The Secret Life of the Watch - Remastered
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ค. 2021
- I've been in my workshop making things ever since, and the covid lockdown was the perfect time to make some new videos, trying to pass on some of what I've learnt. So if you're interested do try my new 'Secret Life of Components'
These old films were remastered and upscaled by Norman Margolus from a 1987 PAL tape made directly from the 16mm print, using machine learning software from Topaz labs. Commentary added in Feb 2021.
View all 18 episodes of the series and read about their background on my website:
www.timhunkin.com/a243_Secret...
The videos are also here @ / timhunkin1 - บันเทิง
The spirit of curiosity embodied in an all-too-shortly-lived series.
But luckily I have always been able to watch them over and over and over again. The gifts that keep on giving!
It lives forever in our memory
Yup
This series is proof that great content doesn't need high dollar special effects.
Interesting fact about the Bulova Accutron: the clocks used in the cockpit avionics of the Apollo Lunar Modules were run using Accutron tuning fork movements, because in the mid 60s NASA did not yet have enough test data on how well quartz solid state movements would work in the space environment. The astronauts were issued Omega Speedmaster mechanical wrist watches (still made today, and expensive!), which they wore in hard vacuum velcro'd to the outside of their space suits, but on the Eagle one of the Accutron cockpit clocks failed, so Armstrong tied his Omega watch to the instrument panel as a backup and didn't wear it outside. Aldrin wore his, and it's visible in photos.
Waterproof watch full of air to vacuum. Lens flies off.
@@jarikinnunen1718 What watch are you talking about?
@@RCAvhstape About pressure differences in any watches. Lenses are just pressed in.
Aldrins Speedmaster was sent to the Smithsonian by post and never made it there. Still missing.
Hi Tim, from America. Your TSLOM series was a total revelation to me as a kid when I found it late one night in the mid-90s watching TLC on a neighbor's TV who had cable (way back when the word "learning" in that channel's acronym actually meant something). The demonstration with phosphor powders glowing under UV to make white light in fluorescent lamps, the homemade magnetic audio tape, the recreation of Hertz's detection of radio waves by spark gap, the 19th century fax machine, the "you breaka my plates I breaka you face!", all of it was fantastic. Your incredible ingenuity and ability to convey difficult scientific concepts in a way anyone could understand was and IS superb. Today I am engineer on the world's most powerful laser-driven experimental inertial confinement nuclear fusion reactor. There is no doubt that your classic series will live on for decades to come on the internet inspiring countless other curious young minds all over the world. Thanks for all that you do, and so glad to see you're still at it!!
I share an experience with TSLOM very similar to you. I feel exactly the same, along with Tim and Rex's explanation of the topic at hand, I love the funny anecdotes, getting into the history of the technology and breaking down of the concepts is superb. Tim and Rex are some of my biggest childhood heros.
1:36 Rex Garrod, there. Rocking the Sledgehammer and slip-ons look. What a dude!
That LCD demonstration was excellent. Thanks.
Now we coming out of lockdown I am going to visit Tim Hunkin,s Under The Pier Show at Southwold Pier been waiting for ages
There's a great shot of Tim's workshop at 7:07, the same one where his most recent Secret Life of Components series was filmed. It's amazing how little it's changed in 30 years.
To the point of him having the same carpet hung on his wall. I half expect him to have the same jacket and jumper on.
If you had a workplace whose window opened onto the Suffolk coast you’d likely never move too!
The yellow topped pillar drill is a reoccuring presence.
My observations exactly!
Would love to have heard the story about the oven popping open at the end. I thought it was a prank, but the background voices suggest it was genuinely unexpected.
I get the feeling they left a watch in it and the battery exploded! Maybe a prank on Tim.
Glad these got remastered, I enjoyed them back in the days.
I've owned about 80 Accutrons. Had about 50 stolen. Fascinating things. FANTASTIC styling....
And the hummmmmmmm gives them a REAL heart.
The one on the Moon will need a battery change by now....🙂
The playfulness of Tim and the avoidance of editing out goofs really endear this series to me. Thank you so much for remastering these treasures. May you continue to make more videos Tim.
Every "whoops!" in the series is precious.
Thanks for remastering these Tim.
They were great the first time around, and now they are even better.
A superb episode and Rex's story was a nice added extra. Great to see an old RS battery too.
