[Leica] Forbes article on mechanical wristwatches

[Robert Appleby <robert.appleby@tin.it>]

>>>>>
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 13:51:46 -0400
From: Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Leica] Forbes article on mechanical wristwatches
Message-ID: <B5E7D9F2.7001%howard.390@osu.edu>
References: 

Bmceowen@aol.com jotted down the following:

> Boy, let me just say I disagree. I expect only one thing from a watch -- to
> be able to look at it and know what time it is. Any watch that fails to
> perform this basic task is a piece of junk -- no matter what it costs . . .

Time is a social construct.  You *cannot* buy a watch which tells what the
time is, since the current time is essentially arbitrary.  There is nothing
to say that the time my mechanical Swatch shows is any more or less accurate
in absolute terms than the most expensive atomic clock on the planet.
Consequently, certainly every watch fails that basic task and is therefore,
by your definition, a piece of junk.

Absolute statements are meaningless in a relative world.

M.
<<<<<<

Actually Martin, at the risk of sounding pseudo sophisticated or whatever,
social constructs _are_ absolute truths. The meter at Geneva, or wherever
it is, is not an approximation to a meter, it defines the meter - by now
it's superceded, of course, but still. And similarly, the time told by the
official clock at greenwich _is_ the correct time. (Again, my factual
detail may be out). Check Wittgenstein et al. on language games and private
languages. A clock which is very accurately synchronised to the official
clock is indeed telling the actual time.
As the big W said, justifications come to an end somewhere. Where? in
conventions and the rules of the game. In this case, the atomic clock which
tells us - because we , the social whole, have decided to give it that
function - what the real time is.
Of course, the absolute truth may be a cultural variable.
This is one argument I don't need to review! Or do I?
Rob.

Robert Appleby
V. Bellentani 36
41100 MO
Italy
tel. (+39) 059 303436
mob. (+39) 0348 336 7990