Post by small on Apr 24, 2020 9:31:31 GMT -8
Not certain where this should go. It doesn't piss me off enough to warrant adding it to the thread but maybe someone could clue me in.
While reading an article today on "US made watches" they mentioned a company called "Brew". In the interview with owner/founder he discussed inspiration for his chrono coming from "telephone timers" made in the 30's and 40's?? They were made so people could time their phone calls and knew when to add quarters. He said there were different markers every three minutes, b/c that is how long calls lasted before you had to feed the phone again...
Intrigued 1. because calls back in the 60's were a dime, not quarters, what could they have been in the 30's and 40's a nickle? though you could use quarter not many I suspect did. Maybe he was just accustom to today's rates, although you'd be hard pressed to even find a payphone today most were gone by early 2000's in the 70's Even "Silvia's mother" had "forty cents more for the next three minutes" wouldn't operators then be able to do the same?
2. I have been a lurker at watches on the net for more than 25 years and I can't say I have ever see a reference to a "telephone timer". I would have thought I'd have seen or heard of it, maybe in discussion of doughnut timers... I wondered where this guy got any of his ideas? he didn't even design his watch to have a different marker at the three minute mark? I did google "telephone timer" and some Zenith stop watches pop up but even those don't have markers at 3 minutes?
3. I imagine chronos in the time period 30's and 40's would have been pretty pricey and not terribly accessible, why would makers design their watches for something so specific? He did say that chronos have been made for many different events, but telephone calls? Nice looking watches, Mecha-Quartz movements at a good price. Case shape similar to the 7016's but with sub-dials more like the bullheads?
Anyway the back story just seem to be bad fiction, I'm not sure why.
While reading an article today on "US made watches" they mentioned a company called "Brew". In the interview with owner/founder he discussed inspiration for his chrono coming from "telephone timers" made in the 30's and 40's?? They were made so people could time their phone calls and knew when to add quarters. He said there were different markers every three minutes, b/c that is how long calls lasted before you had to feed the phone again...
Intrigued 1. because calls back in the 60's were a dime, not quarters, what could they have been in the 30's and 40's a nickle? though you could use quarter not many I suspect did. Maybe he was just accustom to today's rates, although you'd be hard pressed to even find a payphone today most were gone by early 2000's in the 70's Even "Silvia's mother" had "forty cents more for the next three minutes" wouldn't operators then be able to do the same?
2. I have been a lurker at watches on the net for more than 25 years and I can't say I have ever see a reference to a "telephone timer". I would have thought I'd have seen or heard of it, maybe in discussion of doughnut timers... I wondered where this guy got any of his ideas? he didn't even design his watch to have a different marker at the three minute mark? I did google "telephone timer" and some Zenith stop watches pop up but even those don't have markers at 3 minutes?
3. I imagine chronos in the time period 30's and 40's would have been pretty pricey and not terribly accessible, why would makers design their watches for something so specific? He did say that chronos have been made for many different events, but telephone calls? Nice looking watches, Mecha-Quartz movements at a good price. Case shape similar to the 7016's but with sub-dials more like the bullheads?
Anyway the back story just seem to be bad fiction, I'm not sure why.