There are two ways to define a day: astronomically by measuring the time between midday to midday and by using a manmade clock. The difference between them is that the length of the former fluctuates while the latter remains fixed. As Ian Skellern explains, the same is true for the humble second.
Brittany “Nico” Cox is fascinated by looking at philosophical problems from a tactile perspective, and automata are a practical application of these ideas. Cochlea, a unique piece automaton, is the first in a series of ten animated imaginary animals she is creating.
Joshua Munchow kicks off the first short videos highlighting GPHG Academy members. Joshua is Quill & Pad’s resident ‘nerd writer’ and in this short video clip he explains what he does and being in the GPHG Academy.
In theory, a mechanical watch is very simple: it’s ‘simply’ a spring (the mainspring) unwinding at a constant rate with hands attached to gears that rotate as the spring unwinds. Easy! Ian Skellern highly recommends anyone at all interested in mechanical watches to watch this video as it clearly highlights how a mechanical watch works.
The Antikythera mechanism is an Ancient Greek orrery over 2,000 years old. It is the oldest known example of an analog computer and was used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance. Spencer Connor is an engineer who decided to make a modernized reproduction of the Antikythera mechanism. In this video, he explains just how special the intricate clockwork was for its day, and just how complex it is to track the obits of our moon and the planets around the sun.
Watches and Wonders 2023 ran from Monday, March 27 to Saturday, April 1 at Palexpo in Geneva and was open to the public on the 1st and 2nd of April. It attracted a record 43,000 visitors! That’s nearly double last year’s 22,000 visitors, largely thanks to the opening up of China and Asian countries after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Quill & Pad team was there, and we sat down after the show to discuss what we liked and didn’t like about the 2023 fair.
In this presentation that John McGonigle of Oileán Watch gave for Engineers Ireland, he explains how watches work. The video is well worth watching for anyone interested in just what makes a mechanical wristwatch tick.
The most common choice for classic dress watches has to be gold, but have you ever wondered where that gold originally came from? And by “originally” Ian Skellern isn’t referring to a gold mine on earth but the original source of the gold before it even arrived on our planet. Spoiler alert: it involves an explosion, a very big explosion!
As GPHG Academy members, GaryG, Joshua Munchow, and Ian Skellern have been asked to nominate watches for consideration in the 2023 GPHG. And while they spend much of our lives immersed in the world of watches, they don’t know of everything out there and there may well be, and are likely to be, gems that they are not aware of. So please send us your suggestions and recommendations for watches in the 15 categories listed.
Open AI’s ChatGPT is many a lot of news and headlines recently, so Ian Skellern thought to see if this powerful technology could advance horology by asking it to, “Give him 10 astronomical complications for wristwatches that have not been invented yet.” This is what it suggested . . .