I have the 1995 paperback edition, given to me by a Turkish friend whose father owned a high end watch shop, where my friend worked and was required to learn watch repair. Sorry I missed your original reference.

Neat history. Thanks.

Yes, unfortunately it must be sent out of state for maintenance and takes several weeks to do so. That's another problem with having a high end mechanical timepiece. I don't recommend it for those who are interested solely in learning what time it is. For those people, use your phone or buy a Timex!

Yes that is a good accuracy. Do you have a place to go for cleaning and to have the rate adjusted?

Once every two months by a minute or so. That is very good for a mechanical movement but falls far short of the accuracy of even the cheapest battery powered timepiece.

WOW...probably expensive. I was looking for a windup a month or so ago...gona need something reliable if the grid or even civilization goes down.
Like the idea of not needing batteries...tired of batteries...it's crazy these days.

Take your personal feuding somewhere else. I did not "pan" an invention and did not "ride" anyone's posts. I was one of the first to upvote the topic. Your personal attacks and abuse are contrary to the guidelines, not "policing". Blarman is so obsessed with his feuding that he has lost all objectivity. He's 'downvoting' and censoring out of personal resentment.

The inventor of the chronometer, the subject of this book, is the John Harrison I referred to earlier in the first post. There are two editions of the book and it is well worth having the later 1998 edition in hardcover for its quality and added illustrations: Sobel and Andrews, The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of the Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Lon... (I don't know what the quality of the paper edition of this revised version is.)

Chronometers are super accurate clocks, which were necessary for navigating long voyages, and were still in widespread use into about the 1970s. They became obsolete with the use of quartz crystals once the problems of corrosion in the electronics in salt air was solved well after electronic watches were becoming popular. There were only a handful of horologists -- experts who could repair and restore the mechanical chronometers -- left by then and collectors and yachtsmen had to ship their navigation time pieces across the country or internationally for repairs and restoration. I don't know how they do it now. There must be a few left somewhere.

Doesnt need to be a national disaster, could be a very local thing. A few years ago the whole city of San Diego lost power for more than a day. Clock time wasn't at the top of the list of my concerns, it was all about preserving food by cooking it and figuring out how long water was going to last (pumping stations were going to run out of fuel) Luckily we got power back before things got bad, but everything became a function of sun angle over the horizon, and not clock time.
On the up side, we found out that when the power goes out, San Diego's reaction is to have BBQ Block parties. :)

Look in the mirror. The article was about a cool new invention and your first response was to pan the invention. I let it go until you started riding everyone else's posts as well, and then you had the gall to start complaining about the direction of someone else's thread as if it personally antagonized or offended you!

It's my thread to police. You want to complain - go find your own article to post and you can feel free to direct it as you see fit.

A new breakthrough -- a 100 year watch!

Whatever happened to self-winding watches? I had one that kept excellent time until I forgot to take it off while playing racquetball. Had a 14K gold case, however, and I made a tidy profit on it after ten years.

In the meantime, the country will need to crash as in AS before enough people give up the statist stuff as unworkable and get out of the way. I loved Hillary's speech in New Hampshire where she was saying how government will grow the economy with her policies. I laughed and said the best she could possibly do is "GET OUT OF THE WAY"

Well...I do try to keep it well lubed (Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, etc.).

??? Your very first post to this thread panned how useless this invention is because of digital watches, and you want to complain that the conversation turns to how a mechanical watch would still tell time after an EMP?

If you post the thread, you can complain about tangents.

But that will be very important. In the New Era of People's Justice the trains will run on time.

How often do you have to reset it for accuracy?

You already have an 80 year watch on your wrist -- a pulse.

It depends WHY the power goes out. If it was a solar flare that broke the electronics (same as an EMP would), then no, the battery powered stuff isn't going to work any better than the plug in stuff.

That said, in the same scenario, if that happened, we'd have a lot more immediate concerns than what time it is.

I have a 400 day clock, but I can't get it to fit on my wrist, comfortably .

Thanks for adding your insight. Worth more than just a +1 IMHO!