Watches, Stories, and Gear: 3D-Printed Triple-Axis Tourbillon, the Mystery of Hyperpolyglots, the Ultimate Travel Bag, and More

“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a weekly roundup of some our favorite watch content from Worn & Wound, great stories from around the web, and cool gear that we’ve got our eye on.

This week’s installment is brought to you by Mido Watches.

Dive watches are great, and no collection is complete without at least one, but with so many being very aggressive or very large, they often are not the most versatile pieces. The Mido Ocean Star is an exception to this rule, mixing classic, mature styling with a contemporary but highly wearable size. Featuring its exclusive Caliber 80 Swiss-made ETA movement with 80 hours of power reserve, the Mido Ocean Star is one reasonably priced package.New for 2018, Mido has pushed into further refined territory with two pink gold PVD cased varieties. First is a version mixing a calming green dial and bezel with a leather strap. Paired with the pink gold case, the combination has a nostalgic quality that speaks to patina and the muted colors of the beach. Second is a classically handsome combination with a deep blue dial and bezel, fitted with a matching textile strap. The pink gold case sets off the blue dial, and has a true nautical appeal. Both watches are available for $970. Learn more here.

Watches

Watchmaker’s Bench: What Makes It Tick? (Part 2) – The Escapement

In case you missed it, in Part 2 of our “What Makes It Tick” series, we took an in-depth look at the escapement and balance assembly—covering everything from the different components and how they work together to regulation.

Click here to read more.

The Clockwerk 3D-Printed Triple-Axis Tourbillon by Adam Wrigley

Triple-axis tourbillon. These are not words we have had much chance to use on Worn & Wound. Relegated to the highest of the haute, triple-axis tourbillons are as rare as they are difficult to produce, leaving only a small amount of some of the most revered brands capable of making them. It’s an act that requires a perfect storm of engineering, machining and patience, with each finished unit representing hundreds—if not thousands—of man hours to complete. Those that exist are exalted by many and owned by few, with price tags easily into the six-figure range. Well, today we get to break that trend with a project that is as fun to behold as it is interesting to read about: Clockwerk by Adam Wrigley.

Click here to read more.

Stories

Jalopnik; “This Is Why You Can’t Unlock A Car Door If Someone Is Trying To Open It At The Same Time”

“This is one of the most common shared experiences in all of automobilia: You’re outside a car, trying to get in. The person inside the car is attempting to open the door lock at the same time you’re pulling the handle to open the door. A comedy of errors ensues, with each of your actions canceling out the other’s, leaving you both pulling handles or locking buttons over and over, in a seemingly never-ending mechanical stalemate. Eventually, someone yells for someone to let go, already, and the nightmare ends. But why must it be this way? What’s going on?

Why can’t you pull the door handle while the door is being unlocked? Why would such a fundamental mechanism of a car have such a frustrating flaw? Well, the answer is simple mechanics. (Except, as we found out, there’s nothing simple about door latches.)”

Click here to read more.

The New Yorker; “The Mystery of People Who Speak Dozens of Languages”

“Linguistic competence, as it happens, was the subject of my own interest in Rojas-Berscia. He is a hyperpolyglot, with a command of twenty-two living languages (Spanish, Italian, Piedmontese, English, Mandarin, French, Esperanto, Portuguese, Romanian, Quechua, Shawi, Aymara, German, Dutch, Catalan, Russian, Hakka Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Guarani, Farsi, and Serbian), thirteen of which he speaks fluently. He also knows six classical or endangered languages: Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Shiwilu, Muniche, and Selk’nam, an indigenous tongue of Tierra del Fuego, which was the subject of his master’s thesis. We first made contact three years ago, when I was writing about a Chilean youth who called himself the last surviving speaker of Selk’nam. How could such a claim be verified? Pretty much only, it turned out, by Rojas-Berscia.”

Click here to read more.

Gear

Oak Street Bootmakers  – Stone Waxy Mohawk Dainite Lakeshore Boot

With fall (thankfully) right around the corner, you’re going to need a solid pair of boots for when the weather turns. This pair from the Lakeshore collection by Oak Street Bootmakers in Waxy Mohawk leather (produced by England’s CF Stead tannery) will take whatever you throw at them, and they’ll look even better the more you wear them.

$498—Shop here.

The Travel Line from Peak Design: Versatile Travel Backpack + Packing Tools

Peak Design makes some of my favorite camera straps on the market, and in general Peak Design’s range of products is smartly-designed and high-quality. Their Travel Line, which the company is launching through Kickstarter, looks to be the ultimate kit for whenever you’re on the move. There’s the 45L Travel Backpack itself. Then there are a slew of modular packing cubes and pouches that allow you to transform the bag into whatever you need it be. It can be a camera bag one day, or your carry on another. The versatility will have you ditching all your other packs.

Starts at $235—Back it here.