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There's a mechanical watch feature called a “hack”

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Re: There's a mechanical watch feature called a “hack”

#31

Post by dave_universetf »

ksaj wrote: post #30
matthewtse wrote: post #3

Interestingly, hacking seconds have become so ubiquitous, that some watches will advertise the "lack" of hacking seconds. I.e. in the Rolex GMT, when you adjust the hour hand independently of the seconds hand, the seconds hand continues moving (non-hacking), which allows you to change the time zone when traveling without messing up the seconds hand that you previously already setup.

Nice. I was reading the comments because I knew someone would explain the purpose of it. I have both hacking and non-hacking watches. I know what they do, but I never knew why it was something people would even care about. Changing TZ when travelling is definitely a perfect use case for non-hacking movements. Also before and after DST.

There is also a feeling by some horologists and watch fans that the hack interacting with the balance oscillator and suddenly halting its motion is detrimental to the movement's health and precision. I haven't found any data to substantiate this, but I'm told that some watch aficionados prefer non-hacking movements for that reason.

Re: There's a mechanical watch feature called a “hack”

#32

Post by ksaj »

dave_universetf wrote: post #31
ksaj wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice. I was reading the comments because I knew someone would explain the purpose of it. I have both hacking and non-hacking watches. I know what they do, but I never knew why it was something people would even care about. Changing TZ when travelling is definitely a perfect use case for non-hacking movements. Also before and after DST.

There is also a feeling by some horologists and watch fans that the hack interacting with the balance oscillator and suddenly halting its motion is detrimental to the movement's health and precision. I haven't found any data to substantiate this, but I'm told that some watch aficionados prefer non-hacking movements for that reason.

I can imagine this being the case, but the mechanics tend to be so accurate that I could see either being the case. I think the start/stop action is so quick that it likely is not damaging. But I'm clearly not an expert on this.

Another thing - in the comments someone mentioned military folk using hacking watches to sync their watches together. This use case I do know about, although for civilian purposes. We used to do it as kids, and became well aware of just how inaccurate all of our kiddie watches were. We used to sort of race them if our day was long enough. But they were accurate enough for our various games.

Re: There's a mechanical watch feature called a “hack”

#33

Post by ksaj »

hinkley wrote: post #10
griffinkelly wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the Air National Guard, and its very much a thing. Typically at the beginning or end of a brief/meeting when you're about to go out and do something.

But it's not a thing in movies, so nobody wonders why they say that in movies. Because nobody says that in movies. It's been 'synchronize watches' since WWII movies became a thing.

Scroll through the comments. Someone quoted a MASH scene that uses it. It's a TV show and not a movie, but at least it's an example in the wild.

Re: There's a mechanical watch feature called a “hack”

#35

Post by dave_universetf »

snitty wrote: post #8

There's an acronym in lexicography that I can't remember right now, but the effect of it is that people try to ascribe a nautical origin to everything. I worry this might be a little of that, but it's a fun story regardless.

Could well be! I have no specialist knowledge, I just got curious about the origin of the fairly random feature name, and went digging. The two well substantiated facts are:

Hacking movements gained popularity between WW1 and WW2 due to army interest (and during WW2 US mil-spec for watches required a hacking feature, leading to e.g. the Elgin A-11 hacking watch).

In the heyday of mechanical marine chronometers (late 18th century through early 20th, roughtly), common use was to set a hack watch to the sheltered ship chronometer, then go above deck with the hack watch to make observations.

The link between these two facts is more tenuous, and basically boils down to: watches with a hacking mechanism would obviously be really handy for marine use, given how the hack watch was used; and military terminology routinely bleeds between the services, so transposition from a navy to an army context around WW2 wouldn't be surprising.

As for why the Royal Navy called these watches hack watches... I pretty much just ran down the dictionary definitions of "hack", including the archaic uses that would have been commonplace in the late 18th century, and made an educated guess. I would hope that there's a book out there somewhere about this era of sailing that has a more substantiated take, but I don't have such a reference myself.

Re: There's a mechanical watch feature called a “hack”

#36

Post by iancmceachern »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #19
callumprentice wrote: post #15

Somewhat related, I came across a YouTube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/@WristwatchRevival ) that I never would have guessed I'd enjoy but now I am hooked. The host disassembles a high-end mechanical watch each episode, cleans each tiny piece and then puts it all back together again. I have never had any interest in mechanical watches whatsoever - I use an Apple Watch - but this is so relaxing and he is so good a…

It sounds like you just like the process. There are several good car restoration channels for this too.

