A watch is a measured entity and also an entity which measures. It needs to be exact or otherwise it serves no purpose. A watch consists of a few extremely important parts, these being a movement, which serves the purpose of moving the hands, which are the second part, a dial for the movement to display the correct time to the human eye, and a strap. Naturally, the more done up watches have more flourishes that either deal with entertainment, logistics or aesthetics: an entertaining purpose would be a quasi-craps table being visible on the dial; a logistical purpose would be the date; and an aesthetic purpose would be crystals surrounding the dial. These final flourishes are not necessary for the watch’s intrinsic purpose, but can add to the detail or value of a watch.
The movement can be done in two main ways, which relate to the different types of watches. Typically, a watch is divided into two different types, a digital watch and an analog watch. To the layman, the digital watch displays up to four digits, where the first two are the hour, up to twelve, or in some cases twenty-four, and the second two display the minutes, from zero-zero to fifty-nine. The layman views the digital watch as a watch that displays four Arabic numbers: the analog watch on the other hand is a watch that has two hands that display the time, the smaller hand indicating the hour on a twelve-large-notched dial, and the longer hand indicating the minutes on the same dial, but using smaller teeth within the notches to reveal the minutes, as the intervals between each notch has five teeth.
To the true watch connoisseur, there are two types of watches as well, but they don’t really relate to the display of the time. Instead, a watch is defined by two different types of movement. One is called mechanical and the other digital, but it has absolutely nothing to do with how the time is displayed. Instead, the mechanical watch uses the old system of twisting a coil that slowly unwinds in order to get the gears turning. One has to wind the watch in order to give it power. Many modern watches have automatic winding that relates to a person’s body movements, so the movements of a person’s wrist will automatically wind the watch. It’s pretty neat. For a digital watch, the watchmaker uses a quartz that resonates at a high frequency and moves the hand on its own. The digital watch has much fewer parts than the mechanical one, but is sometimes more accurate, as it doesn’t need to be wound, or lose seconds due to a not completely perfect wind – no coil will ever be perfectly wound, as there is no such thing as a perfect circle, and over time, there will be seconds lost in a mechanical watch.
To the non-questioning eye, the watch spells money or time and usually both, since one knows when one must be at a certain place. The watch reinforces the necessity of punctuality as it can be constantly worn and looked at for reference, since it sits upon one’s wrist. The watch is used for convenience for a person, and though cell-phones are taking over the realm of watches, as they use satellite positioning in general to have the time or even the internet, which remove the human aspect from the time-issue several leagues, miles really if you use actual distance to space.
But the watch is an extremely interesting object because of its intricacy and exaction. The process of making a watch can take months or years depending on the type, and a good watch is planned for a few months before its creation is underway. It’s an incredibly well-thought out, and very detailed, process that took millennia to create and some of the brightest minds that the world has offered. It is so incredibly measured and there is such perfection in watches, both mechanical and digital that they require a human mind to create them.
My real point is this. If you were on an empty planet full of sand. If you didn’t have to eat, sleep, or drink but only went walking and wandering through the day. And eventually you climbed to the peak of an enormous sand dune that simply was and had no explanation and you found this watch at the top of everything.
Who was the watchmaker?
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