
Masahiro Kikuno, Japanese Independent Watchmaker (2017) - recurser
http://watchesbysjx.com/2017/05/portrait-masahiro-kikuno-japanese-watchmaker.html
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shawnps
For anyone interested in purchasing a mechanical watch, there are plenty of
brands making affordable mechanical timepieces today. Hamilton, Seiko, Tissot,
Swatch, Orient, and Timex are a few that come to mind for the sub-$1000
category. It's a fun hobby with a nice community of enthusiasts.

Some advice:

* If possible, wear the watch before buying it. Seeing a watch on your wrist is different from seeing photos of it.

* Avoid the "grey market" and buy from an Authorized Dealer. Grey market watches won't have the manufacturer warranty.

* Avoid replicas and fakes ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHgKMA6Bh6U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHgKMA6Bh6U))

Some links:

* The Urban Gentry ([https://www.youtube.com/user/theurbangentry](https://www.youtube.com/user/theurbangentry)) is a YouTube channel run by a horology enthusiast with a positive attitude who does lots of watch reviews.

* The r/Watches subreddit ([https://www.reddit.com/r/watches/](https://www.reddit.com/r/watches/)) has lots of photos of watches contributed by the community.

* A video on how mechanical watches work: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1XBb7kJJWg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1XBb7kJJWg)

* S-Town podcast ([https://stownpodcast.org/](https://stownpodcast.org/)) is an intriguing story about a man who repaired antique clocks.

* Affordable Wrist Time ([https://www.instagram.com/affordablewristtime/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/affordablewristtime/?hl=en)) the tagline is "Promoting watches under $1000."

Some terminology:

* A quartz watch is usually powered by a battery. They tend to be cheaper and more accurate than mechanical watches.

* A mechanical watch is powered by a mainspring.

* An automatic watch has a semicircular rotor inside which automatically spins when the watch moves, winding the mainspring.

* Hacking is a feature that stops the second hand from moving when the crown is pulled out.

~~~
ywnner_0001
If you really want a mechanical watch, and you want to have it mean / be worth
something, I'd suggest saving up for a Rolex.

Mechanical watches have (and this has been said before) the Rolex problem. On
the lower end of the scale, a lot of mechanical watches will borrow design
cues from Rolex (e.g., most dive watches will share similarities with the
Submariner) and will fall far short of the quality of one.

On the higher end, you quickly end up at multiples of the cost of an entry-
level Rolex with very questionable additional value, quality or longevity.

Rolex is really in a sweet spot in terms of value. They're virtually
indestructible, tend to keep their (or even grow in) value and make a number
of elegant, understated watches that are iconic.

For example, if you want a dive watch, buy a Sub (no date). While you might
argue that Blancpain beat Rolex by a year for the quintessential dive watch,
Rolex is the one that popularized it. You're not buying _a_ dive watch, you're
buying _the_ dive watch as it has stood since the early 50s.

They're not _cheap_ , but they will undoubtedly last two generations, possibly
more. Compared to the other luxury watch makers, they're downright cheap. JLC
is another value-oriented brand and you're lucky to get into a watch for 2X
what you'll pay for a Rolex. Patek and AP are _much_ more expensive.

The problem with the affordable brands is they cut a lot of corners with
manufacturing (vs Rolex), use outsourced, less reliable movements and -- with
the exception of some Seikos, have none of the cachet of Rolex.

You can go a bit higher to say an Omega, but you're already ballpark Rolex, so
is it worth it?

The downside to buying a Rolex is it will probably kill your watch hobby. I
used to collect watches and when I decided I did in fact like the story of
Rolex, I bought one, strapped it on basically forgot about watches.

The only watches I'm interested in now are so expensive I'll probably never
bother to buy one. I will get to gift my Sub to my son in another decade or so
at which time I'll get to go shopping again. So that's something to look
forward to, but I'll mostly likely buy another Rolex.

~~~
gambiting
So funny you should recommend Rolex, because I actually know a few people who
own them(and they all bought them brand new) and the prevailing opinion is
that they are absolute crap at actually being a watch - they just drift a lot
in short amount of time - one of my friends says his is can be as much as 10
minutes out every month(!!!!!) and that's a 5k watch!!!

