It’s Complicated

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(top to bottom) Sampling of the most expensive (and coolest) watches at auction:
#1 $31.19 million, Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime
#3 $17.75 million Rolex “Paul Newman” Daytona
#8 $7.259 million Patek Philippe Stainless Steel
#14 $5.48 million Rolex “Paul Newman Big Red” Daytona
#16 $5.48 million Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Black Panther Flying Tourbillon
#20 $4.987 million Patek Philippe Stainless Steel
#21 $4.93 million F.P. Journe x Francis Ford Coppola FFC Blue
Full list, and details at the”Top Watches”  link below.

Complications. Just part of business, right.  Comes with the territory we’re told. We all know about them. For manufacturers and servicers, aside from just procuring raw materials and scheduling manufacturing, we face additional issues all the time – like processing time, production, storage, assembly, packaging, delivery, pricing, employees and so much more. At KHT, we revel in all these things, working hard every day to tackle your PIA (Pain in the @%$) Jobs! For each job, we jump in, test – problem solve then develop a solution for our customer’s unique needs – all the while juggling “complications” that may arise. The other night, while out with friends, a buddy of mine used the phrase “just another watch complication”.  I had to look it up when I got in front of a computer and smiled – yep – watch complications are real. And part of being a good steward of the KHT way, it’s what we do all the time.  I found some interesting info on why watch complications are real – adding layers of complexity each time adds just another set of challenges and solutions to get them right. So next time you are out shopping for a Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A-010 (sold at Christie’s Auction for over $31M), be sure to check the complications to be sure everything is running smoothly.  Thanks to patek.com, teddybaldassarre.com, youtube.com, and hooinkee.com for the info.  Enjoy!

Top Watches
Click while reading – Time Tunes

The sub-dials on an analog watch aren’t just for show. They have a special purpose. However, to some people, watch complications are (surprise!) – complicated. Apart from taking up real estate on the watch’s dial, some of these watch complications can be difficult to use – and even more difficult to repair.

In layman’s terms, watch complications are features of a watch aside from telling the time. A watch that only shows the hours, minutes, and seconds is dubbed as having a simple movement. Even the day and date windows on the dial of your watch are already considered as watch complications.

The more complicated a watch is, the more difficult it is to assemble, design, and repair. Thus, making the watch more valuable. This makes it very desirable to a lot of watch enthusiasts, called horology lovers. Complications include:

The Day-Date complication is perhaps one of the most basic functions of a watch. As the name implies, it tells both the date of the month and the day of the week. This could come in handy whenever you’re filling out forms that require dates. Some people even find it more convenient than whipping out their phone to check the calendar.  A famous watch that bears this feature is the Rolex Day-Date. And no, the folks from Rolex aren’t too lazy to give it a more creative name. Its name is a reminder that it is the first-ever wristwatch that displayed the full day and date on the dial.

Developed by French-Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet, the Tourbillon’s original purpose was to increase a watch’s accuracy. What it does is that it counters the effects gravity has on the small parts of a watch. Watchmakers would pair it with a crystal window on the dial and watch lovers would huddle up and just watch the tourbillon spin. If truth be told, the tourbillon really is mesmerizing to look at.  (show link to a tourbillon)

You do not have to be an astronomer to appreciate the moon phase feature. In fact, it is one of the most highly-desired watch complications by scientists and non-scientists alike.

How many times did you have to adjust your watch’s date just because it couldn’t tell whether a month has no 31st date in it? It can get annoying especially if you’re dealing with a non-quick set date function.  No need to do that when your watch has a perpetual calendar complication. Not only does it know the number of days of each month. It also knows when it’s a leap year.

The Chronograph is used to measure the time elapsed the same way a stopwatch works. (it is a requirement for motorsport watches). It was originally invented to work with astronomical equipment. Soon, people started using it to time horseraces and then sports car races. This contributed to the deep connection between motorsports and horology.

Were you ever trapped on a boring date and want to subtly check your watch for the time without being rude? The Minute Repeater is the way to go, making sounds that tell the wearer what time it is. As an example, it would make two sounds of the same tone to indicate that it’s 2:00. It would then create a sound of a different pitch to indicate the minutes. This way, you wouldn’t have to glance at your timepiece to know what time it is.

GMT means Greenwich Mean Time. Simply put, it tells two different time zones at the same time. One easy way to tell that a watch has a GMT complication is if it has another big hand aside from the seconds and hour hands. This is one of the most common watch complications around.

What if you need to know the time from more than two different time zones? Enter the World Timer. This complication tells the time of multiple time zones of the world. The dial of a watch displays 24 cities as a representation for each time zone. For example, Hong Kong for GMT +8, etc. The user would then have to rotate the bezel to their preferred city. And as the bezel moves, the hour hand automatically jumps with it.

The Alarm is one of the oldest watch complications around and one of the most useful albeit we rarely see them in analogue watches anymore. The alarm complication of a wristwatch works just like your normal alarm clock. There is a separate alarm hand connected to a cam underneath the dial. The wearer then sets it to any time in a 12-hour period. When the desired time is met, it triggers a lever that powers a hammer which in turn hits a bell.