There's also a cobbler one where he restores old shoes, boots, bags, etc.

Bedo's Leatherworks

Re: There's a mechanical watch feature called a “hack”

#37

Post by dave_universetf »

ksaj wrote: post #32
dave_universetf wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also a feeling by some horologists and watch fans that the hack interacting with the balance oscillator and suddenly halting its motion is detrimental to the movement's health and precision. I haven't found any data to substantiate this, but I'm told that some watch aficionados prefer non-hacking movements for that reason.

I can imagine this being the case, but the mechanics tend to be so accurate that I could see either being the case. I think the start/stop action is so quick that it likely is not damaging. But I'm clearly not an expert on this. Another thing - in the comments someone mentioned military folk using hacking watches to sync their watches together. This use case I do know about, although for civilian purposes. We used to…

It does seem a bit silly to me as well, given the stresses that watch movements are subjected to day to day, and that the hack's mechanical design barely touches the balance at all. It doesn't take very much friction at all to halt these movements, so I struggle to see where the source of damage would lie. But, people have their opinions.

And yeah, mechanical movements are technological marvels, and can keep incredible time for being a completely analog machine... But seconds per day is still about as good as it gets unless you take expensive measures (like the marine chronometers did) to get diminishing returns. And less expensive or well tuned movements can easily drift by a minute or two per day.

In a way, we've been spoiled by quartz and electronic timekeeping. Now that GPS blankets the world and lets any timepiece continuously synchronize to within microseconds, "seconds per day" sounds ludicrous. And yet, it built empires and ran the world for a couple centuries! Especially for civilian use, it's rare to truly _need_ better precision, aside from the general desire for perfection.

Re: There's a mechanical watch feature called a “hack”

#38

Post by Accujack »

callumprentice wrote: post #15

Somewhat related, I came across a YouTube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/@WristwatchRevival ) that I never would have guessed I'd enjoy but now I am hooked. The host disassembles a high-end mechanical watch each episode, cleans each tiny piece and then puts it all back together again. I have never had any interest in mechanical watches whatsoever - I use an Apple Watch - but this is so relaxing and he is so good a…

Also recommended is "The Nekkid Watchmaker" for his excellent attitude and great explanations and ASMR versions.

Re: There's a mechanical watch feature called a “hack”

#39

Post by ghostpepper »

dave_universetf wrote: post #35
snitty wrote: post #8

There's an acronym in lexicography that I can't remember right now, but the effect of it is that people try to ascribe a nautical origin to everything. I worry this might be a little of that, but it's a fun story regardless.

Could well be! I have no specialist knowledge, I just got curious about the origin of the fairly random feature name, and went digging. The two well substantiated facts are: Hacking movements gained popularity between WW1 and WW2 due to army interest (and during WW2 US mil-spec for watches required a hacking feature, leading to e.g. the Elgin A-11 hacking watch). In the heyday of mechanical marine chronometers (late…

Great post!

This has nothing to do with watches per se but I was wondering which war movies include soldiers shouting "Hack!" because I can't remember ever hearing it in a film.

Re: There's a mechanical watch feature called a “hack”

#40

Post by nodesocket »

callumprentice wrote: post #15

Somewhat related, I came across a YouTube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/@WristwatchRevival ) that I never would have guessed I'd enjoy but now I am hooked. The host disassembles a high-end mechanical watch each episode, cleans each tiny piece and then puts it all back together again. I have never had any interest in mechanical watches whatsoever - I use an Apple Watch - but this is so relaxing and he is so good a…

WristwatchRevival is awesome. Love watching how meticulous he is and how he truly enjoys horology. Somewhat inspired me to save up for a long time and levelup my watch collection to an Omega Seamaster Diver 300 which I adore... Not because it's fancy, or the price tag, but because of the engineering and craftsmanship. The process of saving, and then finally being able to purchase it. People who buy fake Rolex's or watches are frauds. How can you look down at your wrist knowing that your attempting to trick everybody and take a shortcut and undercut the engineering and precision watchmakers.
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