1
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[Door opens, footsteps]

2
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[Jazzy music: 'The Russians Are Coming' - Val Bennett]

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[mechanism clicks]

4
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[clanging and whistling increasing in pitch]

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[clank] [gong clashes] 

6
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Tim: There's something very fascinating about time-keeping contraptions. 

7
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I've made quite a few myself. 

8
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But I have to say I have great trouble making them very reliable. 

9
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And when I actually need to know the time I look for the nearest quartz watch. 

10
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It's easy to forget just how clever these little things are

11
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particularly because you hardly ever need to do anything to them. 

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And they're so accurate they rarely need setting. 

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So in this programme, Rex and I are going to rescue them from obscurity

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and look at their history and how they work. 

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The earliest time-keeping device was simply a stick in the ground. 

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[thunk thunk]

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The ancient Egyptians measures the angles of the shows it cast 

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and the Greeks measured their length. 

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This may seem rather crude, but people didn't usually need to know the time very accurately. 

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It was usually quite good enough just to have some idea how much daylight was left. 

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And the stick does have the enormous advantage, like the quartz watch in fact, that it never needs setting.

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The Greeks and Romans also had water clocks,

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 but these were mostly just bowls with a hole in.

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Greek controller: Clock started!

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they were used as timers for rationing irrigation water. 

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[drip drip drip]
Man: Humming.

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Irrigation controller: That's it, time's up!

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Man: What?  My campus is hardly dampus!

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Tim: They were also used in the courts for timing the speeches. 
Speaker: Saepe numero, patres conscripti, in hoc ordine interfui...

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Tim: Unscrupulous senators are said to go to great lengths 

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to make their opponents thirsty to shorten the speeches. 

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Speaker: ...decreta postularentur...

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Speaker: Ahhh!

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Gracias de viago.

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[munches food] 

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...et in ordine, quiscue...

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[makes dry mouth noises]

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(gasps) Aqua!

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[drip drip drip drip] [slurrp]

40
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Ooh!

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[Medieval monks chanting]

42
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The first people to attach any importance to accurate time-keeping were the medieval monks. 

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They had up to 9 services a day, and it was considered vital to hold them at precisely regular intervals. 

44
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At first these intervals were set by water clocks,

45
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but at some point in the late 13th Century the first mechanical clocks appeared. 

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[Bell ringing]
Initially they didn't bother with dials, 

47
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[Bell continues]
the important part was the bell which summoned the brethren to prayer. 

48
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Our word, 'clock ' comes from the French 'cloche' meaning bell. 

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This particular clock is one of the oldest still working in a church, it's about 400 years old. 

50
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Although it obviously doesn't look at all like a quartz watch, 

51
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the principles on which it works are really remarkably similar. 

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If I take a quartz watch to bits...

53
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[quiet clicking and unscrewing noises]

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You can see there's basically 4 parts inside:

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The display,

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the battery,

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the silicon chip which is under this blob of plastic,

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and this little tin can which contains the actual quartz crystal. 

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It's actually a lot easier to understand how one of these things works

60
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by looking at the clock in a bit more detail first. 

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The display's obviously doing the same thing as the dial on the clock,

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and the battery powering the watch is doing the same thing as the weights in the clock tower.
[clunk clunk]

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But also the crystal is actually providing a regular beat,

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in very much the same way as the swings of the pendulum,

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And the silicon chip is controlling the whole thing just like the gearing.

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The heart of the gearing mechanism is the escapement, which interacts with the pendulum.

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[clunking of gearing]
It pushes the pendulum to keep it swinging, 

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at the same time the escapement is held back by the pendulum, regulating the clock's speed.

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[clunk clunk clunk clunk]

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[clank] [whirrrrrrr]

71
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[bell tolls] [whirring continues]

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[bell tolls] 

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[bell tolls] [clicking and whirring] 

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[clicking and whirring slows down before coming to a halt]

75
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The properties of the pendulum were discovered by Galileo in 1590.

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To mask the pong of the peasant congregation,

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Priest: ewww uh ugh!