The Annual Calendar is just one step ahead of the Day-Date complication. It is basically a Day-Date with the added function of a monthly calendar. It can tell whether a month has either 30 or 31 days. With that said, the only time you would have to adjust it is in February. When the month only has 28 (or if it’s a leap year, 29) days.

Want to take your love for cosmology to another level? If the moon phase complication of your trusty wristwatch is not enough, you’ll love the Planetarium. This watch complication doesn’t just tell the time – it also tells you the positions of the planets in our solar system! Each of the planets on the dial orbit around the sun in real-time.

The Power Reserve Indicator is one of the most practical watch complications on this list – it tells the wearer if they should already wind their watch (think of it as the battery gauge on your phone).

The Tachymeter is usually paired with a Chronograph. While the latter is a stopwatch, the former measures speed. To put it another way, it calculates the elapsed time over a fixed distance. A rule of thumb is that the Chronograph is on the subdials of the watch and a Tachymeter is placed around the watch’s bezel.

The Jumping Hour is one of the watch complications that is a joy to look at. While the hands of clocks and watches traditionally sweep counterclockwise, the same cannot be said for the Jumping Hour. Instead, the hand jumps directly to the next hour as soon as the minute hand reaches 60. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, but it is also more convenient, because the hour hand is always directly pointed at the middle of the current hour lessening confusion when reading the time.

Serious collectors do not buy high-complication watches because they need the features. Instead, they buy those because it is a symbol of excellent engineering. Whether these are outdated or not, watch complications are a mark of watchmaking virtuosity. Think of watch complications as trophies that you can show off to your friends or other watch enthusiasts.

If you think 14 complications on a watch are more than enough, then wait until you see the Vacheron Constantin Reference 57260 . It is heralded as the most complicated watch in the world. Indeed, this timekeeper contains 57 watch complications! The watch contains bells and whistles (quite literally) that you’ve never heard of! Among its watch complications range from the most basic to the most extra such as the date of Yom Kippur and Star Chart.

Plus a couple more cool videos!!
How Automatic Watches work:
Painstaking art of Luxury Watchmaking

 

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DO YOU LIKE CONTESTS?
Me, too.
As you may know the Kowalski Heat Treating logo finds its way
into the visuals of my Friday posts.
I.  Love.  My.  Logo.
One week there could be three logos.
The next week there could be 15 logos.
And sometimes the logo is very small or just a partial logo showing.
But there are always logos in some of the pictures.
So, I challenge you, my beloved readers, to count them and send me a
quick email with the total number of logos in the Friday post.
On the following Tuesday I’ll pick a winner from the correct answers
and send that lucky person some great KHT swag.
So, start counting and good luck!  
Oh, and the logos at the very top header don’t count.
Got it? Good.  :-))))
Have fun!!

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Just in time.

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It’s been a long week, take some time, read on.

Time. It just keeps ticking along. Over the weekend I was watching a couple of great NFL football games and was all caught up with the time clock.  Last-minute heroics seem to be just part of the game these days. Managing the clock.  Running the clock down.  Taking a knee to end the game.  It’s action-packed and keeps us on the edge of our seats.  It got me to thinking about my awesome team at KHT, and how we manage our time.  We estimate time for jobs, track delivery times and processing times, making sure your PIA (Pain in the @%$) Jobs! come out just right – time after time. Time is so important to how we live too – we do things at a specific time, “later on”, “suddenly”, “after a while”, or even “at the same time”.  We use a timer to cook, the alarm to wake us up, and our stopwatch to end an event or finish a run.  When a dear friend calls, we “make time” or disappoint them that we’re “out of time”.  Today marks a special anniversary of Willard Bundy, the inventor of the time clock – way back in 1888.  So, take a few minutes to “punch in”, gather up some trivia, and share with your co-workers during your next zoom chat before you (punch) log out.  Thanks to ontheclock.com, Wikipedia, and YouTube for the info and amazing music videos.  Enjoy!

If you “have time”, here are some fun songs to play while reading our post – and it’s ok to sing out loud – cause they are awesome!
The Doors – Love Me Two Times
Pink Floyd – Time
The Zombies – Time of the Season
Cindy Lauper – Time After Time
Chicago – Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?
Jim Croche – Time In A Bottle

