Watches, Stories, & Gear: IWC Chronos From Space, Daylight Savings, And Bad Gadgets

“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of our favorite content, watch or otherwise, from around the internet. Here, we support other creators, explore interesting content that inspires us, and put a spotlight on causes we believe in. Oh, and any gear we happen to be digging on this week. We love gear.

Share your story ideas or interesting finds with us by emailing our Managing Editor at [email protected]

This installment of “Watches, Stories, and Gear” is brought to you by the Windup Watch Shop, which now features an EDC section. Header image credit: Frank Herfort

Flown IWC Watches Head To Auction

The recently completed Inspiration4 mission sent four civilians into space for the first time ever, and drew considerable attention from a newly space obsessed public, largely thanks to the splashy rollout of the Netflix series chronicling the prep for their flight. If you were paying particularly close attention to the Netflix series or coverage of Inspiration4, you may have noticed that each member of the crew wore a unique ceramic cased IWC on board their ship. Now, for charity, each watch is being auctioned off to benefit the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It’s a cool watch, a cool story, and a great cause. Much more information, including a link to register for the auction, can be found right here. 

Gird Up, It’s Daylight Savings Time Again

In much of the United States, the weather is getting colder and the days are rapidly getting shorter as we head into the heart of fall and get ever closer to winter. That means the yearly ritual of asking why in the world we still observe daylight savings time is upon as well. In this episode of “The Argument,” a New York Times podcast, we get the pros and cons of changing the clocks twice a year. With only about 70 countries around the world still observing daylight savings, why we still do it is definitely a question worth asking. For now, though, there’s no getting around it, so assuming you want to be on time next week, don’t forget that we set the clocks back an hour this weekend.

The Verge Looks Back At The Worst Gadgets Of The Decade

This list from The Verge reminds us that not every electronic gadget is as perfectly conceived as the iPhone, or a great pair of noise cancelling headphones, or that perfectly ergonomic bluetooth mouse sitting on your desk right now. No, sometimes the world of tech gives us an unspeakable disaster like the Amazon Fire Phone, or the Playbook, Blackberry’s lackluster entry into the competitive tablet market. This humorous list of the 10 worst gadget that Verge writers have encountered is a great read for anyone who fell victim to being an early adopter for a product that just wasn’t ready for primetime.

Through The Lens: Soviet Era Metros

Photographer Frank Herfort spent six year documenting 770 metro stations across 19 cities through former Soviet era Russia. The daunting project has revealed some truly beautiful structure, symmetry, and unexpected details that will likely have you paying a little closer attention to your surroundings on your next outing. Truth is, there is a lot of beauty hidden in plane sight, and these breathtaking photos of everyday locales, easily taken for granted, are the perfect example of that. Herfort wrote about his experience for the New York Times, which has featured some of his imagery, all of which you can enjoy at his website.

eBay Finds: Vintage JLC

This week we have a gorgeous yellow gold filled vintage Jaeger LeCoultre dress watch with oodles of old school swag. The slim, 10k gold fill case comes in at a respectable 34mm wide, not including the original signed crown. The dial is unique, gold with engraved lines that give it an engine-turned look. The hour markers are applied, with the 12, 3, 6, and 9 being large triangles. Gold hands and a subtle sub seconds dial at 6 o’clock. The in-house JLC hand wind caliber 480/CW movement is beautiful, and seller states it has been serviced recently and is keeping good time. This one will look fantastic on your wrist for your next dressy occasion, and is sure to draw jealous looks!

View auction here.