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Making Time With the Watchmakers
PreacherTom writes "In the age of watches that have more computational power than Apollo 11's computer, one would think that the watchmaker has gone the way of the cobbler, the blacksmith and the Dodo. Quite the contrary. With the rise in interest for mechanical watches (especially luxury models), Rolex has sponsored a new school to train horologists in the arcane art. From the article: 'We were facing a situation today where we needed to foster a new generation of watchmakers,' says Charles Berthiaume, the senior vice-president for technical operations at Rolex and the Technicum's president 'Thirty to 40 years ago, there was a watchmaker at every jewelry store. That's not the case today,' he notes. Included are some remarkable examples of their training, dedication, and intricate patience as they take technology in an entirely different direction."
to watch.
I think The Gripping Hand could be *VERY* erotic.
PreacherTom is an astroturfer for BusinessWeek magazine. Look at the URL in this recent Slashdot story and notice the campaign_id string. Now look at his user page. Scroll down to the submissions section. Notice how almost every one is a link to a BusinessWeek.com article containing the campaign_id string. Now look at the search results for "campaign_id preachertom". He's been pulling this shit on slashdot, digg, Fark, MetaFilter, and who knows where else. Check out this MetaTalk thread for the initial discovery.
Spread the word, perhaps?
This guy is steering you to BusinessWeek magazine and has been doing so for quite a while.
Like "reliability"? Count me in!
Fuck Slashdot
How much does the watchmaking business pay nowadays?
- Aetheral Research -
Subject pretty much says it all...
'We were facing a situation today where we needed to foster a new generation of watchmakers,' says Charles Berthiaume, the senior vice-president for technical operations at Rolex
Well, just make sure they don't develop telekinesis and go on a power-hungry killing spree.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
- Albert Einstein
Swiss watches, especially luxury ones are on the rise. 2005 it was a 10 billion dollar per year industry for the Swiss. It is expected to exceed 23 billion (with a B) in 2006.
0 .html
WSJ article at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB11667432128875716
Swiss Watches Strike Export Record
Surging Demand for Luxury Lines Has Makers
Like Richemont Thinking About Capacity
By MARTIN GELNAR
December 22, 2006; Page B2
ZURICH -- Swiss watch exports hit a record in November, suggesting that big watchmakers such as Swatch Group AG, Compagnie Financière Richemont SA and Rolex SA will see strong Christmas sales that will carry into the new year.
Switzerland's watchmakers exported 1.52 billion Swiss francs ($1.25 billion) of goods in November, the Swiss watchmaking association said Thursday, up 13% from the same month last year. The biggest gains were seen for luxury watches selling for more than $6,000 each.
Sales growth is so strong for Swiss watches that the country's watchmakers are facing a new problem: a lack of spare capacity, and especially of the highly skilled craftsmen that make each watch. Last month, Richemont said surging demand for luxury watches may lead to capacity constraints in some product areas over the next few years.
Swiss companies are leaders in the global watch market, which has annual sales of about $23 billion.
The country is by far the world's biggest watch exporter in value terms.
In 2005, Swiss watchmakers exported goods valued at about $10 billion, and accounted for about 9% of Switzerland's total exports. While Hong Kong and China export more watches than Switzerland, they lag far behind in terms of value. Last year, Hong Kong exported watches worth $6 billion and China exported $2 billion, respectively.
The concentration of the watch industry in Switzerland limits growth because production can't easily be shifted outside the country for branding reasons. And within the country, there are only so many people with the training needed to make a watch by hand.
In a recent interview with Swiss daily Le Temps, Swatch Group Chief Executive Nick Hayek said the growth rates of as much as 40% in certain segments aren't sustainable. He noted his company is looking for 140 qualified watchmakers for its high-end Breguet brand, and 200 workers for its watch-movements maker ETA.
But analysts say they don't anticipate serious capacity issues in the short term, and some suggest a shortage of watches may even benefit the industry.
"Production capacity may get tight in some areas, also on the components side, but I don't think this will be a major issue next year," says Zuercher Kantonalbank analyst Patrik Schwendimann. "In a way, scarcity value may also be a positive for the image."
