Watches, Stories, and Gear: The Best in Landscape Photography, Opening Day of Baseball Card Season, and the Triumphant Return of the Super Soaker

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

This installment of “Watches, Stories, and Gear” is brought to you by the Windup Watch Shop.

Worn & Wound
Complications: The Mystery Dial

Brad Homes comes right and says it in this story from the Worn & Wound archive: the mystery dial isn’t actually a complication. But, like we often say of artfully decorated mechanical movements, they’re a pleasure to look at, and often begin a conversation that starts with “How does that even work?” Anything that promotes our continued curiosity about all things horological can’t be all bad. In this story, Brad explores different permutations of this very old fashioned effect, and explains what makes them so mysterious anyway.

Read it here

SJX
Obituary: Kiu Tai Yu, Chinese Independent Watchmaker

This week, the watch world learned of the loss of Kiu Tai Yu, one of the pre-eminent independent watchmakers working in Asia. Born in China but based in Hong Kong for much of his professional life, Kiu Tai Yu may be best remembered as the inventor of the “Mystery Tourbillon,” and is thought to be the first Asian watchmaker to produce a tourbillon independently, which he accomplished in 1990. SJX took a look back at his life and work at the link below. 

Read it here

New York Times
It’s an Investment, Yes. But for One Day, It’s a Time Machine.

If you grew up in the 1990s, you may remember a time when sports trading cards were more than just a way to connect with your favorite players and teams in a way that only a kid can – for a time, they were also serious investment instruments. The bottoming out of the trading card market has been well documented (it turns out you can’t just print virtually endless sheets of cardboard and claim that it’s worth anything substantial), but there’s still a community of dedicated collectors who look forward to a new trading card season every year. This story in the New York Times takes a look at what happens in one of the last remaining card shops in New York, on a different kind of opening day. 

Read it here

NPR
Musician Plays her Violin During Brain Surgery

This is just a truly astounding medical story that shows not only what the human body is capable of, but just how complex and intricate brain surgery actually is. I know: who would have thought?

When violinist Dagmar Turner was told that the surgery she would need to remove a brain tumor could impact her ability to move her left hand and arm, she was concerned it would impact her ability to make a living as a professional violinist. Her surgical team came up with the solution of waking her up during a critical moment of the surgery, and allowing her to play her violin during the procedure as a sort of real time test. The mapping of the brain and precision required to pull this off is unimaginable if you don’t have a medical background, the video captured during the surgery speaks for itself.

The Atlantic
Top Shots From the 2019 International Landscape Photographer of the Year 

The Atlantic has compiled a selection of some of the best landscape photography from the 2019 edition of this year’s International Landscape Photographer of the Year award. There is obviously a lot of great photography here, some of which is hard to recognize as being shot on our home planet – truly a reminder of how big the world is. Take your time and scroll through these slowly, and by all means view them in their full resolution. 

Read it here

The Verge
Nerf is Bringing Back Three Original Super Soakers this Spring

If the baseball card story above struck a cord, you might be similarly impacted by the exciting news that Nerf is bringing back the original Super Soaker later this spring. Yes, the original over-engineered water gun is making a comeback, and as excited as we all are to experience a modern Super Soaker built with all the materials and manufacturing advances we’ve seen in the toy world in the last 30 years, we should take just a minute to recognize that idea for these things came from an actual NASA rocket scientist. Who knew?

Read it here

HAY
Turn On Lamp

If you’ve shopped for a lamp or light fixtures recently, you know that it’s a market filled with extremes. Your big box retailers and online superstores offer plenty of cheap options in a variety of styles, but at a level of quality that will likely have you returning for a replacement in just a few years. You could also go high end from a specialty lighting boutique: you’ll find something beautiful, but the prices can be head turning. HAY offers a middle ground with their Turn On Lamp. It’s an interesting and versatile design, made with quality materials, and not insanely expensive. Find it at Huckberry through the link below.

Shop HAY here