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Priest: Censer pronto!

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the priests used a swinging censer to fill the church with incense.

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Galileo realised that the censer was taking exactly the same time

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to swing from side to side, however far out it went. 

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Man: Per meso?

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Galileo: U-no, do-eh, treh. U-no, do-eh, treh. 

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(louder) U-no, do-eh, treh. U-no, do-eh, treh. 

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Tim: He had trained as a doctor and used his pulse to time the swings.

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All: U-no, do-eh, treh.  U-no, do-eh, treh. 

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Tim: Galileo was in need of an accurate clock for some of his astronomy observations.

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So he simply set up a swinging weight in his observatory

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 and paid a man to count its swings all the time. 

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Gallileo: Ahhh..  Nastelis, stasteros.
Man: . z Z Z Z Z

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Man: . z Z Z Z Z
Gallileo: Meramelios! A belieze a belieze a...

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Gallileo: MAH! Coza fie!

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[Rex's footsteps]

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Tim: The solution to this problem was to fit the pendulum to a mechanical clock. 

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And this has remained the basis of clockwork ever since.

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[running water]

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This is the escapement wheel and pendulum

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of a water clock I'm building for Felixstowe town.

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Rex: The water acts like the weight on the church clock,

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pushing the escapement wheel round.

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The escapement interacts with the pendulum in the same way.

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[running water]

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No matter how far the pendulum swings,

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it always takes the same time.

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The only way to alter it, is to raise or lower the weight. 

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[running water]

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[Door rattles] [Tim's footsteps]

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Tim: It's not obvious how a lump of quartz could possibly

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do the same thing as a pendulum, but it really is quite similar. 

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The quartz does move.

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This is a bit of crystalline material, similar to quartz,

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sandwiched between two bits of metal.

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And if I connect this up...

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I think we should be able to see it move.

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[click click as current is connected and disconnected]

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The electricity is making the quartz distort.

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This was discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie in the 1880s and called the piezo-electric effect. 

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In the watch it's used to make the crystal vibrate.

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Here I've cut a crystal out of its tin can 

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and under a magnifying glass, I think

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you can see it's cut in the shape of a tiny tuning fork.

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It vibrates in exactly the same way as an actual tuning fork.
[clank]

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[tuning fork hums at 440Hz]

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These vibrations have a stable natural frequency,

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just like the swings of a pendulum.

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Though in the quartz crystal, the movement's much to fast and small to be visible. 

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The piezo-electric effect also works in reverse.

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So if I distort this cylinder of crystalline material,

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by squashing it, it actually creates some electricity.

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[creaky sparking]

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This is actually the crystal out of a piezo-electric gas lighter,

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and err, this is how these things work.

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This is also used in the watch.

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The battery powers the chip,

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and keeps the crystal vibrating.

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This vibration creates stable electrical pulses,

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which are fed back to the chip.

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Interacting in a similar way to the pendulum and escapement. 

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The chip then powers the display.

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Although this basic idea of a bit of vibrating quartz is really quite simple,

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it's only recently replaced clockwork,

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which had been continuously refined ever since its first monastic appearance in the 14th Century.

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This collection is in Bury St. Edmunds, and the curator is Lord Middleton.

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Tim: Well from the early church clocks, the clocks quickly

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became much more elaborate and more lavishly decorated.

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When did the first portable mechanical watches or clocks...

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Lord Middleton: Around about 1450. A Peter Henlein,  

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this is an example of one.

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You can see it's a fairly sizeable machine, not exactly portable,

150
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you'd have to have a very tough pocket to put it in.

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Tim: You obviously couldn't fit pendulums and a weight in a thing like that though, could you?

152
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Lord Middleton: No, you couldn't, no. Th-th-that really would be ridiculous.

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Erm, no, these were spring driven.

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This one here, for example, is a spring-driven clock.

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There is a false pendulum on it, if we set it ticking...

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in fact it's not really a pendulum, it's just a balance. 

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But the other thing about it, is how amazingly thick they are,

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springs inside the barrel here. 

