The Breitling Watch Source Forums

The other topic on the Swiss Army watch with 6000m rating prompts me to ask what you have come across as being a particularly useless watch function (aesthetic/other considerations aside).

In addition to the above and in no particular order are my suggestions:- (sorry I'm hopeless remembering makes/models but hopefully you know the ones I mean)

The watch that only records night and day.
The Titanic watch that you can't even wear - it has to be kept in an oxygen-free 'bubble'.
The helium valve.
The tourbillon.

Ike

Your first two examples are both Romain Jeromes!

I'm actually in the middle of writing the latest in my technical series about the equation of time complication - that's a fairly esoteric function in modern times.

The tourbillon is always one that causes great debate, I think that it's more accurate to say that it's of questionable benefit rather than saying that it's completely useless.

I'm not an expert on diving so have no idea on whether the helium valve has any functional purpose, though the logic seems sound.

Some of the haute horlogerie complications get a little esoteric but they aren't really about the function themselves, rather about the ability to produce something that pushes the boundaries.

Well put Roff. Although I must say the day/night watch is a bit ridiculous. But I like how companies can push the envelope and come up with something that is technically wild and yet still accurate. I am still amazed by JLC's Gyro Tourbillon.

In my opinion I don't actually consider anything to be pointless on watches (apart from perhaps the day/night watch!). For me a lot of the enjoyment of timepieces comes from the craftmanship of what goes into it, not from whether or not I'd actually use the function or not.

For example, a high water resistance is pointless unless you're a saturation diver...... but for me I think of the engineering that goes into making a watch super water resistant.

Same goes for a helium release valve. Apparently it DOES work if you're a saturation diver, but how many on here are?

A 7 or 10 day power reserve on an automatic watch is fairly pointless if you regularly wear it...... but again it's the workmanship and engineering skill that attracts me to it.

Take even the fairly humble standard chronograph. On various threads on here, most people use their chronograph once in a blue moon and mostly it seems just while cooking steaks! Do we NEED it? No....., but it's still an interesting thing to have.

Distilling this "is it actually needed" train of thought to it's ultimate end, you can even start to question the point of having a mechanical watch at all in these days of mobile phones with clock functions and computers with the time in the bottom corner.

For me, a watch is more than just something that tells the time and/or has whatever other functions it may have : it's a miniature engineering marvel to my mind, and if it has some cool complications and/or technical abilities then that just increases my enjoyment of it further.

Even the unwearable Titanic watch by RJ. In my opinion that is a watch that has become a piece of art. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. Enjoyment of things can take many forms, and this is one that you look at but can't wear. No different to something like owning a robe worn by Henry VIII - you'd never wear it, but it'd still be a great thing to own : something that should be functional, but is now a piece of art.

Yes we may not NEED a whole lot of the functions watches come with, but they're still damn cool, and I for one wouldn't want to be without them!

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Driver8

Site Moderator

I have a few wishes for funcitons for mechanical watches that are not available (or in that combination)


Automatic Chronograph with alarm, that is also charged by autmatic
A real world time watch, that also shows also the 30 or 15 minutes timedifferences (Iran, Pakistan, India, Darwin, Venezuela, a few Islands in the south sea) and which is correctable!
A mechanical watch with mobile phone... just joking...
A mechanical watch with a button, that lets You "remember" certain times, maybe up to 5? (like the copilot addon from Breitling) for example take off time or landing time...


BG
Thomas

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http://www.ellert.at

Come on now guys, are we really talking about practicallity in luxury watches?

Please, name one person you know, thinking of yourself included, who does everything for practicallity. Go ahead, I'll wait. Think outside the watch world, also. We eat the most expensive food we can, we drive the most expensive car we can afford, we live in most expensive house we can afford. What would be a practicallity in eating food? to get full, but we don't do that. So, its technically "useless" to eat a $50 dollar meal when you can eat a $5 meal at McDonalds. There are rooms in our homes that we never go into, but they are there.

So, in my honest opinion, its silly to say something is useless and you wouldn't buy it because of that. Sure, 99.999% of people who buy a Sea-Dweller, will never even come close to taking it do it's projected depth, but its there. Sure, you can debate tourbullion for ages, but if you'd have money for it, you'd get it. These pieces are built not for practicallity but to show off the mastery in watch making and what we can do with these nowadays.

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OK, but the original question was, "what you have come across as being a particularly useless watch function (aesthetic/other considerations aside)."

I think I was more replying to the replies lol

Can't wait to read that one. EOT seems like it would be difficult to make given the non-linearity.

--M

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." --Dave Barry

Yeah I'm getting there - it's just a bit busy with other stuff right now.

Equation of Time is predictable, just on an annual cycle.