These images by photographer Guido Mocafico show the elegance and beauty of these amazing high end watches. The photographs are collected in his book Movement.
This is from one of the reviews on Amazon:
The first paragraph in this book reads: "This is a book of photographs. The photographs in this book all show watch movements, but it is not a book about watches."
That is undoubtedly true. This is not a book about watches, it is a book solely about the beauty of high grade, contemporary wristwatch movements. The Italian photographer Guido Mocafico, together with the German design team of Steidl Publishers, and with the technical advice of Swiss watchmaker Antoine Simonin, has created one of the most extraordinary `watch books' I have ever seen.
The team selected 37 contemporary wristwatch movements, and took amazing, full movement photographs of them (sometimes the under dial view, sometimes the back of the movement). The core of the book consists of these 37 very large, incredibly detailed pictures. They are each reproduced on a double page, in 12 inch diameter vivid color images of stunning clarity and depth of focus, without any text on the pages to diminish their visceral impact.
Shorn of their faces and without cases these could be any kind of machine not just a watch. Perhaps these are parts of some larger mechanism or the controls of some fearful weapon. These images inspire imagination!
Here are some examples:
Keep your sightglass full, your fiebox trimmed and your water iced.
I managed to get a reasonable diagram put together of the airship I have been designing and describing in my Practical Airship Design series.
The diagram is loosely based on the Graf Zeppelin. I was going to use the outline of the Hindenburg which is smoother but I like the look of the slightly more primitive shape of the Graf.
Vadim Voitekhovitch has a moody and atmospheric style that I like to use to illustrate the Steampunk worlds I build in my head.
I have used his images to illustrate my Airship Design posts, mainly because his airships are both whimsical and apparently practical. The scenes are serene but complex. The environments are rich and detailed without being chaotic.
This section is quoted from an English Lawyer.
Good advice actually.
Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ
A celebrated English lawyer gives the following directions
for young men entering into business. He
says:—
“Select the kind of business that suits your
natural inclinations and temperament.—Some men
are naturally mechanics; others have a strong aversion
to anything like machinery, and so on; one man has a
natural taste for one occupation in life, and another for
another.
“I never could succeed as a merchant. I have tried
it, unsuccessfully, several times. I never could be content
with a fixed salary, for mine is a purely speculative
disposition, while others are just the reverse; and therefore
all should be careful to select those occupations that
suit them best.
“Let your pledged word ever be sacred.—Never
promise to do a thing without performing it with the
most rigid promptness. Nothing is more valuable to a
man in business than the name of always doing as he
agrees, and that to the moment. A strict adherence to
this rule gives a man the command of half the spare
funds within the range of his acquaintance, and encircles
him with a host of friends, who may be depended upon
in any emergency.
“Whatever you do, do with all your might.—Work
at it, if necessary, early and late, in season and
out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never
deferring for a single hour that which can just as well
be done now. The old proverb is full of truth and meaning—“Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth
doing well.” Many a man acquires a fortune by doing
his business thoroughly, while his neighbor remains poor
for life, because he only half does his business. Ambition,
energy, industry, and perseverance, are indispensable
requisites for success in business.
“Sobriety. Use no description of intoxicating
drinks.—As no man can succeed in business unless he
has a brain to enable him to lay his plans, and reason to
guide him in their execution, so, no matter how bountifully
a man may be blessed with intelligence, if his brain
is muddled, and his judgment warped by intoxicating
drinks, it is impossible for him to carry on business successfully.
How many good opportunities have passed
never to return, while a man was sipping a ‘social glass’
with a friend! How many a foolish bargain has been
made under the influence of the wine-cup, which temporarily
makes his victim so rich! How many important
chances have been put off until to-morrow, and thence
for ever, because indulgence has thrown the system into
a state of lassitude, neutralizing the energies so essential
to success in business. The use of intoxicating drinks
as a beverage is as much an infatuation as is the smoking
of opium by the Chinese, and the former is quite as
destructive to the success of the business man as the
latter.
“Let hope predominate, but be not too visionary.—Many
persons are always kept poor because they are
too visionary. Every project looks to them like certain
success, and, therefore, they keep changing from one
business to another, always in hot water, and always
‘under the harrow.’ The plan of ‘counting the chickens
before they are hatched,’ is an error of ancient date, but
it does not seem to improve by age.
“Do not scatter your powers.—Engage in one
kind of business only, and stick to it faithfully until you
succeed, or until you conclude to abandon it. A constant
hammering on one nail will generally drive it home
at last, so that it can be clinched. When a man’s undivided
attention is centered on one object, his mind will
continually be suggesting improvements of value, which
would escape him if his brain were occupied by a dozen
different subjects at once. Many a fortune has slipped
through men’s fingers by engaging in too many occupations
at once.
“Engage proper employees.—Never employ a man
of bad habits when one whose habits are good can be
found to fill his situation. I have generally been extremely
fortunate in having faithful and competent persons
to fill the responsible situations in my business; and
a man can scarcely be too grateful for such a blessing.
When you find a man unfit to fill his station, either from
incapacity or peculiarity of character or disposition, dispense
with his services, and do not drag out a miserable
existence in the vain attempt to change his nature. It
is utterly impossible to do so, ‘You cannot make a silk
purse,’ &c. He has been created for some other sphere;
let him find and fill it.”