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And they work reasonably well,

160
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but again, you'd have to check it every so often with a sundial.

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Hence the frequency of sundials in every church.

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I'm certain because of people needing to alter their watches. 

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Tim: Is the jewelled one, would that be a ladies' watch or would it...?

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Lord Middleton: No, I think it's big enough for a gentleman.

165
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I mean, ladies did wear watches like this,

166
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they used to wear them on a long chain around the neck.

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Tim: Watches like this were obviously very expensive. 

168
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and could only be bought by very rich people. 

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The first really cheap, mass produced, clocks and watches,

170
00:10:34,540 --> 00:10:37,793
started being made in America in the 1840s.

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Lord Middleton: The one over here which I like particularly because,

172
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it's rather splendid, it has a railway time keeper written all over it.

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It's a sure sign of really poor quality. 

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I don't know how American railways were run, but they rarely ran on time.

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But if they were run according watches like this, they'd never have gone anywhere.

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[factory whistle]
Tim: Not only could ordinary people start to afford a watch,

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with the coming of factories and railways, they actually needed one.

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Man: Always late, plenty of time to catch a train, but...

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00:11:04,571 --> 00:11:07,117
However watches were still set by sundials 
[train hoots] [train starts to move] 

180
00:11:07,118 --> 00:11:09,791
so the time was slightly different in every town.
[man pants and huffs]

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Man:  I know my watch is right, so why has the train gone?

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Railway man: The train left on time sir!
Man: Oh no no, it should have 5 minutes at least.

183
00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:20,110
Man: What's happenin?
Railway Man: Well you watch is on local time you see. 

184
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Railway man: We run on railway time 'ere. Train left when it should have done.
[Man growls]

185
00:11:24,695 --> 00:11:31,271
Woman: You! You let the train to go early!  Now get him Wolfie!
[Dog barks] [railway man yelps]

186
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The idea of the wrist-watch is surprisingly recent. 

187
00:11:37,265 --> 00:11:41,471
They first became popular among artillery officers during the first world war.

188
00:11:43,324 --> 00:11:47,730
It was a considerable technical feat to miniaturise all the parts to this extent.

189
00:11:48,424 --> 00:11:52,051
Mechanical wristwatches are among the most sophisticated mechanisms ever made.

190
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And have always been regarded as treasured possessions.
[girls singing]

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Girls: # For Auld lang syne, my dear,

192
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# for auld lang syne.

193
00:12:00,411 --> 00:12:03,283
# We'll take a cup o kindness... #

194
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Sally: I'm SO proud.  Oh just wait until the gang sees this!

195
00:12:09,322 --> 00:12:11,598
Sally: Hey kids! Come on and run in!

196
00:12:11,599 --> 00:12:14,528
Sally: Oh it's just perfectly perfect. 

197
00:12:14,529 --> 00:12:19,480
And so are you, both of you. Mom, and Dad.

198
00:12:19,481 --> 00:12:21,741
Dad: Well Sally, you're our big girl now.

199
00:12:21,742 --> 00:12:26,875
Dad: Mother and I wanted our present to tell you just how proud we are of you.

200
00:12:27,276 --> 00:12:34,284
Girls: Why, why what is it? 
[excited chatter] 

201
00:12:34,285 --> 00:12:39,110
Tim: Today it may seem obvious that electronics provides a simpler way to miniaturise the watch.

202
00:12:39,111 --> 00:12:46,542
But it wasn't until the '60s that all the parts became small enough to make the idea practical. 

203
00:12:46,543 --> 00:12:50,294
This is the first electric watch introduced by the 

204
00:12:50,295 --> 00:12:53,149
Hamilton watch company in America in 1956.

205
00:12:53,150 --> 00:12:56,458
Inside it doesn't really look very different 

206
00:12:56,459 --> 00:12:59,007
from an ordinary mechanical watch. 

207
00:12:59,008 --> 00:13:02,258
There's a little balance wheel, there's a tiny electromagnet

208
00:13:02,259 --> 00:13:04,603
on it which keeps it moving backwards and forwards. 

