Mechanical watches, esoteric timeless timepieces

Mechanical watches, esoteric timeless timepieces

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

On a cold day in Moscow, shortly after the collapse of the
Soviet Union, an old Russian woman sold her beautiful mechanical
watch to a foreigner for just US$4.

It was a Russian timepiece, a Poljot watch, certainly far less
costly than the astronomically expensive Patek Philippe of
Switzerland, but surely worth more than $4.

Ever since that particular watch has become the lucky
foreigner's favorite, despite his other more expensive and
complicated watches.

"The watch has a picture of Yuri Gagarin on its leather
strap," Bakri Arbie of Indonesia, the lucky foreigner, told The
Jakarta Post. "Later I was informed that the watch series was the
one that the astronaut wore."

He particularly likes the watch because it always reminds him
of the old woman. Seems that items that come with stories are
more moving than those that do not.

"I love watches and I admire time," Bakri said, adding that he
loved mechanical watches more than battery-operated ones because
of the sophisticated craftsmanship behind them.

"But I don't collect expensive watches. The most expensive
watch I ever bought cost about Rp 1 million," Bakri, who has
about 40 mechanical watches and about five battery-operated
watches, said.

One million rupiah (US$110) for a mechanical watch is indeed
not expensive considering that in 1999 the world saw the most
expensive watch sold for $11 million at an auction at Sotheby's
in New York to an anonymous collector.

It was a 1933 Supercomplication Patek Philippe that belonged
to New York financier Henry Graves, Jr.

The pocket watch took seven years to build, including three
years of mathematical calculations before work started on the
watch itself.

Boasting about 900 parts and 24 complications (a complication
is a feature other than an hour, minute or second hand), the gold
pocket watch held the record for 56 years as the most complicated
watch ever.

In 1989, to celebrate its 150th anniversary of watchmaking,
the same watchmaker delivered the Patek Philippe Caliber 89 with
33 complications.

The complications people can find are, among others, a
perpetual calendar, moon-phase dials, dials for sunset and
sunrise times, and a stopwatch.

Other complications could be as intricate as a moving map of
the northern night sky of New York, which the Supercomplication
has.

However, as intricate as they are, most mechanical watches
cannot counteract the effects of gravity, which slows down the
movement of a watch.

In the early 1970s came the quartz crystal watch invented by
Japanese watchmaker Seiko. This Japanese technology opened a new
chapter in timepiece history because it allowed the production of
accurate watches at a relatively low price.

Many predicted Seiko's invention would spell doom for the
Swiss mechanical watch industry. To some extent they were right.

"Recently when I went to Russia again for a research, most
Russians wore quartz watches. They seemed to be no longer proud
of their mechanical watches like the Poljot or the Vostok," Bakri
said.

However, complicated mechanical watches continue to hold a
place in some people's hearts.

Furthermore, the boom in the world economy throughout the
1980s and '90s paved the way for the revival of the complicated
watches industry.

Dozens of little watch factories in Switzerland sprung to life
again, crafting sophisticated timepiece for a small number of
people with esoteric tastes.

The sophisticated craftsmanship of complicated mechanical
timepieces has proven to be a timeless treat, reigning in the
hearts of the privileged.