Hi Tim! With regard to Lord Huntington's comment about "I don't know how they ran the railroads in America", the answer is your Waltham pocketwatch. Your watch is a grade 645, manufactured in 1913, 21 jewels and adjusted to 5 positions. These features in combination with it being lever set rather than stem set make it a railroad grade watch. If you inspect the inside of the case back for scrawled markings, you may even uncover the railroad inspector's markings - all railroad watches were tested and inspected periodically. If your watch was used on the railroads, you're likely to find several of these markings scratched into the case back. One word of caution - finger oils cause lots of damage to watch movements so avoid touching the movement when you have the case back off. Great video! Glad to see these lovely episodes again. EDIT - if you ever need parts for it, drop me a line! Also, that Hamilton Ventura Electric you manhandled in the episode is now worth about $2000!
Cool info, thanks!
Well said.
I used to live in Waltham, and the old factory buildings are still there. It's fun to imagine that Waltham used to be a center of high-tech manufacturing back in the 1840s. Of course, nowadays those old factory buildings are occupied by software startups, so in a way they've come full circle.
One of my favourite episodes as a kid. My brother and I wore out the VHS our dad had recorded off the telly!
Same here. I watched this episode countless times as a child. I was completely entranced by the breadboard large scale 7 segment display they made. I credit this episode for making me the monster I am today. Great trip down memory lane.
Tim, it's funny you mention the decline of the wristwatch with the advent of the mobile phone- despite having a smart phone in my pocket, I still wear my 1986 Casio LCD because it only has one job. It doesn't tell me I have an email, it doesn't tell me the weather, it just tells the time and it's supremely good at doing so. I still catch myself looking at my wrist when I'm not wearing it, too.
But, times have changed. My kids refuse to wear a watch (something about uncool) but I still enjoy having clocks around the place. I've even found that they can be quite relaxing to repair.
Thanks for posting the SLoM series up again, brings back a lot of memories.
@@cmmartti No doubt, but they still suffer from the expense of complication. I would much rather suffer having to replace a five dollar watch when it inevitably becomes mysteriously broken...
I had those casios back in the day but stopped wearing one for awhile. I now wear a fit bit to track my average heart rate onto my phone.
Some of the best content on TH-cam.
Tim, thank you, for your whole life's work thus far.
You and Rex were a great inspiration to me 30 years ago, staying up late and watching your show on the Science channel here in the States, back in the early 90s. I had just hit my teens then and was sure I wanted to go into theoretical physics, but I was really interested in all sciences and technology in general and your show was a breath of fresh air when everything on the news was about the Gulf War. You and Mystery Science Theater 3000 were about the only things I could count on to keep my mind off of war and politics when I needed it to be.
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
I was given a Timex day date clockwork watch in 1974 for my 16th birthday. It was accurate all winter, some months I was adjusting to correct the date. In the summer it lost 1 minute a month, and in the hottest month it lost 2 minutes a month, It eventually stopped working after 30 years, covered in dents and scratches as I had knocked it about.
In the meantime, I also bought myself a Commodore LCD watch, which the display faded to nothing in 5 years. So I returned to my Timex, because it was so reliable, and so I had grown to appreciate it. Timex watches had a reputation for being robust, cheap, but I had not appreciated how accurate they were as well.
"Uno, Due, Tre... Uno, Due, Tre... Uno, Due, Tre..."
My fascination with how things work and engineering on the whole can be traced to watching this show in my infancy. The theme tune, the intense detail on the evolution of technology, and even your delightful animations (especially in this episode really speaking to my Italian heritage) brought memories of loving this episode in particular back to me. I begged my parents to VHS record the whole run, but regularly wanted to rewatch THIS one the most. No surprise I grew into a musically-inclined electrical engineer, I suppose.
What an absolutely delightful trip down memory lane. Thankyou so much for helping preserve what I still consider a pivotal cog in my fascination with technology. ❤
I’m absolutely chuffed that this channel suddenly popped up in my TH-cam Home Screen, it’s now a must watch (pun intended!)
It never grows old enjoying the company of an English eccentric
I just wanted to say that it was partly because of my dad showing me this series as a kid that I ended up working in science/engineering. My little boy (4 yrs.) now watches this to keep the cycle going! :-)
This is one of those all time classic series I remember when I was younger. It's in a special honoured place, along with "Arthur C. Clarkes Mysterious World"
Great video, amazing how much of it I had forgotten. 33 years later and half a lifetime of amateur horology makes it even more watchable. I even have a tuning-fork clock.
Tim, you are a national treasure!!!
I think that the show The Secret Life of Machines should be out on Blu-ray or digital download or DVD
I still remember when this show aired on British TV.
Great series of programs. Its a great shame they don't make TV like this any more, I would start watching TV again if they did.
There are interesting documentaries on the usual channels, but nothing as gentle and relaxing as this. It's a shame.
