
Anthrax Guitarist Turned Master Watchmaker (2012) - wglb
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/interview-meet-dan-spitz-anthrax-guitarist-turned-master-watchmaker
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ilamont
That's a great interview. I saw Anthrax when he was still in the band many
years ago, when they toured with Public Enemy. I have the sense that not many
top pop/rock/rap musicians are able to recognize the impact of touring on
family and leave that career. The late singer of Talk Talk, Mark Hollis, was
the same.

And I had always wondered about this:

 _Watchmaking is an ergonomically horrible job, you are hunched over, your
arms are falling asleep, and you are just asking for carpal tunnel syndrome.
The first thing new watchmakers should save for is not tools, but a really
good bench._

The pictures still show people hunched over tables, though, squinting at tiny
parts. How much can a good bench do?

~~~
madengr
I saw them on the Persistsnce if Time tour, opening for Maiden. Of course they
had a giant clock on stage, probably influenced by the watches.

Speaking of ergonomics, why do they hunch over with eye loupes when inspection
microscopes with over 12” of working distance are available? I have hand
placed 01005 parts, so why don’t they use them for watch making?

If you have a proper hand rest under the inspection scope, you can do very
fine movements while sitting upright.

~~~
gxx
It could be a matter of depth of field and viewing angle. I build tiny things
- boards with parts down to 0406 and also 3D assemblies of small parts. I use
a long range digital magnifier for PCBs but it's necessary to use a head
mounted loupe for 3D assembly due to depth of field and the need to view from
different directions.

~~~
allannienhuis
I would have thought they'd address that by having a movable stand/holder for
the part - so they could easily spin/tip it around while keeping it in the
optimum place for viewing (rather than moving your head/eye around to look at
the right place). Of course I know nothing about any of this, but it seems
like it would be easier for the user. Maybe I'm missing something about the
hands not being available for that movement (pedals then?). Just interesting
to think about.

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kazinator
In that first photo, he's seems to have somewhat morphed into Scott Ian ...
also of Anthrax. :)

Obligatory:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGHsxMqpL0c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGHsxMqpL0c)

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CalChris
This story reminds me of George Chakiris who won an Academy Award for his role
as Bernardo in _West Side Story_. He became a jewelry designer later in life.

[https://georgechakiris.com/](https://georgechakiris.com/)

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colund
And I quote

"Time has always been part of my music. Consider the song “Got the Time”… Time
has always been part of my life and it will never go away since it is a
wonderful remembrance of my Pop-Pop. Sadly, everyone has the time on their
phone today and timekeepers have shifted from a need to an extreme luxury."

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wolfi1
Anthrax was also guest starring in Married With Children

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TravelAndFood
Q: Is there a correlation between music and watchmaking? A: I am the only one
that could answer that question.

I enjoyed most of this article, but wow, what an arrogant response.

~~~
arkades
Why is that arrogant? Are there an awful lot of highly successful musicians
turned master watchmakers?

Seems like an obvious comment to make about being rare as hen’s teeth.

~~~
TravelAndFood
It seems absolutely ridiculous to assert you're the only one on Earth that can
talk with authority about "a correlation between music and watchmaking." You
don't need to be a highly successful musician turned master watchmaker to talk
intelligently about that. There are surely many other people that know a lot
about both music and watchmaking. For example, just me, n size 1, I have a
friend who formally studied music and collects high end watches as a hobby and
has built his own geared watch. I'm sure he could comment intelligently on
this question. Not really understanding the downvotes here.

It didn't seem like he was saying "yeah I guess I do have a really rare
perspective", it seemed like he was literally saying "I'm the only one." Maybe
he's even the best person in the world to ask, if you could only ask one
person. But the only one? Maybe his comment was playful/less literal, but it
didn't come off that way to me.

~~~
arkades
>Maybe his comment was playful/less literal, but it didn't come off that way
to me.

Why?

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pdog
What is the point of a mechanical watch when there are far superior methods
for timekeeping?

~~~
faissaloo
Status, and in some cases art, but mostly status.

~~~
LyndsySimon
Satisfaction, too.

I love watches, and usually wear a Vostok. It’s a very inexpensive Russian
automatic (mechanical, self-winding). It was about $100, and certainly isn’t a
“luxury” watch in the sense that a Patek would be - but I like wearing it,
because of what it is.

It’s hard to explain. It’s a piece of extremely precise engineering that
almost feels organic in some ways. If I’m in a quiet place and calm I can
almost feel it tick. I can feel the pendulum move to wind itself when I reach
for something. In some small way it’s almost alive.

I guess you could call that art.

