Tim_M
1274
Having many independent primary sources always makes history easier to write
Sep 09, 2023,19:06 PM
I suspect Jose exhausted most of what's available to reach his conclusions. Big stuff like the history of the American Civil War is easier to document because of the huge number of original writings left by the participants. The history of the Fifty Fathoms rests on a handful of surviving photos and letters. Unlike, say, a four-year war in a large nation, it's unlikely that people building and writing about watches in 1953-1955 thought they were documenting a momentous occasion that would be revisited for 70 years.
And, of course, Blancpain went out of business for a few years at the height of the quartz crisis, and who knows what kind of "archive" if any JCB received when he bought the brand and its box of copyrights for 20,000 francs. Blancpain itself might be an unreliable narrator for lack of good records. On this note, I can see why Jeff might have fallen into the trap of accepting Blancpain's own account. Jeff always struck me as a friendly and courteous guy, and he's not earning any university tenure for his enthusiast-level writings or speeches about Blancpain. That's why I felt Jose laid into Jeff a bit harder than necessary in the article.
That said, I'm glad Jose went by patent registrations, because patent office records often are maintained long-term and even searchable online back to the pre-internet era. This is one of the few publicly accessible high-quality primary sources for documenting the history of machines. When I wrote a four-part Rolex movement engineering history feature for Quill & Pad, I stuck to patent records exclusively in order to avoid the pitfalls of marketing and the stone wall of Rolex's records department.
Best,
Tim