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Canada's only watchmaking school still ticking after 80 years

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141–150 of 166 posts

Re: Canada's only watchmaking school still ticking after 80 years

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thanks for bringing this up and I have to reiterate the importance of per capita which is something that is curiously ignored in these discussions but I'm sure you know the difference from just measuring GDP alone and just forgot about it Canada's nominal GDP per capita is roughly $53,800 USD, which places it nearly on par with Mississippi also Canada admits people from third world countries at a per-capita rate roug…

> It's difficult for ICE now imagine Canada which has no such enforcement on the same scale A massive federal agency rounding up illegal immigrants actually isn't that effective, as has been seen in the USA. What actually works is making it impossible to find a job or housing without proof of citizenship - which is being done in Canada BTW

cnada does not make employment or housing impossible without proof of citizenship there are massive illegal labor market especially in the construction food service jobs. Also the check is minimal and poorly enforced or tracked. It's the same situation in rentals there are routine subletting via cash one of my partner so again the enforcement mechanisms fall apart here and you will see this to be a repeating pattern throughout canadian society where there are laws but are hardly enforced or resources spent equally.

if illegal presence has almost no chance of interior enforcement, then overstaying or working illegally becomes a rational bet. If arrests, detention, removals, and employer raids become credible again, behavior changes that's the whole point of ICE raids they know they can't deport millions of people but to change the behavior of the demographic that they are targeting. This is something that Canada neither has the political capital to pursue.

Re: Canada's only watchmaking school still ticking after 80 years

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guy a mechanical watch should lose like a minute a _month_, tops. Get your watch serviced.

A real, completely mechanical watch? No battery or crystal? I'm sure my Seiko isn't be best there is and maybe it could be improved with servicing, but I think electronics have given people unreasonable expectations of accuracy

No, the people responding to you are correct: even the crummiest mechanical watches should not drift by more than 10-15 seconds/day. COSC certification, which most nice mechanical watches have, requires no more than 2 minutes/month (4 seconds/day) of drift, and most do even better than that, 1-2 seconds/day is normal.

If your Seiko is really drifting by minutes per day, something's badly wrong with it and you should get it serviced.

Re: Canada's only watchmaking school still ticking after 80 years

#143
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am literally wearing a watch right now that was produced without any of these artisans’ specialized labor and which boasts among its features access to AI. In a very real sense I have replaced use of the skills of watchmakers with AI. Sorry about that. To be fair most watchmakers were already put out of work by quartz oscillators and integrated circuits in the 1980s.

you need AI to tell the time?

No? And not what I said.

But an AI provider absolutely got some of the money I might otherwise have spent on a clockwork watch.

Re: Canada's only watchmaking school still ticking after 80 years

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a 1950s mark 2 Shturmanskie as my main watch, the same model Yuri Gagarin wore into space. It's a 'frankenwatch' in that it's been assembled from parts of other watches, albeit in this case they're the right parts from the right period except the dial, which is a reproduction to avoid the considerable amount of radium the Soviets liked to put in their pilot watches. Now that is an unreliable watch! It'll usual…

Marshall from Wristwatch Revival has refurbished Soviet watches.

There's a guy in Germany making homages to the cosmonaut watches under the Strela name (maybe he bought the rights? I don't know how IP works re: former Soviet brands) which have Chinese Seagull movements in them.

They look really cool, although for the price he's asking (around 350€), I'd almost rather they use quartz movements despite the hit to historical accuracy, I don't think a 350€ mechanical chronograph can really be trusted.

Re: Canada's only watchmaking school still ticking after 80 years

#145
post #91
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When G-shocks, Garmins, and Apple Watches are a few hundred dollars and well-known luxury watch brands start at a few thousand, The price of the most expensive Garmin a quick internet search gave me is $3,100; the most expensive G-SHOCK €8,800 ⇒ IMHO, G-SHOCK definitely is a luxury brand. Apple Watches, relative to those, are cheap at €999 max.

And regardless, Apple products aren't "luxury" anything. They're just computing products, with a range of buildout from low to high. Not a single thing Apple has ever made has been in the luxury category. They're more like VW. A range of products low to high, but more expensive than domestics. Luxury cars, luxury products are typically hand made, extremely niche. Apple is certainly not niche market.

> not a single thing apple has made has been in the luxury category

Well, maybe exactly ONE thing

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/2/23900158/apple-watch-edit...

Re: Canada's only watchmaking school still ticking after 80 years

#146

The 8th highest voted HN submission is on mechanical watches. I imagine that's the type the watchmaking school involves themself with because afaik all high end watches are mechanical. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31261533 4 years ago 413 comments They have a certain beauty in their intricate details working together for function. I do really like looking at the glass back which shows some details and you can…

Tangentially related: @pg’s potted history tracing high-end watchmakers’ retrenchment upon the arrival of digital watches—the “quartz crisis”:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47264756 (4 months ago, 498 points, 392 comments)

Re: Canada's only watchmaking school still ticking after 80 years

#147
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s why I eventually settled with gshock that has solar charging and syncs time twice a day with radio towers (or bluetooth if you are somewhere in the world where there is no time radio signal) Even rolex needs time setting, servicing to lube and clean metal parts, etc. Gshock on the other hand will work for 10-15 years without a single manual time adjustment or battery swap needed. Absolute unit. This gold metal…

bluetooth on watch sounds disturbing

You absolutely can skip setting this up

Though even if you consider any possible harmfull effects like thyroid nodules formation correlation [1] (people somehow only think about ionizing radiation, but there much more that happens in a cell that can be possibly disrupted without xray level stuff to damage dna or heat: there are ion channels and what have you), the Bluetooth on gshock — if set up — will work only for a few seconds twice a day. Basically nothing even if you sleep directly on it all night long

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-63653-0

Re: Canada's only watchmaking school still ticking after 80 years

#148
post #115
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s why I eventually settled with gshock that has solar charging and syncs time twice a day with radio towers (or bluetooth if you are somewhere in the world where there is no time radio signal) Even rolex needs time setting, servicing to lube and clean metal parts, etc. Gshock on the other hand will work for 10-15 years without a single manual time adjustment or battery swap needed. Absolute unit. This gold metal…

Those are not as good as they seem to be. I once had a g-shock mudmaster, seemingly an absolutely overbuilt thing, and it was resetting randomly in wet conditions. Maybe that could be fixed on warranty and it would work next 50 years flawlessly, but it didn’t inspire any confidence in that brand. They re-positioned themselves as a loud fashion brand, not a tool watch manufacturer.

I can’t say nothing about gshocks that have moving parts (actual hands) and what have you

Gshock metal square (like the photo I referenced) never failed on me (and I have 3 of those in different colors: gold and silver lcd ones, and black memory in pixel new one)

Re: Canada's only watchmaking school still ticking after 80 years

#149
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bluetooth on watch sounds disturbing

You absolutely can skip setting this up Though even if you consider any possible harmfull effects like thyroid nodules formation correlation [1] (people somehow only think about ionizing radiation, but there much more that happens in a cell that can be possibly disrupted without xray level stuff to damage dna or heat: there are ion channels and what have you), the Bluetooth on gshock — if set up — will work only for…

I'm fairly certain they were concerned about privacy, not... any of that. Bluetooth is promiscuous in an already noisy band.
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