From Tic-Toc to Hummmmmm

Suppose it was the Vase of Nitron Lamp vase?

I had to Google that but I got a lot of hits that weren't very enlightening.

I sort of guessed that part but not to the full extent. Sometimes I don't do subtle very well. I will endeavour to improve on this.And, BTW, a Ming the Merciless vase is just plain ug-ug-ugly. Keep the hammer.

The wrist watch first gained acceptance during WWI. Its small size and utility made it popular with the soldiers. But when it came to precision and coordinated time the pocket watch was still king right up until 1960.In 1960 Bulova introduced the first electronic wrist watch as well as the first one accurate enough and with the capability of being set precisely to be accepted for use by the railroads. NASA too was interested in a reliable timing device with the same characteristics.The Bulova Accutron mechanism was based on a battery driven tuning fork that vibrated a 360 times per second and a 'hacking' mechanism that stopped the second hand while the watch was set. That allowed many watches to be precisely set for coordinated timing. The tuning fork also assured an accuracy of only a 2 second a day error or one minute a month. That was far more accurate than the mechanical or automatic watches of the period.In addition, the watch had fewer parts and only about a dozen total moving parts.Here is a picture of one of the Bulova Accutron watches. It is the Spaceview model and initially was not meant to be sold but just a demonstrator however there was so much demand that Bulova started producing them in quantity and even kits that allowed jewelry stores to convert a non-Spaceview model. At the top you can see the electromagnets that controlled the tuning fork.And the Hummmmmmmm? Well, instead of the tic-tock of a conventional watch, the Accutron has a high pitch hum if you hold it to your ear.Edited by jar, : appalin spallinEdited by jar, : get possesive

Its not from before the quartz crystal days, but I thought it was pretty cool:

One of the watches that got stolen from me was an old striking pocket watch. It was a conventional pocket watch but had a lever on the side to strike the time; a ding for the hour and then ding-ding for quarter hours.

Reminds me of staying over at Mom's house and having that goddamned grandfather clock bonging throughout the house in the morning... every. 15. minutes.

Except in this case it was on demand, for the blind.

I do have a couple quartz watches; a couple Bulovas and one watch that was sold by Orvis that I need to take some pictures of.The Bulova Millenia was from 1982 and is a pretty conventional date dress watch. Then around 2005 or so I added another Bulova, one of the Accutron Telluride watches.