Jon Cox of Kepler Equities expects the "supercycle" in luxury goods to continue. Global demand for expensive jewelry and watches has been boosted by new customers in emerging markets, he says, but he also notes a surge in demand from previously sluggish markets such as France.
"So long as financial markets continue to move up, demand for luxury items will likely remain high," he says.
Any capacity problems may have an impact on the number of watches sold but shouldn't hurt revenue, he says. "To offset any shortage, the companies could simply hike prices," Mr. Cox says.
Write to Martin Gelnar at martin.gelnar@dowjones.com
"For the next generation of horologists, it's about time." thought that was clever
Who needs watchmaking? Become a nuclear physicist!
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
there was a watch repair booth at the grocery store and an old man (as I remember him) sat there all day with his loupe repairing watches. My mom would drop me at his booth and I would just stand there, fascinated.
I thought that was so freaking cool, to work on such tiny things like watches.
I had a Mickey Mouse watch that broke and I got to watch him repair it.
I was inspired by him (and other repairmen) to take stuff apart and see "what makes it tick"..
Another thing that was common when I was a kid, there were handymen repair shops where you took just about anything that was broken and the nice man would fix it. Toasters, vacuum cleaners, TV's, radios, whatever.
That's what I wanted to do when I grew up, be a handyman, to just fix broken stuff.
Now I'm older, have arthritis in my hands, my eyes aren't so good anymore, there's just no way I could do this sort of work anymore. That sucks because that's what I love to do more than anything, fix things, work on stuff..
My favorite TV show is "How it's Made"
I am fairly young (35) when I was growing up my Grandfater (a watchmaker by training) a boilerwelder by trade (it paid MUCH better) taught me how to clean and repair a watch from a young age.
When I was 15 I lived with him to help on the farm since my Great Grandmother moved in with him. I asked for him to take me as an apprectice as a watchmaker (hey I lived there why not and I was good with guns, clocks, etc) besides my bedrrom was the "Watch Room"
He said he wouldnt mind at all and thought I could make short work of it but he warned me he saw no future in it, as all the watches were going electronic and I could probably never make a living at it.
Investing 8 hrs a day for 2+ years and not having it be a viable profession made my mind up , I decided not to
Last year I was in L.A. I REAL WatchMAKER (not watch repair man, hack, etc, but WATCH MAKER, who can from nothing but raw metal make a watch from scratch command UPWARDS of 250,000 a Year.
DOH ! I have my Grandfather last watch he wore every day, a Seiko, he loved it, it never needed cleaned, and kept perfect time.
The article is about as dead on as it gets......I wish I wish I wish......
Considering they still keep accepting stories from Roland Piquepaille, another known shill, it's doubtful the editors will do anything about this guy.
I have some very nice mechanical and quartz Swiss watches. I used to be able to go by a local master watchmaker to have them serviced or fixed. Then he retired and there was literally nobody else around to do it. Now I'm supposed to ship everything back to the manufacturer. Nobody in town will even replace the batteries on the quartz ones.
I'm not interested in watch making as a profession--I've been thinking of getting into it as a hobby. I've surfed around and looked at some of the tools you need--little lathes and other specialized tools that are hard to find because it's a "dying" art. That's what makes me find it interesting--it's technology, but because it doesn't require a multi-million dollar fabrication facility, it's potentially accessable to a hobbiest. Also, time pieces can be works of art, not just tech. It's funny, I don't even like to wear a watch, but the idea of having a miniature machine-shop in my apartment appeals to me on some level. After posting this, I will probably not follow through again though... it's just another one of those things that I think would be cool.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
While I might have time at my computer at work, i don't have time availble while I'm in a meeting at work. Or while I'm walking the halls at work (I have two desks... it is a weird situation). And if I get intercepted by a "customer" for "a few minutes" ... who knows what the real time is? I do, if i'm wearing my watch.
And I'm still taking grad classes. That should be self-explanatory.
I really like mine.
...cheap knock-offs of the luxury are on the rise too.
With extremely aggressive marketing.
Unfortunately.
I wonder, couldn't Rolex sue for trademark infringement or damaging brand reputation or something? These spammers make me loathe the name.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Check out this blog for some of the weird and wonderful watches out there. Some of them costing 200K or more. (yes, two hundred thousand) One of my favourites is the TAG Heuer V4, but I doubt I would be able to afford it.