209
00:13:04,604 --> 00:13:08,138
The really remarkable thing was making a battery this small.

210
00:13:08,139 --> 00:13:11,171
Though most of the development work on this was done by the military.

211
00:13:11,172 --> 00:13:14,031
Mainly for use by spies and their radios.

212
00:13:15,405 --> 00:13:19,224
The next electric watch to appear was far more revolutionary.

213
00:13:19,225 --> 00:13:21,832
This is the Bulova Acutron, it's got

214
00:13:21,833 --> 00:13:24,836
two tiny electromagnets you can see here. 

215
00:13:24,837 --> 00:13:31,069
Speaking Clock: At the third stroke, it will be 4:37 and 50 seconds.

216
00:13:31,070 --> 00:13:34,297
[pip][pip][pip]

217
00:13:34,298 --> 00:13:36,270
Voiceover Man: The Bulova Accutron uses 

218
00:13:36,271 --> 00:13:38,440
a new electronic time keeping principle:

219
00:13:38,441 --> 00:13:44,961
A tuning fork.  Listen...
[364Hz hum of tuning fork]

220
00:13:45,062 --> 00:13:49,056
A tuning fork to give you accuracy to within a minute a month, guaranteed!

221
00:13:49,057 --> 00:13:51,280
Never bet against a Bulova Accutron,

222
00:13:51,281 --> 00:13:53,063
The most accurate watch you can buy.

223
00:13:53,464 --> 00:13:56,141
Tim: You can see this easier on this Bulova clock.

224
00:13:56,142 --> 00:14:00,139
Erm, if I pop a battery in i think you'll be able to see 

225
00:14:00,140 --> 00:14:03,661
the tuning fork here start to vibrate. 

226
00:14:03,662 --> 00:14:07,155
This really is an exact mechanical equivalent of the quartz watch.

227
00:14:10,366 --> 00:14:13,764
The idea of using quartz was nothing new.

228
00:14:13,799 --> 00:14:17,990
The first quartz clock had been developed as early as 1929,

229
00:14:17,991 --> 00:14:21,681
in the Prolific Bell labs that also invented the transistor in the '40s.

230
00:14:21,716 --> 00:14:28,626
But these quartz clocks, like this German one, use much larger bits of quartz.

231
00:14:28,627 --> 00:14:31,848
That's the quartz crystal at the bottom.  And rather bulky electronics.

232
00:14:34,328 --> 00:14:36,968
This is the, er, first true quartz watch. 

233
00:14:36,969 --> 00:14:40,503
Introduced in 1967 by the Japanese firm Seiko. 

234
00:14:41,003 --> 00:14:43,997
The Americans then regained the lead, and 

235
00:14:44,098 --> 00:14:48,273
the Hamilton watch company then introduced the pulsar.

236
00:14:48,274 --> 00:14:52,168
This is the first solid state watch with no moving parts.

237
00:14:52,169 --> 00:14:54,294
Woman: These are rotary watches:

238
00:14:54,295 --> 00:14:59,769
This one has a traditional Swiss movement and a very handsome face.

239
00:14:59,770 --> 00:15:03,586
This is a rotary quartz watch, devastatingly accurate.

240
00:15:03,587 --> 00:15:07,151
This is a quartz watch too, but it's like a little computer...

241
00:15:07,152 --> 00:15:09,851
You press this little button, and Look!

242
00:15:09,852 --> 00:15:11,200
First the time,

243
00:15:11,201 --> 00:15:12,604
then the day and date,

244
00:15:12,605 --> 00:15:14,349
and then the seconds.

245
00:15:14,350 --> 00:15:17,978
Very clever.  It'll look smashing on your wrist.

246
00:15:17,979 --> 00:15:20,985
Rotary every time.

247
00:15:20,986 --> 00:15:24,028
Tim: The bright red displays on the first digital watches

248
00:15:24,029 --> 00:15:27,404
used so much power, that they could only be switched on occasionally,

249
00:15:27,405 --> 00:15:29,509
when you actually needed to know the time.

