the time in an instant. No need to physically pick it up nor press anything on it. It needs to be wound up every day, but that is no problem for me. As for the watch, it is an old Soviet Molnija "Frankenwatch" with a 3603 movement that I picket up at a local flea market in good condition and super cheap and implanted it into an old "railroad style" case which had the older 3602 movement (not shock proof). Got it serviced professionally a couple of years ago. Runs without problems. As for accuracy, the watch tends to run a bit fast, about 5 seconds per day overall, sometimes more, sometimes less. I hate the feeling of anything on my hand, no watch, no jewelry, no bracelet or similar. I need my hands free of anything. And rings are absolutely out of the question. That is why I never liked wearing wrist watches, even when I got them as a gift. I rather take out the pocket watch and check the time on it than to have anything on my hands.
What a *WONERFUL* channel you have.
Most Excellent in it's research, scripts, editing, narration and with fantastic images to accompany every segment of your subjects.
Your Channel is as Entertaining as it is Informative!
10/10
I love that you let your curiosity lead you. Keep it up!
I have watched a lot of videos on the watch industry, but this is the best summorized and most comprehensive one yet, thank you for making this!
Some Swiss companies also focused on design during the quarts crisis to differentiate themselves with the Japanese. Though not huge hits at the time models like the Patek Philippe nautilus, Audemars Piguet royal oak are now flagship models for the modern brands.
You must put a huge amount of effort into making videos like this.
A lot of research, related history and finance connections all tied in.
Very impressive!
How you put videos like this together would make a good video!
Citizen makes fantastic machines I fix cnc machines and I will say the art of watch making built my industry. Now we have sub micron machines milling perfect circles.
I see asianometry, i watch asianometry
LoL same
But do you Swiss Watch him?
I love Asian Deer Tech Man
A man of simple desire and good culture
@@amirhasanbasic2193easy money
I was pleasantly surprised hearing you a few weeks ago at 'my local radio station' BNR
Keep up the Greatness
Thank you Asianometry! Not too long ago I was reminiscing about an all-black swatch I had back in the late 80's, and how the "all-black" Pixel watch reminds me so much of it! That got me thinking of the evolution of the watch over the years, and how as a patented Watch Destroyer I enjoyed the swatches for their durability. I suspected Swatches were invented to counter the Seiko's and Casio's of my time, but I did know the full story, nor did I know the context. Thank you for this video. And yes: let's see how the Swiss watch industry handles the onslaught of smart watches!
Onslaught is a little much. Most people don't wear any kind of watch, and the smart watches have coalesced around just a handful of makes that are barely more than a specialized display for information already carried on a mobile device, a host device without which most "smart" watches cannot function at all. This trend doesn't seem to be going back to the watch having significant growth ahead as a standalone device. A shrinking market is probably all there is for traditional watches. The rest will just be remote wrist displays of one sort or another.
Absolutely love this,! I would like to see the rise of manufacturing in this industry .IE citizen. I work in the Swiss type lathe industry and I am fascinated how this very accurate machining process increased the market for these beautiful tiny machines . I would love a video on the machines that make these machines.keep up the good work. Thank you
Swatch watches were hugely popular throughout the 1990s, I believe that the kids Flik Flak watches were also made by the same company, all the kids on our school seemed to have one!
My first watch was a swatch that I won at a fair, in like 1997/1998 that was square, but 12, 3, 6, and 9 read “Don’t. Be. Too. Square.”
Loved that thing.
A similar explosion occurred years earlier in clocks. For years, clocks were among a home's most expensive items, made with high precesion, and required skilled service occasionally. Then in the very early 20th century, Henry Warren invented the synchronous electric clock (named Telechron) which turned everything upside down. Electrics were inexpensive to build and buy, extremely accurate (except for power outages) and lasted literally decades with no need for service. Quality mechanical clocks needed to reposition themselves as luxury furniture items because there really was no longer a pragmatic justification.
This is the split that occurred similarly driven by the quartz revolution.
Change is occurring again.. 'traditional' quartz watches are facing increased competition. , the multi instrument smart watch is moving in. While I do have some skeleton mechanicals which I wear for fun, my Garmin has pretty much replaced my quartz watches for daily use. Having geolocation, altitude (I do a bit of hiking) as well biological information in single instrument--why have only the time?