Sigh.
A similar thing might well happen to analogue electronic engineers I suspect, with everything going digital these days. Why have a filter circuit composed of discrete components when you can program a DSP to do the same thing?
Or maybe not.
Trying to associate Microsoft with "fun" is like trying to associate Satan with aromatherapy. -Tycho
> Thirty to 40 years ago, there was a watchmaker at every jewelry store.
This is utter nonsense. Jewelry stores had watch repairmen, most capable of no more than cleaning, adjusting, and replacing movements.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Use www.bugmenot.com or register at your own risk http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/nyregion/29watch .html
He's just another sleazy fuckstick with an Adblog and a business agreement with Slashdot.
Slashdot links to his Adblog and then gets a cut of the Ad revenue Roland earns when Slashdotters visit his site.
If Roland was also posting to Slashdot from sockpuppet accounts, praising the living daylights out of "Roland's" Adblog, then he'd be an Astroturfer.
I was hoping by this time that we would be training the next generation of time lords.
Well...dang straight man, I feel the same way. Really is disappointing when you realise that the real small stuff is just out of reach anymore, glasses or no glasses. I still don't throw away much stuff though, hang onto it for "parts". It's a habit that is hard to shake.
It doesn't matter really, for the most part stuff now is mostly throw away junk. Not all, but most.
That's what I wanted to do when I grew up, be a handyman, to just fix broken stuff. (...) that's what I love to do more than anything, fix things, work on stuff..
This gets rather personal, so I'm ACing it: Be glad that you didn't. My dad worked for IBM for 40+ years. He repaired computers (and before that, typewriters). He started back when you would measure radio tubes for defective bits and replace them, all through the way to replacing defective chips on IC cards.
Today, nobody does that. You're a glorified "replace these cards until it works" or worse yet, a glorified delivery boy replacing the broken box with a new one. The circuitry is so small and integrated, your hourly rate so high compared to just pushing out another at the assembly line, it's just not worth it. One of his colleagues sucidied over it, my dad retired.
I've seen that happen to more and more small electronics - just making an estimate of what's wrong exceeds the cost of buying a new cheap device. Shops that used to fix things like that have closed up. Cars are the same - my dad would understand simple engines well, today you need a computer to tell you what's wrong - and probably a computer to fix it.
I must admit, that's just the way it is. Even if I compare it to a "flip the burger" McDonald's rate, you have a very narrow window of oppertunity where an expensive piece of equipment needs to be fixed in a very short time. Ever tried to debug "Well there's some wierd race condition that only happens under load on release builds", it's roughly as bad as "Well the hardware locks up under some wierd conditions". Many times, even if you found an expert of the subject, it's just not worth it or he'll conclude "scrap it, buy a new one". Sorry to rain on your parade but it's just not as glorious as it sounds.
PreacherTom is an astroturfer for BusinessWeek magazine.
BusinessWeak magazine? Come on, it is tabloid business journalism at its lamest; entertaining yes, informative sometimes, but rarely if you want in depth information about the topics it purports to cover. I have an MBA and while I could cite some monthly business periodicals in the papers I wrote for classes, Businessweek was rarely one of them.
The WSJ is much better, more accurate, and more insightful and has far more interesting articles in any given week than BusinessWeak does in a typical month. I guess that is why BW needs shills...
"You're young, you're drunk, you're in bed, you have knives; shit happens." -- Angelina Jolie
Interesting point (too bad about the turfer), there has been a watchmaking school in The Netherlands for years, and still going strong.
And especially in a digital age does one appreciate the fine intricacies of a beautiful mechanical device more and more.
...would be rolling over in his grave. If only he had stayed dead.
You really want to make time with this?
The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
Thirty to 40 years ago, there was a watchmaker at every jewelry store. That's not the case today.
Maybe this will help explain why.
What you wear says a lot about who you are.
And wearing a Rolex is the only thing I can think of that trumps driving a Jaguar for saying "I'm very rich and very stupid".
Roland and certain Slashdot "editors" regularly link to his adblog for fun and profit, yet you support Roland and take issue with those critical of his behavior.
I think we've found the astroturfer.
