Zenith was “the first manufacture“, one of the greatest watch companies in Switzerland, and the economic force behind Le Locle. Then it was purchased by an American electronics company and ordered to destroy its mechanical watchmaking assets. This is the… Read More ›

Articles
Inside Xinjiang’s Prison State
On the morning of August 16th, the county police in Koktokay, near the mine in northern China where he was based, summoned him to a meeting. At the police station, officers led Otarbai to a room lined with spongy, yellow… Read More ›
How the Boeing 737 Max Disaster Looks to a Software Developer
The angle of attack is the angle between the wings and the airflow over the wings. Think of sticking your hand out of a car window on the highway. If your hand is level, you have a low angle of… Read More ›
Would there be a watch industry without Rolex?
The title of this article is somewhat hyperbolic and to suggest that there would be no watches without Rolex is not what I am saying. What I am asking is if the watch industry we know would be anywhere near… Read More ›
A different kind of fitness tracker
We all know the Apple Watch, Fitbit and other fitness trackers that sit on the wrist, but there are alternatives that help you get fit in a less obvious way. Most are not well known and I am not recommending… Read More ›
I miss seeing random strangers do random things
As lockdown continues and we all get more and more solitary and down about the situation I have continued to try to pin point what exactly are the things I miss the most, and then something came to me that… Read More ›
It’s not the object, it’s where it has been and who it was with
A friend of mine, Russ, recently inherited his Dad’s Tudor watch. It is a 1958 Tudor Oyster Prince 7909, the ‘Prince’ word denotes that it is self-winding. This is of course a fairly common occurrence, but it highlights just what… Read More ›
Is a foldable iPad coming?
The talk surrounding a foldable iPhone has been running for some time now as the competition continues to try to make the idea into something vaguely useable in spite of the obvious constraints. Just like styluses on phones I continue… Read More ›
An hour with Apple’s support team
After an hour or more of scrolling and scrolling, it’s easy to believe that Apple’s devices really aren’t too good. Until you remember there are billions of them now out there, somewhere. Still, there’s something instructive in seeing how vast… Read More ›
The Vinegar Valentine
The Valentine’s Day love note from a secret admirer has an evil twin—the “vinegar valentine” from a hidden hater. When mass-produced valentines replaced handmade ones in the Victorian era, satirical valentines were as available as sentimental ones. Vinegar valentines, ancestors… Read More ›