William Gibson wrote a piece for Wired back in the day about his obsession with mechanical watches.[1] He puts it thus: ``` Mechanical watches are so brilliantly unnecessary. Any Swatch or Casio keeps better time, and high-end contemporary Swiss watches are priced like small cars. But mechanical watches partake of what my friend John Clute calls the Tamagotchi Gesture. They're pointless in a peculiarly needful way; t…
If you spend any time in Singapore you'll note that the fact that private ownership of cars is so difficult and rare it means people use other luxury goods to denote status. To generalize hugely, women buy designer handbags and men have watches. It took me a while to work out, but it makes perfect sense once you think it through. It's so hard to get yourself a BMW 3 Series so you spend $20K on a watch instead.
Ultra-flat timepiece, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, is 1.75 millimetres thick watch
151–160 of 278 posts
Re: Ultra-flat timepiece, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, is 1.75 millimetres thick watch
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
These ones are not.
150 of the exact same model, among huge piles of other models. I don't want to argue about word choice. In the distinction I was describing, however imperfectly worded, watches like this easily go on the bulk side of the line.
Re: Ultra-flat timepiece, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, is 1.75 millimetres thick watch
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US military is a jobs program that elevates hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty. It’s the most effective socialist program in human history. It’s unassailable in domestic politics.
This fact cannot be emphasized enough. The pity of it is that the jobs are not oriented towards public works.
Except for the National Guard and the Coast Guard (which, as I understand it, gets some military money).
Re: Ultra-flat timepiece, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, is 1.75 millimetres thick watch
#154Price: $1,888,000 US dollars.
This strikes me as a product that the Chinese could copy and mass-produce for -- I dunno -- $500? And it would work 75% as well. I don't see a huge barrier to entry here except for IP, which never stops the Chinese.
Re: Ultra-flat timepiece, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, is 1.75 millimetres thick watch
#155First time I have read the word "allusive" as well as "grade 5 titanium"
Re: Ultra-flat timepiece, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, is 1.75 millimetres thick watch
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
This strikes me as a product that the Chinese could copy and mass-produce for -- I dunno -- $500? And it would work 75% as well. I don't see a huge barrier to entry here except for IP, which never stops the Chinese.
Tiny titanium parts aren't trivial to machine and tolernaces need to be tight to get them interchangeable and have them work. Not sure if all the parts are made by conventional machining, if so, probably doable, if it needs chemical etching or EDM might cost more.
Re: Ultra-flat timepiece, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, is 1.75 millimetres thick watch
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can believe that some rich individuals are uniquely gifted in some way that makes them deserving of being richer than most of other people. I also think that the magnitude of this phenomenon is not proportional to how much richer they are, in practice. I share the sentiment that most of the wealth of billionaires is attributable to their workers, luck, and favorable environmental circumstances. Some marginal amount…
Generally agree. But if they're gifted then, then like any lottery winner, it's hard to see them as more deserving of wealth than any other.
Re: Ultra-flat timepiece, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, is 1.75 millimetres thick watch
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
The solution of giving away your money over buying something is some broken logic. Plenty of corrupt charity officials line their pockets and live it up on donations. The rich don’t owe society, exactly the opposite, hence the money. It represents an unpaid debt so you can’t turn around and ask for it back.
"The rich don’t owe society, exactly the opposite" This is precisely wrong. The rich do indeed owe society. They owe their wealth to the workers working for them. To the education system that educated their workers and made them productive, the roads that brought them to work and the health system that keeps them at work. This is obvious from the number of millionaires produced by healthy, educated, stable societies…
> They owe their wealth to the workers working for
> them. To the education system that educated their
> workers and made them productive, the roads that
> brought them to work and the health system that
> keeps them at work.
Assuming that they've paid their taxes, they've paid their debt.Re: Ultra-flat timepiece, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, is 1.75 millimetres thick watch
#159William Gibson wrote a piece for Wired back in the day about his obsession with mechanical watches.[1] He puts it thus: ``` Mechanical watches are so brilliantly unnecessary. Any Swatch or Casio keeps better time, and high-end contemporary Swiss watches are priced like small cars. But mechanical watches partake of what my friend John Clute calls the Tamagotchi Gesture. They're pointless in a peculiarly needful way; t…
> Any Swatch or Casio keeps better time ... and that's my cue to pimp one of the most practical watch of all time - Casio Oceanus, the 100 series. * Analog watch face. * Quartz, radio auto-sync, solar-powered. * Sapphire glass, titanium body and bracelet. Waterproof. * Clean design. Under $500. https://www.google.com/search?q=OCW-S100-1AJF&tbm=isch
Re: Ultra-flat timepiece, the RM UP-01 Ferrari, is 1.75 millimetres thick watch
#160I've never seen an ad for a timepiece feature cars almost to the exclusion of the watch.