250
00:15:29,710 --> 00:15:35,977
The first watch to um, have a liquid crystal display was, er, this one.

251
00:15:35,978 --> 00:15:39,406
This uses so little power that the display could be left running. 

252
00:15:39,407 --> 00:15:44,394
This doesn't work anymore, the early liquid crystals were rather unstable. 

253
00:15:44,395 --> 00:15:47,420
Today this problem's been solved and liquid crystals 

254
00:15:47,421 --> 00:15:50,185
been made to do some quite remarkable things. 

255
00:15:50,186 --> 00:15:53,103
Whole windows like this are being developed

256
00:15:58,970 --> 00:16:02,822
This is a bottle of liquid crystal, it's actually a liquid.

257
00:16:02,857 --> 00:16:08,053
And the watch display is made by sandwiching it between 2 bits of glass.

258
00:16:08,423 --> 00:16:16,437
If I clip them in here, and put a drop of liquid on top,

259
00:16:16,438 --> 00:16:19,337
it'll slowly sleep, seep into the gap.

260
00:16:20,861 --> 00:16:23,040
(whispers) Whoops!

261
00:16:23,041 --> 00:16:26,897
(mutters) ...mop up the surplus...

262
00:16:26,898 --> 00:16:31,478
Now these two bits of glass are coated with a square of 

263
00:16:31,479 --> 00:16:35,134
a transparently thin metallic layer that can conduct electricity.

264
00:16:35,135 --> 00:16:39,709
So if I now... [buzz] whoops! ...connect it up. 

265
00:16:41,714 --> 00:16:43,628
One on the top here. 

266
00:16:43,663 --> 00:16:46,959
And er, one on the side. 

267
00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:50,050
It doesn't appear to do, doesn't appear to do anything at all. 

268
00:16:50,351 --> 00:16:54,416
What we need to make a complete display is, um, a pair of Polaroid sunglasses.

269
00:16:54,517 --> 00:16:57,381
If I hold one lens behind the other,

270
00:16:57,382 --> 00:17:01,233
and rotate it, you can see it goes from light to dark.

271
00:17:01,534 --> 00:17:07,518
Well, if I now, um, put the sunglasses in the clip as well...

272
00:17:07,519 --> 00:17:17,717
one lens in front of the sandwich, and er, one lens behind... Like that.

273
00:17:17,752 --> 00:17:21,661
And now I connect it up again, you should be able to see...

274
00:17:21,662 --> 00:17:25,816
the electricity has the effect of polarising the liquid crystal material.

275
00:17:26,117 --> 00:17:30,647
I can show you just how little electricity this er, needs to make it work.

276
00:17:30,648 --> 00:17:37,037
If I hold onto one wire, simply touching the cell with my other hand

277
00:17:37,038 --> 00:17:40,340
is enough to make it work, although the electricity's

278
00:17:40,341 --> 00:17:43,510
got to pass through the resistance of my body.

279
00:17:50,332 --> 00:17:54,777
To make the complete watch display, the metallic film is simply split up into segments,

280
00:17:54,778 --> 00:17:57,136
each of which can be separately connected. 

281
00:18:00,603 --> 00:18:03,489
This liquid crystal display is all still connected up, but

282
00:18:03,490 --> 00:18:07,752
of course it's completely invisible until the polaroids are in place.

283
00:18:08,753 --> 00:18:15,084
And a real watch display also needs bit of aluminum behind to reflect the light.

284
00:18:21,547 --> 00:18:24,473
The chip in a quartz watch is equally ingenious,

285
00:18:24,474 --> 00:18:28,060
here we've made up part of the circuit in separate stages.

286
00:18:28,061 --> 00:18:30,650
The first one keeps the crystal vibrating.

287
00:18:31,371 --> 00:18:33,224
This one divides the output from the crystal,

288
00:18:33,225 --> 00:18:36,183
to give a pulse every second.

289
00:18:38,966 --> 00:18:43,522
This one counts the pulses, you can see the lights coming on in sequence.

