Horological Meandering

ei8htohms
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great read, but one particularly controversial passage

Hi SJX,

This is a great read and will likely serve to educate many Grand Seiko newbies for years to come.  Thanks!

I wantred to mention though that the often repeated bit about Seiko's success at the Observatory Competitions in Geneva and Neuchatel being responsible (at least partially) for the discontinuation of these trials is a highly controversial statement and one that is difficult if not impossible to establish with any certainty. 

If it were the case (that the trials were discontinued out of national embarrassment basically), then we're unlikely to uncover any documentation to that effect as surely none of the principals involved in the decision would've been forthright about the reasons.  Lacking such direct evidence, we're left with conjecture and circumstantial evidence and my opinion is that it is important to be clear about that.  "It can be argued that..."  "Some have postulated that..."  You know, that sorta thing,

Another tidbit in the article I found difficult to come to terms with exactly is the reference to the Shizukuishi Watch Studio's 19 watchmakers cranking out up to 30,000 pieces per year.  That sounds like a lot of watches per watchmaker.  Maybe a large number of those watches are Spring Drive and don't require much intervention by watchmakers?  

A very nice read, thanks again!

_john