5 Watch Facts You Didn't Know | Watchfinder & Co.

if you've clicked on this there's a high chance that you have at least a passing interest in watches and timekeeping beyond simply being aware of the time and wanting to know what the time is exactly there's also a chance you're the kind of person who wants to further their knowledge and understanding of watches and timekeeping and that's good because that's exactly what's about to happen [Music] we may know Switzerland today as the beating heart of mechanical watchmaking but like every story the tale of Swiss watchmaking has its beginning prior to the 19th century if you wish to purchase a timepiece your money would be heading to England or to France then two powerhouses of Industry and technology and art but the success of these two nations was to be its undoing the wealthier they became the more expensive his produce was the less people could afford it and what happens when people want something they can't afford they either don't have it or they buy a fake but the fakes weren't coming from China no that was a long way off they were coming from closer to home during the long bitter winters in the foothills of the Alps when tending land or rearing livestock was next to impossible housebound farmers would take to producing watch components based on the established designs of the French and British there are no prizes for guessing that these particular Alps are of the Swiss variety at first the work produced by this cottage industry was subpar cheap but subpar and then it was okay and after a while actually started getting rather good the Industrial Revolution had all but destroyed watch making in France and England the cost of labor far too expensive and the Swiss were right there ready to take up the mantle many watch company started off with a name not entirely identical to the one they carried today patek philippe for instance was christened as Patek szczepek and company up until the point is a peg left and Philippe joined and that name change makes perfect sense tag heuer spent much of its former years known as just Jolla up until the purchase of the company by technics devil girl or tag that name change may not have been quite so successful but the origins are still plain to say how about Omega then like many brands the name it started with was the name of the person who founded it one Louie Brandt some 30 years later when Brandt's sons were old enough to join the business the name changed to Louie Brandt Effie's that's French for and sons no brain ache over that that one seems fair but father Brandt's wasn't to live forever and upon his passing the company's name changed once more to Louie Brandt Louie named one of his sons Louie a frere which means and brother this is all very well and good but none of it explains where the name Omega comes from well be patients we're just about getting there in 1894 the brothers revealed to the world a hi-tech movement that significantly advanced accuracy reliability and usability winning multiple awards and breaking numerous records in the process this movement the brothers called Omega the last letter of the Greek alphabet and it was to put the company on the map so synonymous did the company become with the movements that in 1903 the decision was made to rename the company once more and this time they called it Omega ask anyone to name a famous Swiss watch company and you'll be almost guaranteed to hear the word Rolex by way of a response it's known the world over as the height of luxury topping the list of most valuable watch brands and positioned as the crowning jewel of Swiss watchmaking only thing is it isn't Swiss yes the brand mantras Rolex sa was registered in Geneva in 1920 but it was established 15 years earlier almost 1,000 kilometers away in London England German founder hands Wilsdorf an Anglophile and experienced watch distributor moved to London to partner with his brother-in-law Alfred Davis to import superior Swiss movements casing them up locally and selling them to the British public in a practice we've already established the company was initially named after the two men but in 1908 still over a decade before moving to Switzerland willsdorf renamed the company to something he believes sounded both familiar and luxurious Rolex but his British adventure was not to last with the Great War came increasing racial oppression towards Wilsdorf and he was forced to leave England returning to Switzerland where he had first learned his trade he moved his beloved Rolex company with him and it has remained there ever since what a different business it would have been if Hans Wilsdorf had felt able to stay in London remember 1926 of course you do because is when Rolex announced the oyster the world's first water-resistant wristwatch which a year later travelled the breadth of the English Channel on the wrist of champion swimmer Mercedes glides without letting in so much as a drop the oyster was such a marvel that Jules displayed them in shop windows submerged in fish bowls a clever marketing ploy that quite rightly caught the public's attention and cemented the idea that this watch was the very first to be properly water-resistant only it wasn't Rolex certainly in the early years is known for using clever language to make bold claims about its product it's all true but pay attention to what's not said and the truth becomes clearer first wristwatch to receive a Swiss chronometric precision certificate absolutely true but only because everyone else was submitting pocket watches same with the oyster yes it was the first water-resistant wristwatch and the basis for the much-lauded Radomir from Panerai but it wasn't the first water-resistant watch that honor goes to a silver pocket watch made by Messrs Petitte and trap it exhibited in the 1851 Great Exhibition of the works industry of all nations at the Crystal Palace in London and guess what it was displayed submerged in a glass globe surrounded by gold and silver fish clock and watchmakers have spent centuries attempting to pin time down to its most accurate representation fighting physics to create a mechanism that can provide perfect accuracy the most accurate clock in the world today an atomic device that uses a cube of quantum gas and laser beams to turn what sounds a lot like a Bond villains weapon into something that tells time wouldn't have lost even a second if it had been running for the entire duration of the universe so far but there's a problem because physics has yet another curveball to throw time is not a constant this means that time for one person could be different for another and that completely ruins the idea of an accurate clock entirely there are two ways in which this can happen and both relate to the speed of light because traveling faster than the speed of light would result in arriving somewhere before your own appearance it's theorized to be something of a cosmic speed limit but this plays havoc with our existence as we know it the first way this happens is to do with velocity fairly simply time is a factor of speed and distance ie it will take a minute to travel a mile at 60 miles an hour simple stuff but not when the speed of light is involved if the person traveling 60 miles an hour turns on a torch the photons will leave the torch at the speed of light but to a stationary bystander the photons won't appear to move at the speed of light Plus 60 miles an hour they will remain at the speed of light the speed of light being a constant and the distance traveled being fixed means it is time that changes the second way time can be twisted is by proximity to gravity gravity can draw almost anything towards it even light but the principle remains the same lights cannot be accelerated towards a body of mass generating a gravitational field to a speed faster than the established constant speed of light these principles are known as time dilation and it is more than just a theory it's a very real problem that is quantified every time you use a GPS device because the satellites in orbit around Earth experience time relative to their own velocity and gravity every year the onboard clocks must catch up the point 0 1 seconds lost to time dilation without which our satellite navigation systems would not work accurately the weirdest thing is that this phenomenon affects the crew of the International Space Station too when they return to Earth after six months they are point zero zero five seconds younger than they would have been if they'd stayed on earth they'd have time traveled the pursuit of time remains a complex and fascinating thing from the evolution of industry through to the underlying physics that determine how we even experience it at all and has provided a multitude of challenges for watchmakers throughout existence whether competing for space in a crowded market or negotiating time travel the battle for perfect time is still a universal way discover more exceptional watches at watch finder co dot UK if you enjoyed this video please like and subscribe if there are any other watches you'd like to see reviewed please let us know in the comments below

Channel: Watchfinder & Co.

Views: 219,122

Rating: 4.9103308 out of 5

Keywords: best watch in the world, hodinkee, swiss watches, watches, watch, watchmaking, watch review, luxury, lifestyle, men's fashion, review, rolex, breitling, omega, breguet, panerai, cartier, Baselworld 2019

Id: tTt72-nJgpY

Length: 11min 15sec (675 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2019