By all that is holy and miserable, I want this watch and will never own it

Watch designer Thomas Prescher has worked out how to make every hair on my neck stand up in eerie synchrony with this Flying Double-Axis Tourbillion, a transparent, self-winding watch with integrated calendar that I will never, ever be able to afford. All the gubbins are tucked away in the sides of the watch, leaving just the instrumentation parts on display, in a kind of flippant "screw-you-I-am-miniature-FEAR" gesture to every other watch's workings. Watches like this are what I dream about when I am dreaming about watches.

Man, I can't wait until I can print one of these on my desktop.

Thomas Prescher's Mysterious Automatic Double Axis Tourbillon

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Thad E Ginataom

I suppose I must be growing old, or dull, or perhaps I’m soul-dead (but I can still drool over a gadget, so I don’t think so) — but I cannot see the point of watches like this.

I guess that, in the age of cheap, accurate electronics on the wrist, there was nowhere else for the watchmaker to go but into the absurd.

My analogue Accurist has lost most of its plating, its glass is dulled by scratches and gets misted inside when the weather is right, it has been held to my wrist by half a dozen straps — but, when ever I seriously think of replacing it, I remember that it still keeps perfect (enough for me) time!

OK, there is the precision engineering, and, unlike steampunk, it is something that is (sort-of) real, but no, my salivary glands remain firmly dry over ridiculously expensive watches that don’t even show (at a glance) the time.
massspecgeek

See, this is exactly why it’s good that individual taste varies so widely. If Thomas Prescher had to depend on me to feed his family, he’d be one unhappy — and scrawny — camper. I’d sooner chuck that watch in the river than have it near my arm — yet it seems likely that Cory would stop just this side of human sacrifice to get his wrist under it.
nixiebunny

If you like looking at bizarre see-through watch guts, why don’t you just wear a nixie tube wristwatch? More affordable and less confusing. And just as big a conversation starter.
schwal

Very cool, but at nearly $500,000 I doubt he’s going to sell a lot of them.
- Itsumishi
  
  I can’t work out where you’re getting your $500,000 figure, but I think when you’re selling them at that price you don’t expect to sell many of them. Hell sell one of them and you’ve still got more than enough to buy a nice house in a lot of cities.
  - Itsumishi
    
    Sorry I see where you saw the prices.
    Their prices
    
    Jebus.
nanuq

At least you wouldn’t have to worry about being mugged over it. Most thieves probably wouldn’t know what the hell that was.
StRevAlex

Don’t give up hope, Cory! Just write more books or take more speaking engagements and save your pennies. You’ll own that watch someday.
Pirate

Would it fit on your wrist next to your Haruo Suekichi?
efergus3

Neither would TSA.
andygates

Has anyone produced a printable timepiece yet? Not a watch, obviously – maker-grade printing doesn’t have the resolution yet – but a big clunky three-cogs-anna-pendulum type? It’d be a sweet project.
- iammaxus
  
  http://www.instablogs.com/outer_permalink.php?p=3d-printed-clock-by-peter-schmitt
murray

Nah, as soon as you can print one, you will no longer covet it.
thatbob

Thomas Prescher is a reasonable guy – maybe if you can sell 10 of these watches through the BoingBoing Bazaar he’ll comp you one for free.
hisdevineshadow

I stick with my axiom that anything more expense than a Timex is a waste of money.
Ito Kagehisa

My grandfather’s self-winder has finally worn out after half a century. Anybody know where I can get an inexpensive, reasonably accurate self-winding watch? I think Cory’s fave here is out of my price range too.
- Gregory Bloom
  
  Well, if you’re more into engineering perfection of ideal horology as opposed to the mechanical romanticism of gear-tech watches, I recommend a Casio Solar Waveceptor. It is solar powered, so it is “self-winding”. It synchronizes with NIST time by radio each day, so it is effectively accurate to 1 second in 32 million years. This is the realization of perfection horologists have sought for centuries. But, alas, it arrives in an era where people are more interested in fashion than conceptual perfection.
- querent
  
  my self-winding swiss army watch does the trick. bike wrecks can kill em, though.
MrsBug

Oh come now! There’s always Christmas! You don’t mind an extra mortgage on the house, do you?
Michael Slavitch

Seiko makes nice automatic watches. I’m wearing one now. Good reliable movement.
voidmstr

Cheap, reliable self-winder? You want a Seiko 5. Google it.
Michael Slavitch

Yeah.

Or this for under a hundred bucks shipped.

http://www.creationwatches.com/products/seiko-automatic-sports-89/seiko-5-military-automatic-nylon-men-s-watch-snk807k2-snk807-1712.html
Anonymous

cost?
Michael Slavitch

The Sea Urchin is the smart man’s Rolex Submariner:

http://ablogtoread.com/seiko/seiko-snzf17k1-sea-urchin-is-your-ultimate-submariner-styled-value-watch/