  • The sundial represents the first relatively accurate method of tracking the time of day.  The earliest sundials can be traced back to 1500 BC from ancient Babylonian and Egyptian astronomy.  Before humans could track time, workers were most likely paid by the day.
  • In Roman times, soldiers were paid a “salarium” or payment to buy salt, which was used as currency and was considered essential for living in the time. Along with the word salary (so that’s where it came from), many experts believe these roman origins are where the phrase “worth his salt,” comes from. (now you know!)
  • From Ancient Rome through the Second Industrial Revolution in 1930, the term salary referred to payment for services. In this case, a salary could mean a flat fee for work or hourly compensation. It wasn’t until the 1800s that employers started differentiating between flat pay and an hourly rate for work.
  • In the late 1800’s, while unions were protesting and lawmakers were debating working conditions, one man in New York was tinkering away in his jewelry shop. Willard Legrand Bundy, born and raised in Cayuga County, New York, opened a jewelry store and used his trade to develop multiple inventions, many of which are still used today. Bundy holds patents for multiple cash registers and calculating machines, but he is known for inventing the employee time clock. The patent for his time recorder was approved on November 20, 1888 and Bundy started a business manufacturing machines that would record when employees would clock in and clock out of work.  A year later his brother, Harlow Bundy, organized the Bundy Manufacturing Company, and began mass-producing time clocks. (I love when families work together!!)
  • In 1889, the Bundy Manufacturing Recording Company opened in Binghamton with eight employees and $150,000 in capital. By 1898, the company expanded to 140 skilled workers and had sold more than 9,000 Bundy Time Recorders. These machines were sold as a solution for “vexatious questions of recording employee time.”
  • In the following years, as the time clock became commonplace in the American workplace, the Bundy Manufacturing Company merged with various other companies. It eventually became the International Time Recorder Company (ITR). In 1911, this business was incorporated in New York State as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, which was the forerunner of IBM (International Business Machines Corporation)… (now you know!)
  • As manual punch clocks grew more common in the American workplace and across the world, not much changed throughout the mid-1900s. However, a few circles started to buzz about special calculating machines called computers and how they could revolutionize our society.
  • When computers started showing up in every home and business, the market expanded from a few select companies to millions of people across America. The software industry changed dramatically to the creation of tools sold for small amounts to large audiences, a model most SaaS companies still follow today.  As the market for software evolved, developers created time clock tools that companies could buy and install on their computers, moving employee time tracking out of history and into its digital form.
  • One man, in particular, created an invention which many small businesses use today to balance their books and employee time sheets. Richard Mattessich is credited as the pioneer of the electronic spreadsheet, which allowed other develops to create some of the first mainstream accounting tools.
  • In 1978, Harvard Business School students Daniel Bricklin and Bob Frankston developed an interactive visible calculator called VisiCalc that could be used on personal computers. This way, anyone who had this computer and this program about track data and manipulate it for their accounting and analytical needs.  While paper spreadsheets have been around for centuries, the digital option made it easy for accountants to enter data and have it calculated automatically.
  • In 1991, computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee debuted the World Wide Web. This “web of information,” was meant to do more than send files. It was supposed to provide information to people and connect data from all over the world.
  • Over the next decade, the Internet would continue to grow. Dial-up modems became the background noise of homes, more companies would start using computer technology, and people started to share information by a communication tool called “e-mail.”  With these changes in technology, employee time tracking evolved, too. Microchips and employee identification cards meant team members could swipe in instead of physically placing a punch card into a machine. In some companies, employees could even clock in via computer.
  • The invention of the internet meant that employees could clock in online from their own devices instead of downloading software or using hardware in the employee break room. As long as team members had access to the web, they could clock in or out.  This is all so convenient today with our current “at home” workforces.
  • This opened the door for remote workers to check in wherever they are — whether they are working from home or calling in from a villa in Aspen. In 2018 about 70 percent of workers reported working remotely at least one day per week – (today that’s likely about 99%).
  • Modern technology continues to change how we work, but a few things remain the same – such as employee time tracking as long as people get paid by the hour. Employee time tracking is certainly transitioning, especially as more employers embrace BYOD (bring your own device) culture and mobile time management, but the core of the employee time clock will remain the same.
  • With the mass market proliferation of mobile devices (smart phones, handheld devices), new types of self-calculating time tracking systems have been invented which allow a mobile workforce – such as painting companies, truckers and construction companies – to track employees ‘on’ and ‘off’ hours. This is generally accomplished through either a mobile application, or an IVR based phone call in system. Using a mobile device allows enterprises to better validate that their employees or suppliers are physically ‘clocking in’ at a specific location using the GPS functionality of a mobile phone for extra validation.
  • Biometric time clocks are a feature of more advanced time and attendance systems. Rather than using a key, code or chip to identify the user, they rely on a unique attribute of the user, such as a handprint, fingerprint, finger vein, palm vein, facial recognition, iris or retina. The user will have their attribute scanned into the system. Biometric readers are often used in conjunction with an access control system, granting the user access to a building, and at the same time clocking them in recording the time and date. These systems also attempt to cut down on “buddy clocking” or ghost employees’, where additional identities are added to payroll but don’t exist.
  • Wonder what the future holds … I guess time will tell. (sorry, I had too…)

 

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DO YOU LIKE CONTESTS?
Me, too.
As you may know the Kowalski Heat Treating logo finds its way
into the visuals of my Friday posts.
I.  Love.  My.  Logo.
One week there could be three logos.
The next week there could be 15 logos.
And sometimes the logo is very small or just a partial logo showing.
But there are always logos in some of the pictures.
So, I challenge you, my beloved readers, to count them and send me a
quick email with the total number of logos in the Friday post.
On the following Tuesday I’ll pick a winner from the correct answers
and send that lucky person some great KHT swag.
So, start counting and good luck!  
Oh, and the logos at the very top header don’t count.
Got it? Good.  :-))))
Have fun!!

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