"Really...you have to wind it every day?"

 

And when you say yes, it's "oh cool" followed by a change of subject

 

Upon looking at my watch I had this comment made by the saleslady at the Rolex/Chopard/Hermes dealer: Oh, its a wind up watch, then its a modern watch then? (she explained it must post date quartz!)

She was looking at my WW2 Elgin UDT watch!

and this from a "trained" salesperson!

 

"Have you bought anything lately?"

"Which one are you wearing today?"

"Have you seen Larry's new Invicta?"

ETA: I admire his enthusiasm. I try on his watches and let him try on mine. We just have different taste.

 

This guy was young, but not that young...and he was dead serious. Wasn't even aware such a watch existed. He was genuinely surprised and asked again..."so you really wind it every day?"

 

He was actually a bit disturbed by the concept...blew my mind.

The conversation started with him telling me my battery was dead. I looked down and was wearing my Cairelli...and just chuckled at him thinking he was kidding. I told him it didn't have a battery and it was running fine. He said "no, your second hand is stopped, your battery is dead". I explained again that it had no battery and he asked if it was "perpetual"...but again pointing at the watch said my second hand wasn't working. I explained that its a mechanical watch and that it was the chrono hand not the second hand...he was so confused it was comical.

 

"No...I have to wind it once every two days."

 

"That must be a Swiss made watch!"

 

The number of people that tell me my Speedy has stopped has gotten comical. I just tell them to hit the "on" button now. Then the confusion sets in as the realize the "stopped" watch is on time.

 

I've actually been there! When I bought my first mechanical watch - a TAG Monaco Calibre 12 - it took me half the subway ride home to figure out that the chrono hand wasn't the running seconds. I was wondering why my brand new expensive watch wasn't running, even after I hand-wound it a bunch

 

I've never had that... hmmm, how can I engineer that.....

 

Was looking at a few Huey,s and Cobra helicopters for work. I showed a US marine my speedmaster chrono after he mentioned he needed a stopwatch. Man was he impressed, took it off and let him read the NASA bit and next thing I had the whole crew from the hangar oh,ing and ah,ing.

 

Hangar

 

Well with the Cairelli you could at least explain that the running seconds is in the small register. When I wear a Cal. 11/12 Heuer and people ask me why nothing is moving on the watch, I struggle. And the people absolutely don't understand that a watch without running seconds exists...

 

Another example of the technological dumbing down of our culture. I know a slew of 20-somethings who can get themselves anywhere with GPS, but have no idea where "North" is if you ask them.

 

One reason I've never been a fan of the Cal 11.

 

"Wind...? As in, put in the winder?"

 

I'm not that surprised that some people don't know about watches.

You don't know what you haven't seen or generally don't care to learn about.

A concept that applies to any skill or technology.

I asked a neighbor who is about 8 years old if he could read the time off my watch and if they had taught him that at school.

He replied no to both.

I then explained the concept, taught him to read, and now ask him each time I see him to tell me the time based off the analog watch.

He's not great at it but getting better, which is nice because it shows he's trying.

 

Daughter #1: Daddy, why do you take your watch off when you wash the dishes. (note: she's 6)

Me: I don't want it to get wet, or it will get wrecked.

Daughter #1: like it will break the battery?

Me: No, there's no battery. There's a little machine in there with a spring and I have to wind it up to make it work. But it will run forever as long as I wind it up.

Daughter #1: COOOOL! Can I get a machine with a spring in the iPad?

 

I've said it before and no doubt I will say it again: engineers and Speedmasters are simply drawn to each other.