Your videos post with a regularity that is like... Well, you know.
pleasant watch
I see what you did there😂
Missed this in my recommended feed but I'll definitely watch an Asianometry video on this topic! Got you second in search for "swiss watch making" btw. Love your channel mate, keep up the hard work
The legacy of the precision manufacturing of Swiss watches can still be seen on semiconductor manufacturing. The best innovations in precision manufacturing are often Swiss. Chips are made on tools with components built by Swiss machines.
That's something that always interested me, swiss suppliers for larger chip manufacturers. So far I could only find semiconductor manufacturers, but I would like to know about suppliers. Can you elaborate on some of them.
@@JC.Denton. there aren't well known toolset manufacturers in Switzerland, at least to casuals. For components, VAT is big in vacuum valving. It's a better than 50/50 that you have a VAT valve between your process chamber and transfer chamber. There's also Inficon which is big in baritrons, gas detectors, and thin film growth monitoring.
When it comes to innovative machining, I think of Georg Fischer, but there's a bunch of very good companies in the space.
Back in the early 2000's I sat next to John Glenn on a flight. Surprisingly he was sporting an old school Rolex and not an Omega
I love the amounts of Star Wars reference in the first 30 second
My 40 watches bear witness to all this. A few vintage 1960s Omegas, a lot of Swiss watches from brands like Tissot, Longines and Hamilton; but also several Seiko and other Japanese brands; also Russian and Chinese watches and a few Bulova… and three Swatches. A lot of history.
I love Hamilton. I have 4 different variations of the Hamilton Khaki field watch.
@@MakerInMotion I have a field watch, a Jazzmaster GMT, and an intra-matic. All great watches.
I am a bit curious. I own one wristwatch that I wear on a daily basis.
What inspires you to acquire so many watches? (I see the need for one, maybe a few, but 40!)
How many of your watches see their way onto your wrist regularly?
@@stevebabiak6997 Probably half of them get worn regularly. The rest, occasionally.
Why so many? Variety is the slicer of life. How many shorts do you have? Why? Two or three is enough; you can just rotate them. But watches are, just like shirts, a fashion item.
@@stevebabiak6997Also: dark face for night, light for day, waterproof for beach, ocean and river, chronograph for timing needs.
Can’t find the exact quote, but I heard that Swatch standed for “second watch” and not “Swiss watch”, since it became a selling point to own more than one timepiece, as a fashion accessory more than a tool
Could you do a video on the mid-tier of Japanese electronics brands? Like Pioneer, Sanyo, JVC, Kenwood, AKAI and the like? Sharp were pioneers in calculators and LCD, Toshiba invented everything from the electric rice cooker to flash memory, Sony and Matsushita (National/Panasonic) had their inventions, etc. But what caused the decline of the other Japanese electronics brands? Merely too much competition and lack of innovation? Or was there much more to their stories?
One mechanical watch advantage over LCD is that you can look around a hand that's blocking a dial element like the date. With LCD, you can't look behind the hands. They could fix this by having the dial elements move as the hands pass by, snapping back into position after the base position is clear.
19:30 "References and sources go here" Ah, yes. I recognize that referencing. Just like my college papers.
Delirium Tremens is also an amazing Belgian beer :)
I think one of the other OMEGA advertising success is that they implanted themselves into motorsports, with the F1 (sponsorship?) in particular...
Same with Rodania in (Belgian) cycling, by all means an obscure dead brand before it's revival in the early 2000s.
This was a good watch.
This explains why flogs who like to sound rich love watches.
PLEASE look into doing a video on the Japanese adoption of FM synthesis technology.
The parallels between this and other technologies like the quartz crystal and the semiconductor, which were adopted from Western technology only to be lead by developing Asian companies with the vision of domestic application, is eerily resonant.
The tale of how brands like Roland and Korg became dominant using neglected Western technological advances is very interesting and well worth a telling on this channel.
A most timely video! 🎉😊
Hehehe
From South Germany its not that far. In Geneva there is the yearly invention fair.
I did not expect but that was a very interesting video. I remember the mechanical Kienzle watch (the first watch as child) which unfortunately corroded after i had been fallen into water.
Then the first digital display watches (was it a red display only activated when needed) at a similar time than the pocket calculators.
