North Coast Imports, Inc.

Here's another snapshot from our workshop. Stay tuned for exciting new models from North Coast Imports and Sternreiter!

Here's an interesting interface designed by programmer Trammell Hudson of NYC Resistor. He's got all kinds of new designs for his hackable watch on his Flickr feed. It's great to see all of the new ideas for horology coming from such a wide pool of expertise. Via Makezine : Trammell Hudson of NYC Resistor designed an interface a day for his hackable inPulse watch. He has a lot of great ones but I really like his Conway’s Game of Life interface from Day 24. Today I had to work late, so the watch is not really finished. It borrows the game of life code from a previous watch and tries to work the time display into the game grid. Perhaps with a better font this would have worked better; maybe make the 7 into a glider and have some other interesting shapes in the characters.

We're busy working on designing and building exciting new clockwork dreams! So much work done and so much still to do. I can hardly take a moment to put out this blog post, but you will be very pleased with the new horological pieces we will be introducing with our new 2012 collection. As usual, stay tuned, watch this space and check out our website, Twitter feed, and Facebook.

Great article in The NY Times : When it comes to profit and satisfaction, craft business is showing how American manufacturing can compete in the global economy. Many of the manufacturers who are thriving in the United States (they exist, I swear!) have done so by avoiding direct competition with low-cost commodity producers in low-wage nations. Instead, they have scrutinized the market and created customized products for less price-sensitive customers. Facebook and Apple, Starbucks and the Boston Beer Company (which makes Sam Adams lager) show that people who identify and meet untapped needs can create thousands of jobs and billions in wealth. As our economy recovers, there will be nearly infinite ways to meet custom needs at premium prices. Meanwhile, the idea (or at least the hope) is that as China and other emerging nations develop, the United States can stay on the profitable forefront, delivering specific high-tech parts to their factories and the latest upmarket foods to thei...

Physicists Frank Wilczek at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology and Al Shapere at the University of Kentucky, theorize on the existence of Time Crystals or a state at which time arranges itself in the same way matter does within a crystal. From the Technology Review Blog One of the most powerful ideas in modern physics is that the Universe is governed by symmetry. This is the idea that certain properties of a system do not change when it undergoes a transformation of some kind. For example, if a system behaves the same way regardless of its orientation or movement in space, it must obey the law of conservation of momentum. If a system produces the same result regardless of when it takes place, it must obey the law of conservation of energy. From the io9 blog Wilczeck, along with collaborator Al Shapere from the University of Kentucky, has just published two papers examining how the mathematics that govern crystal formations in space could also work in time. They arg...

"Sassy Clock" [via Fail Blog ]

Probably the most common error made during the setting of a clock that makes noise is that of moving the hour hand independently of the minute hand. Remember: when you set a clock, just move the (longer) minute hand and let the hour hand follow along. Many modern clocks allow you to move the minute hand backwards (counter-clockwise) some allow you to shut off the sounds so that you don't have to listen at each interval. Either way, you shouldn't move the hour hand independently of the minute hand - because you will cause your mechanism to become out of sync with your hands. But, even if your hour hand does get moved, DON'T PANIC. Most modern clocks allow for an easy fix. Simply follow this procedure: 1. Move your (longer) minute hand clockwise to the hour. NOTE: if you have a quarter-hour or half-hour chime clock, you may have to wait at the quarter or half-hours for your clock to finish making its sounds. 2. Count the number of strikes or calls your clock give...

There have been some changes to the quartz cuckoo clock movements. The new models don't have the cumbersome "eye" or light sensor, but rather a more sophisticated night-off system. The newer clocks also have nicer music! In order to properly set up your new quartz cuckoo clock, there are a few things to take note of. The proper set-up procedure is already in your printed instructions, and here , but please also reference this article to troubleshoot. The point of the setup procedure is to FIRST properly align the chiming computer mechanism with the clock hands, and SECOND to set the correct time on your clock hands. In order to do this, you'll need to find out what time your bird thinks it is. Once you have the batteries installed, move the longer minute hand only (don't touch the shorter hour hand) clockwise until the hour is reached. Please make sure you have the cuckoo switched on before taking this step. Once the hour is reached, count the number o...