Monday, July 21, 2014

Cost of Knowing the Time






Knowing the time can come at a price, but not for Crocodile Dundee who looks at the sun and tells the time for absolutely nothing. By this means he can do it accurately to within a second of Australian Eastern Standard Time. Of course, he lives with crocs in the mangrove swamps of Oz where the sun shines all the time. I live in the concrete jungle of Essex where the sun occasionally shines, but even I can tell the time for next to nothing by looking at my Lorus Sports V 501-X22 wristwatch. This quartz cheapie cost only a few pounds, ten or so years ago, and a packet of LR 626 batteries I bought eighteen months ago cost a few pence. They will keep the watch going for the next 40 years! Even now, twenty LR 626 batteries can be had at Amazon UK for just £1.47.

Not so long ago I was at Lakeside where there are a number of shops selling wristwatches, and I was astonished to see that a Breitling watch can set you back £9,500. No doubt, part of the cost is for paying David Beckham to pose for photos of him wearing their watches. TAGHeuer watches are cheaper, in the region of £6,000. Presumably Leonardo DiCaprio, whom the latter use on their advertising material, is cheaper to hire than Beckham.

Of course, most people today can know the time accurately by consulting their mobile phones at no extra cost.

Links

Brietling Watches


TAGHeuer Watches


Time Stops


Leonardo DiCaprio


Leonardo DiCaprio - Official Site


David Beckham – Official Site


David Beckham


‘Crocodile Dundee’


How Quartz Watches Work


Australian Standard Time


Watch Batteries at Amazon

2 comments:

Phil said...

Hi Bill,

My brother has a small collection of expensive watches, that is his vice, I remember he showed one to me which was describe as either a divers watch or a submariners watch and came with an Aligator skin wrist band.. What really made me smile was that it came with instructions not to let the strap get wet :)

Mark The Skint Sailor said...

Bill, I wear a Casio watch that my daughter bought me for my birthday a few years ago. I know it cost £35, but it is solar powered so it will be quite a while before it needs the battery changing. It has many complicated functions, but the most valuable is the ability to show the state of the tide at any given time. Its a handy reference, but as you say mobile phones tell the time and much more. My phone has a tide prediction app, a navigation app with proper digital charts updated regularly, Sailing Almanac which gives me weather and navigation updates and even loads the latest information onto Facebook for me to see when I'm at home. I can also use my phone to take pictures and video to document my sailing.
All for a lot less than £9,500.