I try not to assign textbooks. I assign readers. That’s because what I’m trying to teach my students is a simple approach that they need to exercise on different materials—over and over and over again. You can do the readings and not understand the kind of reasoning I’m trying to teach. But you can’t learn the…

They really weren’t, in the time and place in which I grew up. Some people had ostentatious things on their wrists, true, but for most people, a $5 steel Timex did the job. If that’s jewelry, then that’s a pretty inclusive definition, and it would even have to include the BCGs of yesteryear.

Up to a point. Even well-sealed automatics will require work from time to time. But I grant your point w/r/t automatic watches. Interestingly, it’s a point made in the novel The White Mountains by (iirc) Jon Christopher, as well.

FWIW, even the best automatic will degrade over time. Gears wear over time, springs…

If you ever get the opportunity, have a look at Paul Fussell’s marvelous book, Class. I have a feeling you’d enjoy it.

If you set up the question that way, then it’s self-answering. But it depends on what the nature of a watch is. My understanding is that a watch’s essential function, above all else, is that it tells time sufficiently accurately to be of use to its owner. Once you pass that point, you’re talking about something else.…

See above.

I know someone who owns dozens of Gibson Les Pauls. He buys them new, as each model is released, and puts them in a temperature-controlled room. I don’t understand that, either.

They can certainly be assessed as art in terms of design, appearance, feel. But in terms of the way the mechanism works? I don’t know; that seems to me to diminish the meaning of ‘art.’ On that reading, many things could be considered art that I don’t think ought to be considered art. But I am open to persuasion.

As a fan of the work of, e.g., Richard Sachs, I understand the virtue of custom craftsmanship. If I had the money and the time and Richard was accepting orders, I would have him build a bicycle for me. But there’s a significant difference between custom (or bespoke, if you prefer) and this sort of thing. A Richard…

And, yes, I’d like to think I can tell the difference between the way this setup sounds and something that’s a few steps down.

The difference is that the $400,000 car can do more than the $30,000 car. You won’t generally get to do that in traffic, but there are places where you can do it, and so it can make a difference. I still think cars in that price range are silly, but much less so than an timepiece like this.

As to size, it’s true that it’s becoming difficult to find a watch with a face much below that size...here the case seems to me to be out of proportion to the face and movement (but that’s a matter of taste, I know).

That’s certainly true in part, and pocket watches also served the function of jewelry in some respects. However, as I have already said, by the middle of the 20th century, watches were primarily functional devices. The near-universal need for a way to find out what time it was drove prices down significantly, to the…

Likely true. But by the mid-20th century—a point at which humans had become much more cognizant of time (but hadn’t yet developed cell phones)—a watch was a functional item almost to the point of being a necessity. The one I got in ‘71 was a gift from my grandparents in recognition of my coming to the cusp of…

By my rules, I’m not entirely certain that the Singer is still a car. Nevertheless, there are settings in which one can operate a Singer-type vehicle and gain a bit more bang for the buck than one could with the Toyota. I don’t think the same can be said for the watch.

Well, I was including a Casio with a stopwatch function, etc. Gilding the lily a little, I suppose.

I owned an an automatic Bulova from 1971-1985 (approx). It worked well. I have no argument with a fine piece of work, but (while it’s certainly true that I can’t afford this watch) I would question why this beast has to be this size. My Bulova was a good deal smaller and lighter, though it contained no exotic…

Quality and “gee whiz” factors are often confused. I have a Mont Blanc pen that my wife gave me 32 years ago as an engagement present. I’m a lawyer and I use it regularly for signing things and for note-taking. It’s black and white and works every bit as well as the diamond-and-gold-encrusted models. I grok your…

I have a real problem with calling something like this a watch. It’s interesting that it’s a mechanical device, in the same way that vinyl LPs are interesting or Bakelite telephones are interesting. True, it tells time. And it (sort of) fits on your wrist. And it probably does a whole lot of other neat things as…

George Orwell didn’t exactly have a name for them, but in 1984 he described the work of one of his characters this way: