The Cellini Prince was a rare haute horology piece from Rolex But some watches are simply bad, a poor combination of components, a failure of design, or a betrayal of the spirit of the brand. There have been many cases where I have failed to understand an “ugly” design and, once I was educated, I came to love it. What makes a “bad watch” should not be in my eye but in the execution of the creator. To be sure, there are many “good watches” that I do not like, and I find some downright ugly. While we cannot expect much of an unknown name applied to a set of off-the-shelf parts, it feels like a slap in the face when an entity with true heritage and credibility puts forward a sub-par offering. This is true of too many mass-market watches, but it is sadly also true of some high-end pieces from brands and designers who should have known better. A great watch is like a book of poetry: It is a unique expression built on everything that went before it.īut sometimes a watch is just a combination of components. To me, the gestalt of watchmaking is a synthesis of 500 years of human progress distilled to a complex artifact that fits in the hand or on the wrist. But as my interest in the world of watches became a study, a passion, or perhaps a fixation, I began to see it more holistically. ![]() I am not sure what most people mean when they say “haute horolgerie” or “fine watchmaking” or “feine uhrmacherkunst” and I do not presume to tell them what to think. Image: Christie’s auction, 2016 Marketing Meaning If you want ‘the art and science of making time measurement devices’ use ‘Chronometry’.Philippe Dufour’s Simplicity is the essence of haute horology in a time-only watch. If you want ‘devices that measure time’ - use ‘chronometers’. if you want ‘the study of time and time-keeping devices’ - use ‘horology’. But I think that might be a ‘red herring’ - a distraction.Īlthough - ‘horologist’ does evoke to me, a craftsman with an eyepiece, making mechanical watches. This might be where your confusion about ‘what kinds of clocks does each term cover’ may come from. However, marketing for posh watches often describes same as ‘chronometers’ presumably to elevate them into something more exclusive and expensive. Note that an early chronometer (in Ancient Greece) might have been - a sun-dial. Perhaps the two similar words exist because they arise from Latin - and from Greek. Hopefully this gives you something more to go on, than what is really ‘hearsay’ from the words ‘in use’ - the pure origin of the meanings of words. Online definitions of ‘chronometry’ say ‘the art of accurate time measurement’ or ‘the science of accurate time measurement’.īut I think this is ‘internet embelishment’ and that it really means what it says, simply: ‘the measurement of time’ And a Chronometer is ‘the measurer of time’ ie a clock. So Chronometry is ‘the measurement of time’. From the Latin ‘metria’ and the Greek ‘metron’. ‘The making of clocks and watches’ is horology.Ĭhronometry - khronos - time (Greek), and metry - the measurement of. Horology - is made from: hora (hours, or time) logy - study. Whereas, the likes of Wikipedia often have various ‘in usage’ interpretations of meaning in context - which are often far from the original pure form and meaning. ![]() If you want to know the true meaning of words, I suggest looking up the etymology, for this tells you the origin of the component parts of a word. Is the chronometry article completely correct or is it more complicated than that?Īlso if they are distinct, completely separate terms for completely different sets of things, is there a word that means 'horological and chronometrical devices', or is 'the study of timekeeping devices' my only unambiguous option? ![]() What is the 'proper' distinction between the two terms? ![]() Is 'chronometry' meant to be a more broad term encompasing both old 'horological' devices such as mechanical clocks and newer electronic devices? chronometry more broadly includes electronic devices that have. While reading this, I'm unclear if this text is simply poorly worded or they are genuinely introducing the idea that the words have somewhat overlapping meanings and are interchangeable in some limited circumstances. In current usage, horology refers mainly to the study of mechanical time-keeping devices, while chronometry more broadly includes electronic devices that have largely supplanted mechanical clocks for the best accuracy and precision in time-keeping. While on 'Horology', Wikipedia describes it in more detail, creating an ambiguity I'd like to clarify. Chronometry applies to electronic devices, while Horology refers to mechanical devices.
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