Posts Tagged ‘Century’
Swatch Automates Movement Assembly, Pushing Watchmaking Into The Third Quarter Of The 20th Century
Author: JohnnyBells
While I kid a bit in the headline, this is actually pretty cool: Swatch, the largest manufacturer of mechanical watch movements in the world, has created a movement that is assembled entirely using automated systems. Why is this important? The watch industry was originally gutted by the rise of cheap quartz watches, making this piece quite ironic, and this means that more people will be able to own higher quality mechanical watches from a trusted brand.
The movement, called the Sistem51, is made of 51 simple parts and has a weight that winds the mainspring. It is made of a copper, nickel and zinc alloy called ARCAP and is anti-magnetic. It’s completely sealed inside the case (making it impossible to service) but a fact that ensures it can stay out of moisture and dust. Another cool thing? Quoth Hodinkee, who got a hands on, “instead of a regulator the special escapement is set by a laser during production and never needs to be touched again.”
Sure, the Sistem51 is basically a plastic watch that costs a little over $ 100 and will be sold at airports around the world. However, it is an impressive step forward for the company at a time when mechanical watches are making a resurgence. Swatch has been making mechanicals for a while, to be clear, but this is the first time they’ve reduced the price, manufacturing cost, and maintained quality in this way. While it’s easy to get much cheaper movements online (a tourbillon for $ 24, anyone?) it’s far harder to find a solid, high quality mechanical movement from a trusted brand.
It’s great to see some affordable watches come out of Basel this year and this is definitely step forward in terms of nanomechanics.
Related Posts:
Tags: 
This is the Modem World: Why are printers stuck in the 20th century?
Author: Alexander McQueen
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to checking out the culture of consumer modern technology.
There was a time– early in my computing profession– that your typical printer can output much better results than any display could. In the days prior to WYSIWYG word processors, we would guess just what the printed item may look like and then let an Okidata monstrosity scream out unsightly 5 x 7 dot matrix results.
When it worked, it worked well, and we were delighted that our 16KB devices could possibly make something genuine. A continual ream of paper was fed into the printer and we ‘d gladly tear the perforated pages apart like birthday presents from the digital deities.
Continue reading This is the Modem World: Why are printers stuck in the 20th century?
Filed under: Pcs, Peripherals, SoftwareThis is the Modem World:
Why are printers stuck in the 20th century? initially appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink|| E-mail this|OpinionsIncoming search terms:
Related Posts:
MacKenzie & Marr Bring Guitar-making Into The 21st Century
Author: Jon Mitchell
Guitar-making is a noble and gorgeous art and it ’ s high time luthiers started considering the web. MacKenzie & Marr is a little business in Quebec that creates and hand makes pretty low-cost however remarkably handsome guitars. While they do outsource much of the production to China, there is not a single robot involved in the structure of their cedar-top git-fiddles and guitar players can easily buy their handsome axes with a couple of button-clicks.
Why did the boys go online? “ The popular music company is the worst circulation channel conceivable. Factory to brand name to warehouse to numerous distributors to companies. High end guitars are tend to in small retail stores, ” stated John Marr, co-founder. This enables them to cut 60 % off of the rate of hand-crafted guitars.
As an ecommerce play, instruments are a relatively benighted market. They ’ re particular niche, so, like fine wristwatches and pens, there ’ s some tendency to focus on authorized dealerships and networks. By eschewing this, the team conserves a great deal of trouble and money.
“ I was seeking a product that might be offered on the internet. had to be pricey (not thinking about selling 25 cent widgets) needed to evoke passion (word of mouth) and one day Jonathan asked if I had actually played any sort of Chinese guitars. I stated ‘ Yes, total rubbish, ’ ” said Marr.
“ Jon responded that I required to go attempt one of the newer strong wood ones. I did and they were great and we knew ways to make the much better. Voila! The product I was looking for! ” he stated.
Marr went on to spend a week working in China in order to far better understand the procedure. He stated the shortage of contract makers and cost prevented him from creating guitars with the same quality in Canada.
“ Everyone stated no musician would certainly get a guitar over the Net. We knew they would certainly. ”
And they did. The company sold out of their first run relatively quickly after appearing on Canada ’ s Dragon ’ s Den, which is a type of Shark Tank for the Great White North. You can certainly select up Fenders and Martins at various online shops but this is the very first factory-direct sales design I ’ ve seen in the guitar world.
They ’ re not fairly prepared to deliver custom work simply yet, however inlays might be on the horizon. “ For many producers the volumes we produce would certainly be laughable so even a huge manufacturing run by our requirements is custom work for someone like Martin, ” he said. The guitars begin at about $ 1,000, but some “ less than right ” designs can be had for $ 600.
Jon MacKenzie and Marr satisfied in elementary school and have been good friends for over fifty years. Marr plays blues fingerpicking and Jon likes people and Celtic. Marr explains himself as a genuine hack, however he knows just how to build a mean axe.
Related Posts:
Cycle A Century Training Program
Author: Alexander McQueen
Cycle A Century Training Program
Cycling 100 Miles Is Not An Easy Task. This Program Is A Complete Training Program Designed To Give You Everything You Need To Successfully Cycle A Century!
