Oliver Reichenstein, of Information Architects, poses some thoughtful perspective on the tech zeitgeist in 2024:
We can just say “no thanks” to technology if it doesn’t make sense to us. New is not inevitable. New doesn’t mean need.
We can be both critical and appreciative of new technology without categorically accepting or rejecting it.
Knowing what you want doesn’t mean that you don’t “get it”.
Being careful with tools, new and old, still makes a lot of sense.
Shriya Zamındar, reporting for Vogue India, pays a visit to Rado's watch manufacturing facilities in Switzerland:
The brand uses raw materials like tiny globules of clay, which then go to through different stages of heating, cooling and compression to form a watch’s skeleton.
The recipes of the secret sauce for each series of ceramic watches dictate how capsules of different colours are mixed in an actual cauldron to form completely new shades. Not following the ingredient list or respecting the exact cooking time can have potentially disastrous results.
An archival extract of the obituary for Dr. Sabin A. von Sochocky III, from page 29 of the Thursday, November 15th, 1928 edition of the New York Times.
While the none of the luminous paint his company created is functional any longer, a century onward it remains just as humanly lethal. Due to its more than 1600-year half life, the radioactive radium employed in his invention that still exists in the hands and dials of an untold number timepieces has and continues to wreak havoc and potential harm to countless lives.
On a global scale, our economic system is predicated on a disregard for longevity, because it’s more profitable for companies to make products that die than it is to make products that last.
Tech companies would do well to take a page from the better echelons of the watch industry and bolster their service revenues with thoughtfully-designed hardware that is genuinely serviceable.
Situated under the Rolex Learning Center at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), sol.id is an art installation that employs novel, computational technology and manufacturing techniques to create specular metal surfaces that orchestrate caustic light reflections to form images.
The portraits reflected onto the main arch of the Rolex Learning Center are those of Alan Turing, Rachel Carson, Marie Curie, and Eileen Gray.
Created by Rayform, a Swiss company started by graduates of EPFL, the technology used to create the bat-signal-like crown of MB&F's HM3 Frog X.
The title of the work is a play on the latin word for sun, sol, the abbreviation of identification, ID, and the fact that the mirror-like surfaces are crafted from solid blocks of metal.
Patek Philippe's Thierry Stern on watch complications:
At Patek, we are really very careful about the size of the watch, the beauty of the movement, the accuracy, and how to use it. It has to be simple for you, and all these movements today, you have no risk, for example, to break them. Because very often I have seen that there are amazing movements, but if you're doing one wrong setting, the whole movement will collapse in one sense. And this is something I don't want to see with Patek.
We are still always leading for new ideas or useful ideas. They're not gimmicks; they're useful movements with useful indications. At Patek, we are not willing to play really with gadgets or gimmicks, as I say… The date is not a gimmick. It's something that you need. It's something that is very useful.
From an interview with Kristen Shirley, reporting for Forbes.
