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jamesharttoday at 3:53 AM3 repliesview on HN

I am literally wearing a watch right now that was produced without any of these artisans’ specialized labor and which boasts among its features access to AI.

In a very real sense I have replaced use of the skills of watchmakers with AI.

Sorry about that. To be fair most watchmakers were already put out of work by quartz oscillators and integrated circuits in the 1980s.


Replies

shit_gametoday at 6:37 AM

The reason that you bought your watch and the reason that other people buy these hand crafted mechanical watches are very, very different. Once upon a time, utility used to be what necessitated an accurate movement, and it came at great cost because of the skill, knowledge, precision, and artistic talent needed to make one; this justified further embellishing the movement with a beautiful case and band because it would be in poor taste to make something that is both expensive and ugly when your primary consumers would be aristocrats. Eventually timepieces became commodified as industrialization made their manufacture feasible at a larger scale, and later then the advent of the quartz crystal made mechanical movements functionally obsolete as a means of telling time accurately. Approaching perfect timekeeping in a mechanical movement is not meant to be utilitarian, but rather a practice in artistry. Mechanical watches are jewelry, and jewelry irrationally commands the price that any luxury does because it's a matter of taste and not utility. Nobody buying a Patek Philippe is doing so because they want millisecond accuracy via atmoic clock GPS signals - they buy Seikos for that.

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soperjtoday at 4:06 AM

you need AI to tell the time?

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keiferskitoday at 5:02 AM

Not really. No one wants a Rolex or Omega with ChatGPT in it.