I'm personally saving up for an Omega, you can get a timeless design for 2-3k,
and those watches are truly indestructible and actually keep time accurately.

~~~
SamReidHughes
Um, what? Rolex is known for having the best accuracy and reliability in the
mechanical watch market. 20 seconds per day is way out of spec, your friend
needs to get it serviced. Omega is sometimes okay, but you still have to avoid
certain movements, even on new models. Edit: But you're right that Omega is
often a better deal.

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AtomicOrbital
In traditional Japan the custom was each day had 12 hours of daylight and 12
of night time so to accommodate this the length of hours shifted day by day
... Masahiro was inspired by an ancient clock which implemented this idea such
that he decided to craft by hand a watch to perform this as well ...
incredible master and some impressive video documentary taboot

~~~
KyleBrandt
The time system was one of the real interesting things from the documentary to
me. This Seiko page explains the time system well:
[https://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/knowledge/wadokei/huteijihou/](https://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/knowledge/wadokei/huteijihou/)

12 hour day (what is 24 hours in modern time). Daytime is always 6 hours and
night time is always 6 hours. The absolute length of the hours changes with
the seasons.

~~~
mikekchar
There's an android app for it even:
[https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.aragaer.jtt/](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.aragaer.jtt/)

I just started using it recently and I really like it. My mood is very much
affected by exposure to daylight and it really helps to plan my day around the
sun, rather than arbitrary numbers on a clock.

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halbritt
This guy is obviously an adherent of George Daniels. His story is fascinating.
He produced likely one of the only significant inventions in mechanical
watches in the last century, the coaxial escapement. The book shown in the OP
is wonderful and here's a documentary:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nsh8llV5dE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nsh8llV5dE)

Daniels' apprentice and now watchmaker Roger W. Smith has carried on making
watches with his escapement and like Kikuno-San makes all of the components by
hand and in-house.

~~~
halbritt
It's probably worth clarifying why it's obvious that he was an adherent of
George Daniels. In his book, and in every interview I've seen of him, he
speaks at length about the value of a watch maker being able to make every
component in a watch. Listening to him talk about how he learned every aspect
of the trade in his is fascinating.

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astdb
I found a documentary[1] on Masahiro a while back and it was mesmerizing to
watch him work.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTiPNqeMS8E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTiPNqeMS8E)

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slyall
Previously ( June 2017, 106 comments )

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14610110](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14610110)

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swimfar
The "old school milling machine" they mention is actually a pantograph milling
machine.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantograph#Milling_machines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantograph#Milling_machines)

~~~
dugditches
Which is an 'old school milling machine'. Just as a Turret Mill with Rotary
Table to cut curves is an 'Old School' milling machine.

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beezischillin
I can’t help but admire people who create incredible intricate pieces of
mechanical art hy hand. Not ever in my life could I hope to replicate even a
crude, barely functional version of such a device. While I’m not a watch geek,
the process and methodology behind creating these time-pieces is endlessly
fascinating to me. I’d totally love to watch a documentary of someone doing
similar work!

~~~
paulgb
I don't know where you're located, but you may enjoy the Horological Society
of New York's traveling education program[1] if they are going to be near you.

(I'm not affiliated with them, but I've enjoyed a few of their classes)

[1] [http://hs-ny.org/traveling-education/](http://hs-ny.org/traveling-
education/)

~~~
SamReidHughes
San Diego next month! Thanks for posting this, I might check it out.

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momentmaker
Wow... some bad ass watches he had made.

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Antonio123123
Let me voice my negative opinion: To me it looks worthy of a hobby, but to
praise this as something exceptional it's kind of overstretch.

The time required is very long to make the pieces by hand, but I feel any
sharp person could do it. Nothing groundbreaking.

So I don't understand people that find this fascinating, inspirational. Just
buy a usual watch, and it will have the same pieces.

It's cool that he makes new designs, however make a good market out of that
and the chinese will do it too, at better prices.

~~~
orbifold
If you buy such a watch, you also buy a story. A single person producing a
decently complicated watch from scratch is a pretty good story to tell. I
image there are enough people in the world with the kind of disposable income
required to buy such a watch, so he will have a pretty good business
regardless of Chinese copycats.

~~~
Antonio123123
Well I am not sure. It's a good story to tell if the person is someone
important in the community that has for example written important books or
invented something that is useful.

If it's just worker-bee man-hours I guess it would be better value-for-money
to buy a seiko and tell the story of the factory and how it's made using such
complicated processes and optimizations (not sure assumption about seiko
factory using complicated processes is right).

~~~
dagw
_not sure assumption about seiko factory using complicated processes is right_

Depends on the Seiko. Seiko makes and has made a large number of complicated
and historically interesting watches and movements with a story, but your
average Seiko won't have that.

If you want a cheap mechanical watch that's a historical 'first' and has an
interesting watchmaking story to tell in terms of processes and optimization,
get a Swatch Sistem51. It's the first automatic movement that is simple enough
and has few enough parts to be mass produced entirely by robot. Of course if
that's a 'good' story to tell or not is very much up for debate.

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paradoxparalax
I love this art of Patience of the Japanese. They love to spend a life time i
to making a tiny wood doll or some little flower arrange...

I wonder its because is an Island and one gets inside himself or one just gets
bored...

I am a fan of making bamboo and paper little planes , just to thorw them and
destroy on the beach...

I found that using Smoking Paper is a good material haha

What I like is the making the fine bamboos longarinas and skeleton of the
models. I like boats of bamboo too.