290
00:18:50,140 --> 00:18:53,690
Finally this one converts the count to a random looking array of lights.

291
00:18:54,867 --> 00:19:00,372
Arranged in the right places though, these create the familiar digital numbers. 

292
00:19:02,999 --> 00:19:14,499
[clicking of lamps into clips]

293
00:19:25,365 --> 00:19:28,720
The idea of a digital display wasn't new,

294
00:19:28,721 --> 00:19:31,511
it had appeared several times in the clock's history.

295
00:19:32,289 --> 00:19:35,696
This is an illuminated night clock from the 18th Century.

296
00:19:36,097 --> 00:19:43,686
[rattle] [click] [rattle]
Electromechanical digital clocks started becoming popular in the 1960s.

297
00:19:43,687 --> 00:19:46,287
[rattling and clicking continues]

298
00:19:47,288 --> 00:19:52,497
But although digital displays tell the time very clearly, they do still have their drawbacks.

299
00:19:53,923 --> 00:19:56,280
[Running man pants]

300
00:19:56,281 --> 00:19:58,542
Man: I can't bear to be late for the opera, I wonder that the time is...

301
00:19:58,543 --> 00:20:05,510
umm 5:49, and then if I can be there by about 6:02, it won't start before then... Needn't be 13, no no...

302
00:20:05,511 --> 00:20:07,307
[lady's footsteps]
...it must be 13 minutes.  Excuse me Madam,

303
00:20:07,308 --> 00:20:11,766
I wonder if you could tell me what time it is. 
Woman: Yes, love. It's ten to six.

304
00:20:11,767 --> 00:20:15,266
Man: Ten to six! Oh good heavens!
[Man's running footsteps]

305
00:20:15,267 --> 00:20:18,898
[Dog pants]

306
00:20:18,999 --> 00:20:22,181
[Opera singer singing]

307
00:20:22,182 --> 00:20:27,291
Man: (whispers) Excuse me. Oh I'm so sorry.
[people sighs and tut]

308
00:20:27,292 --> 00:20:37,138
[Opera singer continues] 

309
00:20:37,139 --> 00:20:44,884
[Man's watch bleep-bleeps]
Crowd: Really!

310
00:20:44,885 --> 00:20:48,690
Tim: Today, dial watches are back in fashion,

311
00:20:48,691 --> 00:20:50,905
but now they're all quartz-controlled.

312
00:20:54,412 --> 00:20:57,188
The crystal, the battery and the electronics are

313
00:20:57,189 --> 00:21:00,273
almost the same as they were in the digital watch.

314
00:21:00,274 --> 00:21:03,375
But now there's a tiny electrical motor driving the hands round,

315
00:21:03,376 --> 00:21:05,604
instead of the liquid crystal display.

316
00:21:07,060 --> 00:21:10,827
Although the quartz watch is very accurate, it is still affected by temperature. 

317
00:21:10,828 --> 00:21:14,919
I set two watches to exactly the same time a few hours ago,

318
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:17,122
and I put one in a low oven.

319
00:21:17,123 --> 00:21:20,306
If I take it out again now...

320
00:21:25,591 --> 00:21:30,800
It looks a bit of a mess, need to take this bit of plastic off. 

321
00:21:30,801 --> 00:21:35,621
And the liquid crystal display goes completely black, it stops working above a certain temperature.

322
00:21:35,622 --> 00:21:39,333
But I think if I leave it to cool down now, you should be able to see

323
00:21:39,334 --> 00:21:45,160
that the quartz has been affected by the heat, and they no longer tell the same time.

324
00:21:49,576 --> 00:21:52,527
Of course watches don't usually get quite so hot,

325
00:21:52,528 --> 00:21:56,328
but even small day to day temperature variations do mount up.

326
00:22:03,139 --> 00:22:08,410
Keeping quartz crystal at a precise even temperature greatly increases the accuracy.

327
00:22:08,411 --> 00:22:11,578
This is a device for timing the accuracy of watches,

328
00:22:11,579 --> 00:22:15,219
and it has to be accurate to 1/100th of a second a day. 