Earlier this year I bought an analog wristwatch from an old coot who claimed to be "the last certified watchmaker left in New York City". I bought one from him, though I could tell from my NTP-sync'ed mobile phone that his own watch was 2 minutes slow.
I was in a room with a Master of the Way of the Dodo.
--
make install -not war
...you can tick that joke off the list. It has clocked too many miles as it is, though I must hand it to you for chiming in with it, though to judge from the number of replies, it didn't wind up too many people. Mind you, with effort, we might yet get this thread to go round and round.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
If only I had known, I would have become a watchmaker...
I always wear my watch when I leave the house, but that's mostly because my watch doubles as a USB flash drive.
For the win!
"Live as if you'll die tomorrow." Ridiculous. You could die later today.
an answer to the question "Who watches the watchmen"
I got a seiko kinetic watch new years eve 2004, and I've never had any problems with it. It is always fully wound up just from me moving my arms while I walk to work.
I'm pretty much sure of having the same watch going when I retire in 40 years time.
- Kaos games and encryption systems developer
The same thing is happening to the larger clock business. One of the remaining fully customized clock(large, like 1-20ft or postclock) is in our town. Almost everybody else has been bought of or outsourced and just have a small office here but they are entirely designed,built and assembled in the US. The clock, and watch business for the sake of this article are both losing quality to quantity and that seems to be happening almost everywhere in the US these days...
Why? I'd much rather work on nice stuff, even if I personally couldn't afford it, rather than work with cheap stuff.
Think about it, would you rather work in a shop turning out finely crafted watches you couldn't afford, or be on an assembly line cranking out plastic watches for Wal-Mart buyers?
I regularly write software that I can't afford, but I enjoy it, and it's a nice living.
What would really suck is working to create a product that you need but can't afford.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
It seems to me that this question arises fairly often here on Slashdot. Some poor fool thinks that just because every known device can display the time in one way or another, they don't have any reason to wear a timepiece.
...not to mention that after having worn a watch every day for as long as I can remember, when I'm not wearing one, I actually feel naked!
Sure, my phone and my iPod both display the time, but they're nowhere near as convenient as just glancing down at your wrist and knowing immediately what the time is.
Watches can also look good. In fact, I've taken to only buying interesting designs that stand out, and get people asking about them, such as this little baby by EleeNo.
My phone and my iPod don't look anywhere near as good as that watch.
It's usually by the hour, but there's great overtime potential for people willing to work around the clock.
Then again, unless you like to work with your hands, I wouldn't give it a second thought.
well, there's a number of forums online, but the most common place to see pics of watch movements is on ebay - many sellers will remove the back of the watch to show the movement...also search for 'skeleton' in watches for transparent cases - watch ppl were into case mods long before the LAN party crowd ;-)
Bravo and likewise. My day-to-day watch is a 17J 1911 Hamilton pocket watch - runs like a dream. I have a couple of other that I've been meaning to fix up and tune, but just haven't had the time yet. It's really true that "they don't make them like that anymore." I love to show people the beautiful craftsmanship of the gearings, etc.
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
At least clock making in the U.S. history..
Around 1700, it was very rare for a person to own a clock or a watch - something on the order of 1 in 35 prominent white males owned one. By 1800, most cities in New England had clock makers. These clock makers could produce only around a dozen clocks per year and they never did so preemptively. They would wait for an order to be placed and then take their sweet time to produce a clock. There was an old saying about the craft.. "No two clocks tell the same time," indicating their accuracy. An interesting fact was that most of these clock makers could not live on making clocks alone: they had day jobs to support them. Clock making was merely a bonus.
Then good old American manufacturing kicked in and production blew up to 1000 clocks a year made by one skilled worker, requiring nothing but ordinary laborers instead of master clock makers. Prices dropped around 1820s and it seems like the market was for once flooded with clocks. Some speculate that this cheaper price and wide availability created a market demand for clocks. Otherwise- why weren't they producing more of them?
These are of course, clocks.. not just watches. Around this time (1750-1850), the clock stopped being a measuring device. Instead, it became a control device. Entire lifestyles changed - masters were replaced with factory workers. Time discipline became heavily monitored and for the first time ever the society went from an ephemeral lifestyle to one controlled by a machine.