The swatch - i think i had two - were loud. The plastic glass was very bad when it comes to scratches.
Its good to know that there was not just Nikolaus Hayek.
The town Grenchen i got to know as a region in Switzerland which had a very good knowledge of manufacturing micro mechanics.
I still wonder that they never - now his son Nick Hayek - never tried a computer based watch. Garmin - which was a surprise - is doing very well.
Watchonometry
As a typical middleclass consumer, i'm turned off by the exclusivity and speculation around luxury watches. I'm willing to pay for quality but those qualities are muddied by the industry.
The entire point of mechanical watches is exclusivity. It is, strictly speaking, like owning a steam powered vehicle. It makes no technological sense but some will think it's pretty cool. Especially if it's very well made for what it is. So to answer your question: The quality of a (good) mechanical watch is that it is actually very hard to make them keep time to within a second a week, and to make them durable they use (artificial) rubies as bearings, as that's the only solution to not constantly having to relubricate the watch. So you buy something that something that is hard to make for the sake of being hard to make. This is all by design. There is nothing being muddied here. You just happen to find it pointless.
If you like the look of a nice watch, go get quartz mechanism that looks nice to you. If doesn't have to be particularly "up market" to last for decades with only a battery every 3-4 years, and a new watch glass once in a while because scratches are a thing.
I discovered when I started collecting watches that quality peaks in the $2,000-$3,000 range. Above that the cost is going towards arbitrary characteristics. Precious metals and coveted brand logos don't make it a better watch, just a more expensive one.
Just get whatever costs a week's pay. Simple.
@@MakerInMotionLongine ? Anyone. I do agree with what you said. There is a lot of good stuff from 1 to 3k Anything else is just for the name name.
As a landed gentry. I love being able to use luxury Rolex™ watches to do international tax dodges.
I love my Rotary skeleton automatic watch. There's something just so soothing about looking at everything moving and spinning. And I consult it for the time about as much as I consult my phone.
Video Idea: go talk to the Hacker Fab folks at Carnegie Mellon University
"We design, build, document, and share DIY machines and processes to fabricate semiconductor devices in any room, for anyone with access to the Internet."
Found via the Breaking Taps UA-cam channel
I am subscribed to a number of watch repair channels. I'm a mechanic and mechanical devices fascinate me.
One of my favorite hobby industry's from one of my favorite UA-camr's... perfection. ❤
Swiss mechanical watches, especially gold watches, hold their value over time. Some watches rise in value. The worst investment you can make is buying a luxury gold Quartz driven watch or connected watch, because it will become obsolete in a couple of years. If you buy a hybrid watch (like Breitling's Emergency pilot's watch, buy it because you need its functions.
If you need a functioning watch, buy a quartz watch. Why bother with the mechanical white elephant? They are only for show.
Ehh. If the market for that specific quartz watch is good it can absolutely “hold” value. Look up some of the Grand Seiko 9F watches for example
Also very few watches actually hold their value
@@PaoYong Just buy the cheapest quartz watch you can find, and invest the rest in an index fund. That'll most likely appreciate in value over time.
Goes for just about any watch tbh
I agree that buying a luxury watch is not as good as buying stocks.
Whilst I have no real interest in watches nor their supposed monetary value, I am tremendously interested in how watches work. Such little marvels of engineering and European manufacturing prowess.
"Rolex - the most prestigious watch brand" - that's just a common American myth.
new video caught me while eating pizza. Forever my fav eating while watching youtube channel
Yes but the introduction of sports luxury segment which resulted in Nautilus, Laureato, Royal Oak and Overseas models among others requires a whole chapter when talking about the revival of Swiss watch industry. These models are most sought after globally.
The part of my family that my last name came from were Huguenots who went to Germany to avoid persecution. Just randomly found that out one day and ever since I've heard more and more about them
This is deeply fascinating, thank you!
Man, Swatches were the thing back in the 80s. I was bummed to find them hard to find when I got older.
Thoroughly love and appreciate your detailed wide range of interesting topics. 😊
A good bunch of Huguenots (pronounced: Hugh-ge-no) came to South Africa, set up a lot of the wine farms…
There’s a Huguenot monument in Franschoek, close to where I live.