"Take 5" in 4/4 for the credits music. Nice touch!
Take 4 :)
The next thing after quartz crystals has been MEMS silicon oscillator replacements. The emergence of MEMS replacements for quartz put my previous employer damn near out of business. I don’t know if MEMS have made it to the watch market yet, we were in higher end stuff.
These were fun to watch, and still are. good times.
A great series that will always be with me as a professional mechanical engineer. I remember watching these as an inspired youth in my formative years and take enormous pleasure viewing them again, particularly fitting with my self repaired Gledhill brook stoically ticking away in the living room. Thank you for keeping these alive and very absorbing components videos.
21:50 Nice demonstration. This is exactly why the RTC (real time clock) chips contain not only a divider to divide the crystal frequency into seconds, but also temperature compensation.
I find that Rotary sales lady totally hypnotic. I wish she had a TH-cam channel
@23.28 is Entertainment! great story thanks
Tim & rex....thank you so much. You had so much influence on me at such a young age it helped form my career
Looks like SOMEone's having a HOT time in the old town tonight!
So awesome seeing these again, when they were on television in the US we used to watch them every week. But HEY! They cut off the smiley graphic from the end!
I like these guys! Very good commentary! It's appreciated!
Very high quality. Proves you don't need all that music to compete with your content! Excellent!
Bill, from Tn. 🇺🇸
thanks for uploading these. im not old enough to have watched these the first time around however they are absolutely amazing.
Love that the ending music is Dave Brubeck “Take 5!”
The first digital watch I ever saw was in the mid 70s. A classmate wore one to school. However the Southern California sun was often too bright we would have to huddle together to create enough shade to keep the little red numbers from being washed out.
I've always had a fascination with mechanical things, clocks and watches, not always with good outcomes. When I was about 14 (55 yrs ago) I had an Omega Seamaster watch given to me as a present. Of course I couldn't resist taking the back off, removing the balance wheel, a few more bits and so on. I was fully confident I could reassemble it, but.......No.
Today it would be worth a good bit too.
These videos are amazing. Wish there were more shows like this.
In 1989 I paid $120 for a good quartz watch (Seiko 5H23-8A09). So far it has needed only one major service procedure.
32 years on, it is still a reliable timekeeper.
I also collect old pocket watches, mostly American.
The best of the 70 or so I have is a 16 size 23J Waltham Riverside Maximus in beautiful condition. It also keeps good time.
This show helped make me who I am (an electronics technician). Thank you!
This series should be shown in schools....
I'm diggin' the reggae Take Five outtro music as much as the video itself--thanks for the awesome upload :)
Superb episode: The most succint digital watch documentary ever! Thank you for taking the time to add the end talk and uploading.
I loved this series when it was on tv! Glad I found it, here! When my son, who's 37 now, was small, we watched all these episodes!
Love ya Tim......I miss Rex too....
Another great remaster Tim! Thanks so much! I’ve been thinking that you having done this allows us to step back in time to when we first saw these shows, but with the great advantage of hearing your memories and current thoughts on them! I’m with some of the other guys, it would be great to hear the story on the exploding cooker!
love the new Secret Life of Components videos too.
What a _timely_ video. I am glad I decided to _watch_ it...😊
I like rex story about cheap watch, I actually refilled non refillable lighters on many occasions, gas everywhere and frozen fingers but it worked 😁
Even now, the best accuracy you can get from a mechanical watch is 2s/day! On the other side of the spectrum, I have a grandmaster clock here which is connected to a cascade of Ethernet switches and seeing time accuracy between the GM and the witches of sub 1ns to the first switch....5G calls for getting close to 5ns.
I'd love to see the series remastered from the 16mm stock. I've always loved and enjoyed it.
Another of my favorite episodes, as I am always wearing a watch. I recall about 1977 I was give one of the early LED watches. The battery only lasted about four months and a new one was around $5. Not inexpensive at the time. Now I usually wear mechanical watches or Seiko dive watches. Great series, thanks for posting this up.
These are soo good. Thanks
Electro-mechanical analogue and digital clock in Preston Bus station, Iconic.. The tuning fork watch wonderful. must have missed this the first time round. Fixing things that were never meant to be repaired, like my indesit washing machine with ultrasonically welded drum casing. took hours to hacksaw the seam to replace the bearings., sadly about a year after that a triac blew , was replaced but not a fix. Just bought a 60KHz MSF radio clock receiver from Universal solder down under, intermittent reception . but for under £10 its 1s in ? years. This is possibly more interesting now than it was when made, LCD technology hasnt changed markidly, superb demo. And an Epilog, Golden, and you bought an Accutron, can you feel any harmonics of the mechanism. . making any clocks now, ? Just bent some 1" tube today for a clock frame to hold a lead / type metal bi-linear bob I had cast in Keighley 15 years ago.