So here is an interesting question to ask Slashdotters:
If a clock changed way of life in the 19th century, what is happening with our lives in the 21st century?
Will we ever go back to a relaxed setting of working at our own pace or will we be slaves to the clock for some time to come? Why would we need a clock (or a watch) anyway? It seems like we have plenty of other semaphores to regulate our lives.
Just something to ponder..
I bought one of those 2GB video watches. They are a bit bulky, but quite cool/nerdworthy if you don't mind recharging the battery after about 8 hours of it just boringly displaying the time.
On it I have my limited MP3 collection and the Black Knight scene from the Holy Grail.
You wouldn't believe how many chicks find this sexy!
make your time...
Funny how people lament the effects of cheaper goods*, but complain about the cost of digital goods. e.g. Games, movies, music, etc.
*Wal-mart, globalization, buggy-whip watchmakers, etc.
you really do not know what you are talking about. 'relaxing setting of working at our own pace' was not known to a lot of people in the 1800s. railroad workers, farmers, etc etc.
especially the tens of millions of slaves who were the backbone of the economy.
your whole post kind of rests on these assumptions that would not be accepted by the most cursory reader of american 19th century history.
It's an uncommon profession, absolutely, but my cousin is a blacksmith on a thoroughbred farm and he makes a pretty good living making horseshoes and whatever other odds and ends are required for keeping racehorses going. And, of course, there's all those folks who run the Renaissance Fair circuit who make swords and armor.
I believe most Swiss watches except for the, say Patek Phillipe-level that go from tens to hundreds of thousand dollars are actually factory-made. Still nice timepieces, but not really handmade. Possibly assembled by hand, at least in part... Not an expert, but that's what I've read anyway.
(%i1) factor(777353);
(%o1) 777353
And here I was thinking of the Zero Wing quote, instead...
:)
You have no chance to survive.
Make your time.
Sorry
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
You mean those things we replaced with cell phones?
FYI, I didn't RTFA.
Rolex's are a good indicator of someone with more money than sense. The movements are not fabbed in house, but are generally mass-produced movements from ETA -- decent construction, don't get me wrong -- but would you pay $100,000 for a Jaguar with a Ford engine?
True horology phreaks prefer makers that still make the movements in house. As these are becoming rarer and rarer, the costs of owning such a timepiece has gone up little by little. But it's neat knowing that if your watch says %MAKER% on the dial, then you know the guts were made by %MAKER%, as well.
Plus, every MBA and his buddy has a Rolex whatever-date on his wrist. There are probably a thousand "Official Rolex" dealers in the USofA. But should you find someone wearing a Glashuette or Blaincpain or Patek, you'll know you found someone who actually took the time to learn the intricacies of what sets one watch apart from the rest.
And no, I don't think a hand made mechanical watch is a "better timepiece" than a $30 Casio, or a cell phone. It's just neat to have the miniature equivalent of a V8 engine on my wrist at all times. That 'wow' factor is worth the price of admission to me.
-- Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
Ugh, I have a nice Abloy set that I can't install because I don't own a house anymore. It really sucks that no one uses mortice locks in the US. Well, lots of commercial construction uses mortice locks, but no residential places do. I had a hard enough time finding a door manufacturer that would provide un-drilled doors, and then I had to move to a place where I can't afford the housing.
You have no chance to survive, make your time.
You can get them for the price of the materials used, if you work on your free time. Even if you make them out of platinum or gold, the amount used isn't so much that a skilled watchmaker couldn't afford.
But, by your reasoning, it must suck to work at Rolls Royce. Or what about Boeing?
The worth of a watchmaker will increase. Many of these types of articles are intended to increase the supply of applicants for a particular sector. It reduces the cost to the business of finding new staff. If they simply advertised in a conventional way they would have to pay higher market rates.
Deleted
In the age of watches that have more computational power than Apollo 11's computer
What? o.o Apollo 11 had almost 0 computational power! The cup I'm drinking out of is probably more intelligent than Apollo 11's computers ever were
He's dyslexic, so found schooling especially hard. However, he's excellent with mechanical things, so studied to be a horologist.
There is such a demand for horologists at the moment it's crazy. Not just for watches, mind, but also for mechanical clocks.
