In the strange, small world of watchmaking, there’s lots of money to be made on items that we would call, at best, totemic. To make those items, you still need small mechanical parts. That’s where Nivarox comes in.

UPDATE – Just realized Patrick already wrote his, but I’ll leave this up for Twitter folks. Also, Patrick: Double-post! JINX!

Nivarox makes balance springs. The name stands for “ni variable, ni oxydable,” which translates to “neither variable nor oxidable.” These tiny springs swing the balance wheel in almost every mechanical watch and the goal of invariability coupled quality metals made Nivarox one of the most important companies in the world during the 20th century. Now they’re owned by the Swatch Group, a company that has a virtual monopoly on the high-end watch market. And, interestingly, most competitors are just fine with that.

Ariel Adams at ABlogToRead went to visit the factory where he saw how the smallest widget can make or break a mechanical watch.

It wasn’t always thus. In the 1980s, Nivarox almost dissappeared. Ariel writes:

Read the full article if you want to learn about one of the most important mechanical manufacturers in the world and how so much of the watch industry depends on one invariable hairspring.

I was just poking around when I noticed that WWR was born in June, 2006 and, having missed the big day, I thought I’d celebrate now.

It’s been a long couple of years, many of them dry and desiccated thanks to my many intervening gigs including EIC of Gizmodo and now TechCrunch. But I founded this site to learn more about watches and now, it seems, that I’ve gotten my money’s worth. I’ve written nearly a thousand posts on this site and also written 100,000 words on watches for other sources. I’ve also recently started working with Ariel Adams and we’re already at episode 86 of the Hourtime Show. Pretty nuts.

Thankfully I have a great co-writer now, Patrick, who is far too accepting of the difficult and unrewarding position he recently accepted by writing with me, and thankfully I have you guys, who have read this site even when it was updated less frequently than a Geocities page.

Thanks for your patronage and here’s to another seven years.

I recently developed a burning need for a watch that displays tides. No, not the University of Alabama Crimson Tides, the ocean’s tides. High tide, low tide, slack tide, whether the tide is coming in or going out have much more import for me than ever before.

This calls for a new watch.

I’m assessing my options, but I have more than I thought I would. As much as I would like a mechanical watch with a tide feature, it is out of my reach for the moment, but quartz has me spoiled for choices. Rip Curl, Nixon, Vestal, Reactor, Quicksilver, Freestyle, Oceanus, Casio, and Timex all have watches with a tide feature. Casio has several digital options with displays that are easy to read, but the Freestyle Mega Tide makes it clear that the designers knew that what the tide is doing is more important than the time of day. The Rip Curl Titanium Tidemaster looks the premier analog tide watch. The Oceanus loses out on this because the tide display is nowhere near as readable as the Ripcurl’s and doesn’t show spring and neap tides. The Reactor Graviton has an analog display over an LCD that has a graphic tide chart, in the customary Reactor steel ingot style.

The Nixon Lodown Ti is a contender in the digital category. This one has a clear tide display, showing where the tide is now and where it will be over the rest of the day. It is programmed with tide data for 200 beaches for 15 years. It is digital, so styling is a secondary concern, but the case and strap are fairly sleek, without protrusions to get caught on things. In addition to the tide display, it has all the usual bells and whistles of a digital watch; alarms, timer, backlight, and second time zone. I usually think of Nixon as a fashion watch, so I am concerned about durability, but it is rated for 100m water resistance. Pretty good option for $90.

Coming soon; Part II, Analogs.

I’ll comment on this shortly, but I want to put this up before I forget about it.

Horology, which has become reduced to a market serving platitude. With popularity, watches have become predictable, and regrettable. Horology’s fundamental ideals are compromised for the market, lost in plain sight, leaving only the impurities precipitated from it. Here’s the bottom line for me: I still like watches and properly executed horology. One generation ago the hobby didn’t even have a name. The internet and resultant communication between like minded enthusiasts did spur the market and lead to some great new things. It’s what came on the coattails I have a problem with. The saving grace is that the two edged sword of success gives some companies the ability to invest in true horological innovation; it’s just harder to see the wood for the trees.

Velociphile’s Journey into Watches

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The little experiments and photos were taken in April 2007, and had forgotten all about it.

I’m a notebook-user, and I’ve sent 2 watches for abnormal daily rate getting faster without placing my watches near mobile, speakers or even bags with the magnetic clips!

There is only one thing I use daily and many hours with it….. my notebook (or laptop)!

Coincidentally, I was trying to find some answers and was reading Donald de Carle’s Practical Watch Repairing…and there was a chapter on magnetism ( I’ve enclose a page of it for your reference, and also for the respect of copyrights).

* Magnetism, Have We Missed Out The Obvious? Laptop-Users Be Aware! [WatchProSite]

Timezone takes a close look at cosmology and the equation of time. Take a gander so you can see what that weird complication actually does.

Having put ourselves in Fred Flintstone’s shoes (or saber-toothed tiger loafers, as the case may be), we can see that one fact must have seemed obvious to our flea-bitten ancestors — looking up at the sky, day or night, the natural conclusion to draw is that the earth is stationary, with heavenlybodies moving around it.

Cosmology and the Equation of Time – TimeZone

A nice thread about the creation of movements and the death of watchmaking.

Among many other speculative reasons, my friend and recognized world wide authority in the world of fine timepieces, proposed an idea I had heard before, whispered between old timers for years, in this niche, curtained world of magic and mythology that is Haute Horlogerie – “modern movements are designed on, by, and for computers and automated production, and thus, leave no room for the world of true skilled manual watchmaking. The world where an experienced, gifted watchmaker adjusts, files, polishes, tunes, something that was conceived with more ‘human, real world’ tolerances.”

Industry Old Timer [WatchRap]

One man, one watch, and the age-old question: do I really need another watch?

Back to the question. Is it ok if you dont like a watch which you blindly got, without seeing it in person. How to avoid it in the future???? What do you guys look for when u buy a watch you never seen in your life?

Is it ok if… you dont like a watch [PMWF]

A great photo reportage on a German watchmaker in his little studio plus some amazing watch shots.

When visiting german watchmaker Christian Klings recently I felt reminded of this old term, not only because his tiny workshop, also on the top floor under the roof exactly meets this descriptions; also his style of watchmaking comes very, very close. Few has been written about Christian Klings and different from the few “stars” among the AHCI his name isnt that well known even among those, more focused on the world of independents.

The german “cabinotier”……. – [www.watchprosite.com]

Balance cocks are the little pices that fit over the balance wheel to keep them in place. They sometimes look like little chickens, or coqs, and have absolutely nothing to do with what’s going through your filthy dirty mind. Fascination has a huge article on the them, explaining that they were once so beautiful people actually wore them as jewelry. Stupid people.

Balance-cocks and watch keys [fascination]