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Mechanical Watch

ciechanow.ski

251–260 of 425 posts

Re: Mechanical Watch

#251
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a framework is also constant factor overhead (at least in LoC, which is what I assume we're talking about here)

Right, and that's what the glslCanvas project I linked above is, though in this case it's negative overhead if you're just counting the lines of code you have to maintain :)

Ah gotcha. Yeah I was alluding to ThreeJS, a very powerful and standard framework for webgl

Re: Mechanical Watch

#252

I was curious how he did those visualizations so I looked at the source code. Turns out he codes everything by hand in WebGL [1]. Absolutely impressive stuff. Source code is non-minified so you can have a look and understand everything as well. [1]: https://ciechanow.ski/js/watch.js

Holy shit

Re: Mechanical Watch

#253
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and that's what the glslCanvas project I linked above is, though in this case it's negative overhead if you're just counting the lines of code you have to maintain :)

Ah gotcha. Yeah I was alluding to ThreeJS, a very powerful and standard framework for webgl

Yeah, ThreeJS is awesome! glslCanvas is just for drawing with shaders, not for general 3-D.

Re: Mechanical Watch

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He does it "the right way™". Use the platform. Don't use any framework or generic library. Go straight to the point and code what you need, when you need it. Don't minify or bundle anything, and let the people who are learning and courious a straightforward way to connect the dots, without forcing them into a github repository with 90% of the code unrelated to the thing and existing just to glue 1000 pieces written b…

I strongly disagree that this is "the right way". I think that the platform provides low level primitives that are _designed_ to have abstractions built upon them. Doing it like this has the potential to be the most performant, but it does so in the same way as writing your programs directly in assembly is potentially performant. I also don't think that the source code is particularly readable for me, and contains lo…

it depends if you are doing something to get paid, or to last, or to be really good. only in the first case do i ever consider a heap of abstractions

Re: Mechanical Watch

#255
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parts last quite some time if properly maintained. If you're worried about replacement parts availability, stick with the most popular movements such as the ETA2824/SW200 series or Seiko's NH35 series.

A lot of watch fans are happy when they see a watch brand use an in-house movement. I’m exactly the opposite for the reason you say - the popular movements are going to be easily and inexpensively serviced for much longer. That said, a lot of in-house movements are little more than tweaks and high end finishing applied to existing commodity movements.

Ever since I picked the hobby of fixing old mechanical watch, in house movement is my number 1 criteria for not buying because of the availability of parts.

Re: Mechanical Watch

#256
For those interested in watch assembly (I'm differentiating between assembly and watch making), I can highly recommend https://diywatch.club/ I bought one of their kits and was super satisfied with it.

You could do it cheaper by buying random parts off eBay or Taobao, I did this for a second watch - using the following video from the "Watch Repair Channel" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rieKmfaKMCY

But having your initial attempt somewhat de-risked gave me the confidence to dive head first into other concepts and ideas.

I'm not quite ready to do a tear down and service of a movement, but with a timegrapher on the way... it won't be long before I'll end up scratching that itch too!

Re: Mechanical Watch

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He does it "the right way™". Use the platform. Don't use any framework or generic library. Go straight to the point and code what you need, when you need it. Don't minify or bundle anything, and let the people who are learning and courious a straightforward way to connect the dots, without forcing them into a github repository with 90% of the code unrelated to the thing and existing just to glue 1000 pieces written b…

I strongly disagree that this is "the right way". I think that the platform provides low level primitives that are _designed_ to have abstractions built upon them. Doing it like this has the potential to be the most performant, but it does so in the same way as writing your programs directly in assembly is potentially performant. I also don't think that the source code is particularly readable for me, and contains lo…

> but it does so in the same way as writing your programs directly in assembly

> contains lots of magic numbers and very imperative code

Well, we really don't know if the code was written in this form by hand, don't we.

It could have been compiled into this, to use your words, "assembly with magic numbers and imperative" from much more elegant form. We may see this form only because this is what browsers understand.

I am not saying it was compiled, just speculating that seeing pure WebGL does not mean it was pure WebGL to begin with.

Re: Mechanical Watch

#258
post #28

I started with Greg Daniel's masterpiece: Watchmaking. https://www.amazon.com/Watchmaking-George-Daniels/dp/0856677...

That is an absolutely amazing book - how to design and make the highest quality watches from scratch. At the time, all watch fabrication was by division of labor, no one made an entire watch from scratch.

Daniels also wrote a riveting autobiography. He rose from the most abject poverty to world eminence, largely because of the British guild system.

He also collected, restored, and raced old cars. He used to drive his Blower Bentley to his gentlemen's club (!) in London[0]. All this is described in his autobiography.

He needed to do business in Switzerland, so he simply drove his restored Rolls-Royce across the Continent.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentley_Blower_No.1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Daniels_(watchmaker)

Re: Mechanical Watch

#260

I was curious how he did those visualizations so I looked at the source code. Turns out he codes everything by hand in WebGL [1]. Absolutely impressive stuff. Source code is non-minified so you can have a look and understand everything as well. [1]: https://ciechanow.ski/js/watch.js

Fun fact, the time and date on the model is correct as well.
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