"Somehow Swiss Watches Returned"
almost sounds like
"Somehow Sith Watches Returned"
I am all the quarts
SMH🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 i laughed out loud. Another great video👏🏻👏🏻
Swiss watches were not on the list of topics I expected from this channel. Interesting.
People who are into electronics also have a kink for fine mechanics or mechanic in general.
Thank you very much for this one, from a swiss guy.
Fantastic video, thank you.
It will be interesting to see how the brands handle the next few years which look to be a time of reducing demand.
2:26 is the Chioggia one in Italy no longer working? It is dated around 1386
it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orologio_della_Torre_di_Sant%27Andrea
Solid reseach and well done expose.
Yeah and it's called luxury consumption. It's not a very healthy sign when this happens. It usually means that the wealth ends up in the possession of those who prefer to squander it just for kicks or for self flattering. There goes inflation, everyone gets poorer, social unrest, etc etc
How did the microchip guy manage to destroy all of watchtube with this one video?
Swatch was fun.
I had one when I was younger. Not the worst money I spend on a watch.
"Delirium vulgare?" Could have called it "mass hysteria" instead. Missed the chance.
Babe, uh…wait I don’t have a babe.
I love it. It’s like a technological leap-frog but over hundreds of years
Heh... Funny how most of the Brands in this Video at some point found themselves into my family... Be it the Swatch when they were first released and bought by my grandfather and distributed to his family members ( Wife, 2x Kids, 3x Grand Kids, etc... ). Me getting a Rage Boner for my first Casio G-Shock, then a Tissot T-Touch followed by my now Oris Propilot Altimeter Rega Edition ( and a Porsche Design 6020 Globetimer ) with my mother sporting the obligatory Omega & Rolex ( and an Apple Watch to ensure I get notified if she trips and hits the floor again ).
That last watch pic on the closing slide is beautiful.
Watch catalogs can be beautiful.
Thanks 👍
I think that Apple Watch and Swiss luxury watches are 2 completely different markets.
"Once upon a time, in a land far far away from Taiwan" 😂
A video on Hong Kong's watch industry is also needed.
I'm a proud owner of a Certina DS Action GMT Powermatic 80
have always loved Swiss watches because it means quality.
Ooh now do a deep dive into the machines that the Swiss invented to make these watches...the automatic screw machine and the Swiss lathe.
Hey, have you had cycling (industry) on your radar so far?
I mean, regarding to components every bike needs, Japan (Shimano, Keirin (almost) Monopoly), Italy (Campangnolo), USA (SRAM), Germany (SRAM/Sachs), Taiwan/China/etc Microshift/several more...
Rise and fall of Suntour, Rise of Shimano, rise of the Chinese domestic parts industries would be particularly relevant I think.
@@szurketaltos2693 Oh yes, SR Suntour of course! And Open Mold frames from well known factories. And quality control of "well known" brands making frames and stuff in well known factories, not so well known brands selling the same stuff, and so on 🤪
@@V___D the SR you put there is triggering me, look what they did to my precious brand T.T
He will mention Giant because it's a Taiwanese bike.
It’s always interesting to see the process of how a lot of modern high end producers almost always started out as off brand copycats
I remember the swatch watches, good times.
Thank you. I remember the 1993 Swach advertising campaign. For some strange reason I though Golden Eye came out in 1997 (WRONG) so that explains why I saw it for the second time in a theater with monaural analog optical sound. (the first time was digital sound, that I remembered correctly). Cheesy but epic. ANYWAY
As a Swiss, that has Omega HQ in eyesight and Rolex right in the neighborhood: Very well done! hits it a 100% - and, did you know? Today, they are as conservative and their unflexability is still there! Unbelievable... but well, there we go :D
duuuude drop the "thusly"
thus - is thus thus !
Rolex is the most famous watch brand, but it's far from being the most prestigious.
But Rolex was the most 'aspirational' brand, the sort of thing that ordinary people want to own. So in that sense it is prestigious. But people used to wealth bought something like Patek Phillipe or one of the smaller brands, or at least they used to. In these times of everyone carrying a phone with them all the time, watches have ceased to be practical tools and are really just optional jewelry.
By what metric?
You left in the "References and sources go here" text on the Biver slide (19:25) and didn't actually put in any sources 😛
He does that from time to time in these videos. Easily overlooked during production, no doubt, but also easily overlooked during viewing.
