I've not been to Beijing but the National Palace Museum in Taipei has some remarkable mechanical clocks, including water clocks. My Significant Other is Taiwanese and whenever I get smug there is nothing like a visit to the NPM to remind me that the Chinese were crafting breathtaking objets d'art and wonderfully functional machines when we arrogant Euro-Americans were still swinging by our tails from the trees.
On Sat, Jul 9, 2011 at 8:26 PM, Morris Odell <vilgo...@bigpond.net.au>wrote: > > > Bravo, Rob. I thought I was the lone voice crying in the wilderness in > support of watches. > > >My "beater" is an Omega Seamaster that goes everywhere and does everything > all the time. My others tend to sit in their rocker boxes and seldom get > worn. > > This was a very interesting thread. I have worn a watch for the last 50+ > years and feel that something is missing without one. Even though my > professional activities (to say nothing of hobby pursuits) mean I have to > take it off from time to time I won't be without one. Looking at the time > of > a mobile phone or computer just isn't the same and you can't trust wall > clocks you have no control over. There's nothing like the gesture of > pushing > up a sleeve to see it or the ability to glance at it surreptitiously during > boring meetings :-) My current quotidian timepiece is a Longines quartz > with an analog dial and a date window. It keeps very accurate time and the > crystal is remarkably scratch resistant. I have a Forbes nixie watch too > for > appropriately nerdy occasions and an assortment of cheapies for travel. > > I was in the amazing clock museum in the Beijing Forbidden City recently. > Has anyone else seen that? It houses an incredible collection of 18th and > 19th century extreme high end clocks, from the collections of successive > emperors. They are of course all mechanical ( or water powered) and some > are > of amazing complexity. One had a little automaton of a man sitting at a > desk > writing down the time! I also saw my first Congreve clock while I was over > there. I am tempted to try and make a version of one if I ever get a year > or > three to spare... > > Cheers, > > Morris > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