Too many kids are soft courses at uni (art/media etc etc) that we're being left with a dearth of people who have useful skills..
It's that time again isn't it?
I wear a Rolex. A modestly priced (yes, such a thing exists) GMT Master Model II. Nice, solid feel on my arm, great look.
I've given lots of presentations at the board level to Investment Banks. Can't ever recall seeing a Casio or other digital stuff on the arms of the folks I was presenting to or later mingling with. Plenty of Swiss machinery, Rolexes included.
So the watch you wear, while a deeply personal statement, also reflects where you want to play. About one month ago I pitched for $500 million in a competitive bid situation. No board is gonna give half a billion dollars to someone in jeans and a TShirt, wearing a ThinkGeek digital on their arm.
Sure, down in the crowded cube farms the masses amuse themselves and each other with all sorts of cheap digital crap on their arms.
But in the board room it's Swiss all the way.
Rolexes are expensive. But like that tailor made suit, if you want to play the game you've got to dress the part. The cube farm is long behind me.
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Rolex DOES NOT use the ETA movements; in some parts of the world they sell a brand known as 'Tudor', which does use the ETA movement.
It's a subtle difference, one that makes me question your other conclusions.
However I do agree with your points about the other watches, however let's be realistic - you can get a new Rolex for maybe £2K (sterling); a Patek will set you back at least ten times that.
So is that Patek really good value for money?
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I hear you and society is much worse off with the decline of these handymen. When I was 16 I got a new stereo system for my car and of course thought I could hook it up myself. Well, I ended up crossing a wire and letting all of the smoke out of my amp. I thought it was toast. My dad recommended taking it to an appliance shop as they could fix stuff. I was skeptical but took it in anyway. Figuring that they just repaired stoves and washing machines I sheepishly asked if they could fix my amp. Holy crap if they didn't have it working the very next day at a minimal charge.
Years later my home stereo CD player was having bad problems with skipping so I thought I'd take it to Best Buy. After all they had a repair center just for problems like this. Sure, they could repair it they said but it actually would require mailing it off to a repair center, take about 3 weeks to get back and would cost 1/3 to 1/2 the price of a new CD player. I just tossed it and bought a new one.
And this is progress?
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." - Shepard Book Quoting Malcolm Reynolds
I can't find it now, but there was a good piece NPR ran last year (I think) about prison inmates that were being trained in fine watch repair. You didn't need to have a high school diploma (many of these inmates didn't) to do the job, and you could make a good wage at it when you got out of prison. The training facility was sponsored in part by Timex (at least, a watchmaker name I recognized at the time). The story described several prisoners who immediately got jobs in watch repair as soon as they got released.
If anyone can help find this article, please post below.
I was faced last week with the choice of either having my Rolex repaired, or throwing something with a replacement cost of $8,000 in the trash. Since owning one is considered to be a sign of stupidity to this crowd, I chose the stupid path - I ran for Congress. No, I decided to have it repaired.
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Japan), I decided to check the Rolex website for information. It turns out that Rolex is light years ahead of most global companies. They are already embracing a new paradigm: Web 4.0.
Web 4.0 you say? Yes, indeed.
Web 4.0 is retro. The master site for Rolex has no email addresses. None. No email for the headquarters or any office in all their offices flung far throughout the world. No email for you today. It's pure genius. It took me back to my work-a-day world of the 1980s. We used to have businesses back then that managed to survive (and even thrive) without "IT guys." We used to talk on the phone, send letters, send telex or even use those new fancy FAX machines. We could just give the new guy a desk, a phone and some pens.
Think about it for a minute. Which is more frustrating: not being able to fire off an email, or not getting a reply to your email? Or, heaven forbid, a nonsense non-answer or automated "empathy mail like, "We are sincerely interested in your customer service experience and are commited to providing you blah blah blah blah..."
Nip that customer frustration in the bud instead of prolonging the agony of no, or nonsense answers, since you're only going to tell the customer to get lost anyway. The first thing it does for a comapny is eliminate the angst of having to read customer complaints. Who needs that first thing in the morning? It weeds all but the most determined whiners and complainers.