Cycle A Century Training Program
Incoming search terms:
- powered by SMF new york regional planning
- Powered by Article Dashboard customer support call center
- Powered by Article Dashboard cycle
- powered by SMF call center customer support services
- powered by SMF call center training
- powered by SMF call center customer support service
Related Posts:
Apple iPad 2 vs. Motorola Xoom: Tablet Battle of the Century!
Author: Tiffany Shoman
The tablet wars have begun! In this video I do an in-depth comparison between the Apple iPad 2, and the Motorola Xoom. These are two of the best tablets on the market and have a lot to offer, but there can only be one winner! Leave your thoughts down below, and make sure to subscribe! For everyone doubting the PowerVR SGX543 beats Tegra 2: www.anandtech.com Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com
Related Posts:
Anger Management For The Twenty First Century Ebook
Author: Jamie Colby
Anger Management For The Twenty First Century Ebook
Anger Management For The Twenty First Century Is A Hands On Workbook That Makes You More Aware Of Your Behavior And Options, So You Can Defuse Situations That Would Otherwise Quickly Escalate And Turn Ugly, Often With Tragic Results.
Anger Management For The Twenty First Century Ebook
Related Posts:
Robot Orguss Styrofoam Toy Plane with display box, Transcendental Century
Author:
Fanuc Robotics A05B-2301 C301 Teach Pendant Used RJ, RJ2, RJ3 Nice Overlay
 | $631.00 (14 Bids) End Date: Friday May-24-2013 5:58:03 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
NEW VEX Robotics Design System Transmitter and Receiver Kit - with torn box.
 | $39.99 End Date: Sunday Jun-2-2013 5:38:52 PDT Buy It Now for only: $39.99 Buy It Now | Add to watch list |
WIRELESS RC SPIDER ROBOT #18144 ACADEMY SCIENCE MODEL KIT w/IR REMOTE CONTROLLER
 | $47.00 End Date: Friday May-24-2013 14:41:20 PDT Buy It Now for only: $47.00 Buy It Now | Add to watch list |
Related Posts:
Girl Scout merit badges get a 21st century facelift, focus on science and technology
Author: Trixi Anderson
Think only Boy Scouts can earn badges in bad-ass activities like robotics and video games (whatever happened to wood carving and fire building)? Well you are wrong sir (or ma’am). The Girl Scouts of America are giving their merit badges a 21st century makeover, adding high-tech accomplishments like Computer Expert and Digital Movie Maker, as well as more esoteric points of pride like Locavore. Even old standbys are being reinvented for the modern age like the Fashion, Fitness and Makeup badge, which is now known as the Science of Style and focuses on how things like sunscreen work and making your own perfume. The update sounds like the sort of thing that strong, tech-savvy women like Lady Ada might approve of and we’re all for it, why should the Boy Scouts be the only ones to learn about nuclear fusion? Just make sure our Thin Mints still arrive on time… seriously, we’re starting to go through withdrawal over here!
Girl Scout merit badges get a 21st century facelift, focus on science and technology originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 07:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
Yahoo! News | 
All Things Considered | Email this | Comments
Related Posts:
Teamlab’s hangers use RFID to take shopping into the 21st century (video)
Author: Heather Brown
Ever heard of an UltraTechnologist before? Yeah, neither have we, but a group of those imaginatively monikered folks have banded their engineering and design skills together to update the shopping experience. Issued from their Teamlab art collective, a batch of RFID-embedded hangers were put to the interactive test at Vanquish, a men’s store in Japan’s uber fashionable Shibuya district. So, how do these newfangled clothes hangers work? Garments lifted off the rack by a curious customer send a signal to a nearby screen that’ll display a front and back preview of the selected outfit — fitted to an impossibly chiseled model’s body, of course. The Teamlab hangers can also be used to manipulate a shop’s booming soundtrack and lighting, although we imagine that could get quite messy. So, if you count yourself amongst the claustrophobes that can’t handle those encroaching dressing room walls or if you simply take your style cues from photoshopped images of perfection then, hey — this tech’s for you.
Continue reading Teamlab’s hangers use RFID to take shopping into the 21st century (video)
Teamlab’s hangers use RFID to take shopping into the 21st century (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink TechCrunch | Japan Trends, Teamlab | Email this | Comments
Related Posts:
Scent generator threatens to waft Odorama into the 21st century
Author: Tech Blogger
Finally, an invention John Waters can get behind. When the harbinger of filth brought the odiferous experience to screenings of Polyester, he took the scratch-and-sniff route — including scents like glue and feces — now a team of researchers at the University of California in San Diego are expanding on the smell-what-you-see concept, albeit in a much more high-tech fashion. In collaboration with the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the team has developed a method for generating odors that could pack the appropriate hardware into a device “small enough to fit on the back of your TV.” Basically, scents are produced by an aqueous solution, like ammonia, which is heated by a thin metal wire, and eventually expelled, as an odorous gas, from a small hole in its silicone elastomer housing — and, bam! You’ve got Smell-O-Vision. The team has tested its method using perfumes by Jennifer Lopez and Elizabeth Taylor, but have yet to create a working prototype. For the sake of innocent noses everywhere, let’s hope Mr. Waters doesn’t get a whiff of this.
Scent generator threatens to waft Odorama into the 21st century originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jun 2011 06:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink cnet | UCSD | Email this | Comments
