What time is it? Watches and horology

You dont check any other chronological sources every now and then?! Madness!

Hah! Gone Quartz,

Quartz is better, right?

Re: Military watches affiliation and morals recently listened to these, both equally interesting, stories:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/jul/22/from-the-archives-the-man-who-sleeps-in-hitlers-bed-podcast
http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/45-the-bomber-mafia

Slightly unrelated, working in the art world I always found it conflicting to like or enjoy (couldn't afford) great works of art by males of known douchery... like Joseph Beuys who was deployed as rear-gunner in a "Stuka" dive-bomber and used a plane crash as the fundational myth of his brilliant (and quite chamanic) art career. Beuys fashioned the myth that he was rescued from the crash by nomadic Tatar tribesmen, who had wrapped his broken body in animal fat and felt and nursed him back to health. More on Beuys:
https://magazine.artland.com/stories-of-iconic-artworks-joseph-beuys-i-like-america-and-america-likes-me/

That is why I stick to Bauhaus, Braun as I rather have a conversation about Bauhaus and Dieter Rams ethics than Luftwaffe's lack of. Apologies for the detour

Quartz is better...

My quartz are certainly more accurate than my autos but then again not all quartz are created equal.

Kerning wise I don't think it too bad. There could be a fraction more space between the "1" and the "0" but anything more than that would make the overall look too elongated in reference to the other numbers.
The cushion case example looks better as the arms in the "1" fill the negative space nicely for a better optical balance.
As you say, does depend on the weight of the typeface.

Also read after this that you work with type daily so may be a tad out my depth as only work in retail but do a little graphic design as well.
Im guessing the modern versions also come down to time frames of releases too and that they'd rather get something close and distort it, than pay for it to be render by hand then vectorised, both way more money and time. Not saying I agree with it but I get it.
I guess that you've got another whole dimension to consider with the arch of the dial being involved when compared to standard horizontal baseline type setting. This probably causes a lot of the spacing issues in assuming.

On the type thing... Mechanical watches are an anachronism and exist partly as a celebration of craft and human skill... So if I'm paying thousands for a watch I'd appreciate every detail to be crafted, including the type. The lazy font choices and their application shouldn't happen at that level.

The lazy font choices and their application shouldn't happen at that level.

They're only lazy font choices to people who notice or care about these things.

Yeah, then why bother decorating the movement, only weirdos notice that stuff...

But really, just because type is a digital thing now it's even easier to produce good type, the tools available make it so! There's just very little appreciation for the skills involved.

But he spearheaded the German green movement. Surely you can allow the ego and PR nouse
which any content creator today would aspire to emulate.

I'm a bit like that with Dali (who I've loved since I was about 10). Even more so in a post MeToo world.

I vividly remember being in a tutorial about the Blaue Reiter artists discussing a painting which included one of their muses who was underage when a few of them were having sex with her. Armed with this knowledge quite a few students saw sinister undertones, which totally baffled the tutor.

(I've prob misremembering the actual historical fact pattern as I can't find anything about it via google)

When you've spent all your money on marketing, you've got to cut back somewhere.

And to think ...we're talking about watches....

I agree with you and there isn't enough respect for the work that goes into type, or for that matter, hundreds of areas of design because a lot of people still believe that since computers emerged, everything is a quick fix. Still, to produce an accurate digital version of the original still takes a lot of time and money. Same thing with movement finishing you mentioned. If it's beveled, striped, turned, blued screws, hand finished / polished then you pay a premium for it, that's more my point.
I do agree though that watches are ALL about the details, were the smallest of changes can impact the balance of elements greatly. Skewing or distorting type for the amount of time and effort that has gone into it is unforgivable but unfortunately too many designers that aren't trained to that level don't care enough and too many buyers won't notice.

@hugo7 being the grandson of a Spanish Republican, I am also torn with Dali as he was a 'bit, of a fascist fanboy. He famously remarked: "Picasso is a painter, so am I; Picasso is Spanish, so am I; Picasso is a communist, neither am I."- but still drawn to the wittiness of his ideas and the phenomenal craftsmanship of his paintings (not that he needs my approval).
@ChainBreaker picture of a watch 😉 apologies for the derail but we are getting close to talking about the morals of coveting/owning luxury goods of dubious -or non-dubious- origin which is less golf than the golf thread 😉

Which weirdly ties with the who cares about the font argument too...

I will shut up know and look at everyone's watches...

Anyway, here are some photos of the 10 year anniversary Laurent Ferrier that I love but could never afford.

3 Attachments

It's not that I don't appreciate skills and art forms that I don't have a strong understandanding of, more that I can look at that dial, even after you've pointed out the type problems, and still can't see anything wrong with it. It just doesn't look like a design flaw to me. It's just next level stuff to a creative moron like myself.

Laurent Ferrier

His watches always look so beautifully effortless.

Always dreamt of one of these:

(also $17k profit in 3yrs to the person who sold the one in the image which isn't a bad roi)

Nice! Honestly, it's the epitome of refindness to me. The only thing I feel that may throw me off is that its titanium, so might seem oddly light. I love the contrast between the front and back.
I know he worked at Patek but id take this over a Patek.

Just bought a watch on ebay - listed as "mint condition" with the bracelet unworn. Turns up with obvious scratches on the bezel and mangled solid end links that are twisted and won't fit back on the watch (it came on a leather strap and, would you believe, the bracelet came in a bag with what looked like a nail hammered into some sort of rudimentary spring bar tool FFS - must have been what he used to mangle the end links when he removed them). So annoyed. I actually videoed my unboxing as insurance and I'm bloody glad I did. Returns process kicked off - I'm pretty confident he'll buckle and refund and / or ebay will see me right. Anyway - just needed a rant.

why bother selling it as mint if its fucked?
Not like you are going to open it and say "Oh, look at that unusual fucked end-links and factory issued scratches on the face"

Please post the video for shits and giggles!

Quite so. He had 100% feedback rating too...

Kinda negates a showcase non?