It also eliminates all the IT guys running around without ties having meetings in strange "geekspeak" going frantic about needing the latest version of ComExpRo 9000 version 23.01 beta ($24,000 license fee) and a new Sparkmaster Database Servoserver ($72,000) with 128 Megagoobers of chrome plated exhausts. Or something like that.
No internet. No email. No spam. No security problems. No spyware. No upgrades. No Vista!
And no maps to the office in Tokyo on the web site. If you can afford a Rolex, you shouldn't be sending emails or need maps anyway. Get your secretary to call and get directions. Bingo. If you don't have a secretary, get a casio. No, you should have enough smarts to figure out how to call and get directions.
Off I went to the Tokyo office. It just so happens that I was there about 8 years ago, so I vaguely remembered where it was. It was just a short walk from Tokyo station. Since I'm a guy (internal flawless GPS system installed), I asked my girlfriend to "confirm" my GPS at the station with a random person.
"Oh, the Rolex building? Sure, it's blah, blah, blah..."
It turns out that everyone in Tokyo has been to the Rolex service center since everyone bought several back during the bubble and they all need servicing eventually. I found it easily. I walked directly to the counter after being offered a friendly smile by one of the many friendly-looking counter ladies, only to be handed a plastic tag with a number. I turned around to see about a dozen Rolexers lounging around in leather chairs waiting for their number to be called. All reading Rolex catalogs and Rolex magazines (some were even post Y2K - Rolex had no Y2K problem...). They check your watch as you wait, then present you with an estimate to repair it.
When my number was called, I presented my cold, dead watch to the woman. She was holding it when she asked my if it had stopped. I said something to the effect, "Yes... see?"
She then asked me when it stopped.
Now, this is Japan and all interactions between strangers/customers/gods is formal and exceedingly polite. I formally and politely smiled as I pointed to the watch face and read off the time and date. Grin. Wink.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
...gone the way of the cobbler, the blacksmith and the Dodo.
Huh? Dodos are extinct, but we still have cobblers and blacksmiths. Ask a motorcyclist where he (or she) goes to get his boots repaired.
I still wear a watch. When I go for a walk, the only electronics I carry with me is my camera, which doesn't work well for telling time. In my car, the radio has a perfectly good clock, but a flaky backlight, so I can't always rely on that to see the time. Even when I'm surrounded by computers, microwaves, and wall clocks, I still like having the time on my wrist.
My main watch is a battery operated analog/digital (dual face) piece that I found in the corner, on the floor, when I was cleaning out the landlord's garage (because I'm the one who actually uses the garage). I replaced the band and battery and cleaned off some white paint and have worn it ever since. My backup watch is a battery operated analog watch that my mom got for free with her subscription to Time magazine. Neither of them will keep Swiss watchmakers in business.
-Rich
You think Rolex is anything special? Stupid, ignorant shill.
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
I'm just glad I finally know what the "make your time" part of the "you have no chance to survive make your time" means, now :]
Now if only the rest of that made any sense...
You sir, sound like a Under Accumluators of Wealth (UAW). If you read The Millionaire Next Door you will find that most millionaires do not have extravagant lifestyles. Read this book, it may enlighten you to change your views on what a millionaire may look like. That geek consultant in jeans, T-shirt with a ThinkGeek digital watch, may just be a millionaire. He/She may have more "game" than you and buy out your company and some of the companies you were pitching too. (Note: The book has some examples of plain ordinary looking individuals that bought out companies of people who had lavish lifestyles, nice pedigrees but not much wealth accumulated and/or business sense.)
Like you said, there are clocks everywhere these days, who needs a watch?
Personally, I consider my watchlessness a sort of status symbol, like not wearing a necktie: My time is my own, and I need not be overly concerned with the exact minutae, nor am I preoccupied with making some sort of fashion or status statement, with respect to my choice time-keeping gear. I have more important things to do.
It is, of course, something of a luxury to be casually unconcerned with the passage of time, but then again, the time is always NOW, so who really needs a watch, anyway?
Definitely not. Underneath the digital abstraction that is tractable to think about there is are actual analogue circuits that have to be carefully designed so that the digital abstraction is a reasonable approximation of their behavior under normal conditions. Analogue engineers are still needed by the people who make digital electronics, and always will be unless they change substrates (to something like MEMS, for example).