Brilliant episode. Tim And Rex are great
20:55 That's a POP Swatch pocket watch! Yes, Swatch made pocket watches; I'm looking at the one I have right now. It has a different face and hands and isn't transparent like that one is but I've had it for years, I just put a new battery in it every couple of years or so and keep it set and it just keeps running.
The watch itself snaps into a clear plastic frame that has the attachment point for the watch chain; mine is metal and gold-colored.
I absolutely love watching Tim explain things. I know its wrong but I never get tired of him pronouncing Aluminum, it makes me chuckle every time even though I know he is pronouncing it correctly.
I recently took apart a cheap wall clock that was being thrown away at work and was blown away by the ingenious simplicity of the lavet type stepper motor that drives clocks, and this video captures perfectly that joy of taking something that seems mundane and revealing the beauty behind it!
Damn, I was hoping you would tell the story of why the oven blew open at the end. I have been wondering about that for nearly 30 years
it looks like they put the watch back in on a not so low heat and i guess the battery exploded
Brilliant, Thank you for sharing!
I love my collection of watches, they all have a slight novelty to them. I've got a TV/VCR/DVD remote watch with calculator, An LED watch that slowly builds up the time segmemt by segment when you press the button and a Thomas the tank engine watch that plays the theme tune on the hour. Plus about 30 more. I used to have a cigarette lighter one, but the gasket went and it burnt all the hairs off my arm. LOL.
Just as informative as the first time.
This series of the "secret life" really made me think about machines when I was younger.
I learned how , why and how to , and to this day I look at machines as uncomplicated bits of everyday gumph.
I have some nice old electronic watches (collected mostly as Christmas presents) but my nicest collectibles are Victorian and Edwardian pocket watches , especially those with window backs....fascinating to watch those miniature movements.
Bring back "the secret life" to the masses again I say...let a new generation make new machines while explaining the principles of how we got here today.
2:12 "my campus is hardly dampus" XDDD
Thank you endlessly for this.
I've been looking forward to watching this all day!
Great work. 🔨🔧🔩
Thanks so much for sharing. 😎👌🏼
I remember watching this incredible series when I was a child in the late 1970's I really loved it, it was and still is both Very Entertaining and Educational, it's actually wonderful now to see this again in its Remastered format brilliant,
Amazing Series Congratulations on your Great intelligence Curiosity and teaching in this Series ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🎬 thank you for then and Now.
Super cool! Thanks for remastering these gems! :D
Excellent. Looking forward to the next installment Sir :)
Thank you for these videos.
Love all the work, Many Thanks Tim!
Really enjoyed this. Thanks.
Thank you so much, Tim! 👍
Hooray another remaster
Absolutely loved your shows back in the 80's. Thank you for posting them so I can enjoy them all over again. So interesting, funny and educational 😀❤xx
I always loved these shows! :) So nice to see them again along with your commentary at the end :)
It is such a treat to see this series re-mastered I have some really bad copies downed many years ago, thank you.
Great video!
Brilliant video 👍 thanks
Many thanks for such video
when Tim says, "whoops", run.
This show was on when we first got cable at our house. I loved it.
These are superb. I loved the LCD demonstration! Thanks for bringing these back.
Absolutely wonderful Tim and Rex
I grew up when all of this innovative technology came about
Nowadays I have a smart watch, which connects to my smart phone.
The changes my generation has seen is really staggering
I first saw this show when TLC first came out, along with the Connections series. It's a shame TLC turned into absolute rubbish. I have to thank this show for introducing me to take 5, anytime I listen to the song I am reminded by the animation of this show. Really a group of talented people.
Knowledge is the God of all humanity.
How intresting today I'm 65 and loved your series every year I was waiting for a new series till now remastered great, thanks Tim for being so intresting and shearing ps loved the felixtow clock but was never looked after shame xx
Really a great series for its time.
Lovely video, I really enjoyed this!
I loved the original series; and when I saw the re-mastered versions I was delighted.
Rex's story about fixing a watch. Poor guy, great person. (:
Another awesome job Tim. I’m so glad I found your channel thank you sir. Maker 238
Thank you so much, as a watch lover this is my favourite episode, I watched it first time round on the telly!
I remember that sort of turn around when the mechanical watches were cheaper than the battery powered. If it wasn't quartz it was inferior. Ther are no afordable mechanical watches being made today. The mechanical watches they make today are outstanding and made of the highest quality imaginable and price to match.