329
00:22:15,220 --> 00:22:18,578
It still works by quartz, but there's a tiny heating element

330
00:22:18,579 --> 00:22:22,162
inside which keeps the crystal at a very even temperature.

331
00:22:22,163 --> 00:22:26,360
I'm going to use it to compare the accuracy of a mechanical watch and a quartz watch.

332
00:22:27,470 --> 00:22:31,338
This is one of the most accurate mechanical watches ever made,

333
00:22:31,339 --> 00:22:35,001
it cost 8,000 and it is a work of art.

334
00:22:35,756 --> 00:22:39,990
If I put it on the block, 

335
00:22:41,407 --> 00:22:45,190
Have to wait, er, a few seconds before it starts to read. 

336
00:22:50,354 --> 00:22:54,744
And you have to average several readings.

337
00:22:56,996 --> 00:23:02,984
Over about a minute I worked out that this one was averaging about 2 seconds a day fast.

338
00:23:02,985 --> 00:23:08,373
Now if I compare this with a £1 quartz watch, it's on a different setting...

339
00:23:09,274 --> 00:23:14,466
You can see this is averaging less than a second a day fast.

340
00:23:14,467 --> 00:23:20,072
In general quartz watches can be about ten times for accurate than mechanical ones.

341
00:23:23,606 --> 00:23:27,346
Rex: Some time ago I bought a cheap digital watch from a filling station.

342
00:23:27,347 --> 00:23:30,013
It worked perfectly for about 4 months. 

343
00:23:30,014 --> 00:23:34,294
Then the battery failed, so I set about to repair it and realised 

344
00:23:34,295 --> 00:23:37,397
that the cheap plastic case was actually physically welded together,

345
00:23:37,398 --> 00:23:40,405
and there was no way you could actually get at the works.

346
00:23:40,406 --> 00:23:44,999
So I set about it with a hot scalpel blade, and halved the watch,

347
00:23:46,020 --> 00:23:50,913
and I eventually got to the watch compartment and found that the replacement battery

348
00:23:50,914 --> 00:23:53,753
I'd got was much larger than the original, so I then had to

349
00:23:53,754 --> 00:23:58,053
modify the inside of the watch, to accommodate the new battery.

350
00:23:58,054 --> 00:24:01,336
And that meant making new contacts for it etc.

351
00:24:01,337 --> 00:24:05,577
Eventually I got it together, took about 2 and a half, 3 hours,

352
00:24:06,378 --> 00:24:10,841
and the watch worked perfectly, and I was very pleased, very satisfied,

353
00:24:10,842 --> 00:24:14,257
it's lovely repairing something that was never designed to be repaired.

354
00:24:14,258 --> 00:24:19,056
But unfortunately my satisfaction didn't last very long, the following day the strap broke,

355
00:24:19,057 --> 00:24:23,020
 so I had to throw it away. Much to the amusement of everyone in the workshop.

356
00:24:24,314 --> 00:24:26,644
Tim: I have to admit, I don't wear a watch myself,

357
00:24:26,645 --> 00:24:31,540
but in comparison with my own clumsy timekeepers, it's impossible not to admire the things.

358
00:24:31,541 --> 00:24:36,054
There really is something very satisfying and elegant about the way they work.

359
00:24:36,055 --> 00:24:39,530
It's a shame really that they cost so little. This one only cost 60p.

360
00:24:39,531 --> 00:24:43,147
People seem to regard them as almost totally disposable.

361
00:24:43,148 --> 00:24:46,319
Watches certainly aren't the treasured possessions that once were. 

362
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,749
[Explosion from oven] 

363
00:24:48,750 --> 00:24:54,240
*giggles* Whoops!

364
00:24:54,241 --> 00:24:58,679
Wasn't it shut before? I thought..... (fades out)
[Jazzy music: 'Take 5' - Dave Brubeck]

365
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:44,811
[Jazzy music: 'Take 5' - Dave Brubeck]