And to answer your question about the filter circuit, there are a variety of reasons why a DSP might not suit your purposes, including power consumption, real estate, operating frequency, etc.
--MarkusQ
We're finally moving past being a species that still thinks digitial watches are a pretty neat idea.
Wil
wiki
Just two days ago, the editors published this so-called "article" which claimed that the GAO did a study and "found" that patents are harming innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Not only was the article they linked to a fairly blatant re-republication of Democratic party spin, but the editors clearly did not even read the actual GAO report. You can see my comments that pointed it out largely fell on deaf ears (Hint: the GAO said nothing like what they claimed).
This is hardly the first time I've seen slashdot do stuff like this. Given a choice between publishing what amounts of outright lies and distortions and a user (be it a lone person or even an organization) submitting articles that favor one particular news organization (particularly not an unreasonable one)... I'd certainly pick the latter. I frankly fail to see the problem with this if there is not a question of accuracy. If slashdot cannot find a more newsworthy article to publish through their usual means, why shouldn't a pro-active news organization help them and profit in the meantime?
What's more, the argument can be made (and probably should) that PreacherTom and those like him are doing Slashdot a favor by pointing out articles that are more interesting, more relevant, and more informative to the slashdot readers than what they themselves are able to contribute. Would it be better if slashdot readers simply remained ignorant of everything that businessweek et. al publish? I think not. Is there some fundamental problem with someone making money for performing a service that benefits the readers? Nay.
Dude, there are tens of thousands of blacksmiths alive and well in the United States, not to mention the rest of the world, making tools, functional pieces, and VERY expensive art. Blacksmithing classes fill up fast.
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. - HST
THE ASTROTURPHERS the SUX
Yep. For TVs, radios, etc. repair is simply not worth it. There ARE people that buy broken LCDs and do component-level repair.. I think someone could make a living at it but doubt it's highly profitable. The surplus store I work at sells any working LCD for $100 minimum (I know a new one costs less, but apparently customers don't.. they whine when there's no LCDs and almost fight each other over a working LCD when it comes in.) Broken ones go for $20-40.. which sounds good for the buyer to fix for $1 of parts and markup to $100. But, the supply of bad LCDs is not steady and a large portion of his time involves doing the rounds to get LCDs to repair...
Computers? Forget it. Let alone a NEW computer or card, used computers and cards are SO cheap.. prices where I work are $5 for most cards, and under $100 for P4s, $40 or less for P3s. So.. special DAC cards etc. probably are worth repairing, otherwise no. No OS, so software "repair" is still viable, but hardware? Not so much. Well, not THAT much for software stuff either.. I made a go at it, business has not been fast enough.. it's good "money on the side" to get $50 for an 1-2 hours, but not enough business for a primary job.
Expensive timepieces are not so much "watches" as they are a status symbol. Jewelry that tells time. In general, status item X can never, by definition, be inexpensive enough for everyone to have one.
In this case, nobody needs a Rolex, and that's the point. Some people need more reliable watches than others, some people don't even need a watch. Some people who don't need a watch want a Rolex - that's marketing.
Our economy produces all kinds of stuff one doesn't need, and on the way, provides jobs for all the people who make that stuff, sell it, ship it, etc.
I'd much rather live in this society, not one that mandates that everyone be able to have the same watch, car, and suit. I think we've seen that before and it doesn't work out too well.
There's all kinds of stuff available in our economy that I personally have no use for, but I appreciate that others do like it, and I don't begrudge anyone their stupidly expensive bling. Nor do I use other more mundane, but equally "useless" items like nail salons, dry cleaning or professional sports. But hey, there are plenty of people who do use those services, as well as buyers for caviar and diamonds. No skin off my nose.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
- Changing the locks: I use a master/control-keyed system with exchangeable cylinders. I have my choice of changing the locks by playing "musical cylinders", or I can send cylinders to be rekeyed for $3.00 including the keys. What would you charge me for that service?
- Tenant has locked me out: I just break a window. Costs $15 to repair. How much would you charge me to let me in?
Someday, all locks will be electronic, too. I wonder what locksmiths will do then?They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
The 48,000 Yen was probably a minimum repair cost. They just needed to make sure your watch wasn't broken to the point of costing more.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock