Watches of the Gods, pt. 2

Beautiful High-End Moonphase Watch - Cory Doctorow @ BoingBoing

It seems that the newly-minted father and I share the same love of watches. Time pieces like this one usually fetch a starting price of ten to fifteen grand, but with a moonphase I would expect a cost more of around thirty to forty grand. And if this watch went to auction it might top two hundred thousand dollars. People are naturally freaked out by these astronomical prices but what they fail to see is the artistry and craftsmanship that it takes to create a masterpiece like this. The maker of this watch probably took a year or more to create it and for most of the high-end watch manufacturers this is typically the case. They may produce thirty to forty watches a year, which makes the watches both very rare and very unique. Few, if any, of the parts are mass produced. The technical skills needed to create such a watch are also rare and growing so by the day as the old masters die off. Yet, strangely enough, mechanical and automatic watches are making great strides in places like Africa or Oceania as they require no battery to change and typically can run without malfunction for a decade or more.