@@LatitudeSky I look at them as easter eggs - who cares if they're intentional or not.
15:30 Are the photos meant to illustrate the similarities with the recent acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS?
There is still a market for mechanical watches people wear like jewelry. Some people like to see the gears turn.
Smart watch - swatch . History repeats lol I love chronographs!
oh the irony. my first quartz swatch got corroded with large holes in the - aluminium (?) alloy - body, works quite precise after decades now. the leather band degraded sadly, but the springy metal band is ok. my second swatch, again an irony, but automatic "body & soul" was late several minutes a day despite normal wearing regardless of supplemental winding. got replaced, glad i had to fly to Zürich (or Basel) once more. this second one is accurate, but i only wear it when feeling cute. never feeling cute nowadays tho. i still remember an old "cheap" lcd watch of mine, which could be converted from stopwatch to calculator band watch. having press-sensitive surface buttons and large green corner buttons for stopwatch i had a one of a kind device in the era where 16 or 20 buttoned calc watches and 16 melodies made you king or peasant.
big fan, could you do one on how EUV lenses and the optics industry (zeiss) works. big fan by the way
There is already a video about Zeiss. Take a look in the archives.
"somehow swiss watches returned..." 😂😂😂
...Time?
@@Gunni1972 like 00:29 - 00:32
Clock is just clock. My $9.99 Casio digital watch is good enough for me.
Unable to appreciate high horology?
I don't understand why Rolex was not included in the essay. Trying to stay focused on that "accessible luxury" price point? Would that have made the thesis unwieldy?
Loved this one. Why no mention of the best Swiss watch ever made: Jaeeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Perpetual Calendar.
at least one Swiss watch/ed
As of recovering escapee from what is basically Calvinistic Christian Young Earth creationist cult, ' The calvinists and their austerity' was not on my bingo list for today
Which “creation science” speakers were pushed on to you?
Funnily these cults and their secretive equivalents are the reason for the technological push the last 400 years. We might assume to live in a world of information and pluralism, but the conditions are fully controlled.
@@morganmorse2086 Kent and Ken, although a lot more of Kent.. what an absolutely dreadful person he is
@@NathanaelNewton at least Ken Ham is a scientist who chose stupid beliefs. Kent Hovind isn’t even literate in science. Hovind got his degree from a diploma mill. He also spent time in prison for tax fraud. My local “creation science” expert was a guy named Russ Hanson. He just had a Bachelor’s degree in geology.
@@morganmorse2086 I was also homeschooled so I remember in high 'school' I had books from a guy named Jay L. Wile who was convinced that radiometric dating didn't work and that there was no magnetic Dynamo in the earth, that it was rapidly decaying since the creation and eventually would gone in a few thousand years.
Luckily for me, my parents thought that I was going to be The next big creation scientist and let me read all the science books from the public library.. that didn't go well for them hahaha
All I knew was that the Huguenots brought watchmaking knowledge to Switzerland from France. And the only reason I even knew what Huguenots were is because Alexander Hamilton was descended from them.
Btw, the name Huguenots themselves is likely a pun on the Swiss:
> A term used originally in derision, Huguenot has unclear origins. Various hypotheses have been promoted. The term may have been a combined reference to the Swiss politician Besançon Hugues (died 1532) and the religiously conflicted nature of Swiss republicanism in his time. It used a derogatory pun on the name Hugues by way of the Dutch word Huisgenoten (literally 'housemates'), referring to the connotations of a somewhat related word in German Eidgenosse ('Confederate' in the sense of 'a citizen of one of the states of the Swiss Confederacy').[6]
See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenots#Etymology
Another great video.
A favorite saying of fans of free trade / laissez-faire capitalism is "a rising tide lifts all boats". Even adding ", just maybe not all at once if at all" doesn't seem to make that statement true.
I laughed at the Dukes of Hazard watch. It reminded me of the plastic helmet with a rotating beacon on top and a sticker on the front that said, "Star Trek Spock".
I have a smart phone and still wear a solar casio water resistant watch. I really like this watch but want a Seiko self winding 100% mechanical watch. I'm weird.
Calvin is Jean Calvin and Hobbes is Thomas Hobbes
surprised Rolex was never mentioned.
“The Quartz Onslaught” sounds like a mecha anime title 😁