hax.org

I’ve decided to begin posting about some of my favorite things, and some of the things which drive me to hate.  Yeah, I can be a hater.. a pretty good one too.  I prepare my evidence, do my research and attack! ..  keep an eye out for the “Dislike” series which will begin shortly.  Since it would indicate a negative bias toward the world if I began with a Dislike post, I’m starting off on a positive note…

I went for a long while without a wrist watch – probably close to 10 years.  I had a bad experience with a metal-banded watch back in my early 20′s that consistently pulled hair out of my arm – yes, I have hairy arms.. like all real men should.  I also went in and out of my fixation with animal welfare and anti-cruelty in everything I bought and used.  That caused me to purchase some pleather and canvas-banded watches which really didn’t cut it long term.  I’m pleased to announce that in late 2010 my wife bought be a really great Seiko auto winder with canvas band from Amazon.  It’s really a fine specimen of a watch, isn’t expensive, and doesn’t require winding or batteries!

Now I didn’t intend for this post to be about Seiko watches and their awesomeness.  In fact, since I have no real references and experiences to cite for all I know Seiko watches are really crappy compared to the rest.  What I do want to talk about is the awesomeness of the auto winding system present in this watch and many out there.  If you’re already bored of this post I encourage you to read the wikipedia page which covers the technology and history in more detail than I possibly could.

First off – this isn’t new technology by any stretch of the imagination – we’re talking 1770, and yes, it was a Swiss man who figured it out.  Back then, everyone who had a watch had a pocketwatch.  This added some complexity to winding movement because you literally had to walk around to wind the thing.  Back then I’d imagine more people walked than they do today so this wasn’t such a problem.  It wasn’t until after WWI that auto winding wrist watches started to become popular.  Since it was so much more practical to wind the watch with it on your wrist these things sold well and are still in use today.  The only technology really giving the mechanical winders a run for their money are the electronics – but there’s an old world charm to the mechanicals for sure.  I happen to like my watch because I will never ever have to buy a battery for it and (hopefully) will never really need to maintain it.  This will be especially useful during an electromagnetic pulse followed by a zombie apocalypse, which could be coming as soon as 2012.  I think it will be especially important to be able to tell time AND kill zombies during this period in human history.