Why The Watchmaker Project?
I was recently contacted by no less a body than the American Watchmakers and Clockmakers Institute, who asked me why I had chosen the name of this site given the distinct lack of horological relevance. Rather than simply reply by email, I thought I’d take the opportunity to write up the explanation for the site.
The name derives from a quote by Albert Einstein, musing upon the consequences of his most famous discovery, the equation E=mc²:
The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking… if only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.
(Lest I appear to be significantly more scholarly than I actually am, I should point out that I originally came across the quotation in Alan Moore’s comic, Watchmen, where it closes a chapter concerned with pre-destination.)
My personal interpretation of the quote was that Einstein was expressing regret that the path he was destined to walk had led to such devastating fallout (pun intended), and perhaps harking back to an earlier career path he had once considered but chosen to eschew – and this aspect of the quote struck a chord with me, particularly with respect to my intentions for this site.
The original objective for the site was to provide an area where I could invest my energy into subjects that I had once thought to pursue, but turned my back on in favour of a more steady and reliable career. Writing, photography, music – all the creative areas that I felt I should have been exploring in my life, if I had only made the time.
So this became my own little attempt to recapture those lost options, a “watchmaker” project of my own (I was then a Project Manager, so “project” seemed the natural choice of word). As it turned out, there has been little opportunity to explore those creative areas – three small children and the occasional freelance job all take a very large bite out of my leisure time, although I’m not complaining – and my career has taken a more creative turn of late, so perhaps I’m not so in need of this outlet any more.
I still intend to add a wider range of subjects to the site when I redesign later this year – perhaps that will be the push I need to pick up the guitar, get out the camera, or dig out all those unfinished screenplays?
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Comments
- Seth Thomas Rasmussen
- 1263 days ago
- “Watchmen” is such a great piece of work. I was just discussing “V” with somebody the other day. Have you read any comics lately that you’d recommend?
- #1
- Matthew Pennell
- 1262 days ago
- I’ve been a little lax with my comic reading lately; Bukowski and Marquez novels have been top of the pile for the last few weeks.
Malarkey had some great recommendations in his “Black and White” series recently, including Paul Chadwick’s Concrete, which I can’t recommend enough. - #2
- Matthew Pennell
- 1258 days ago
- Nothing like that; it was a very polite email from their Finance Director, just enquiring why I had chosen the name. My guess is he was probably bored and Googling at work.
I emailed him back to tell him about this post, and he replied to say he thought that the AWCI would get a kick out of the Einstein quote!
In a burst of synchronicity, one of those “collect all 70 issues for 7.99 each” type magazine publishers (Del Prado, I think) have just launched a series all about watches and watchmaking – I wonder if I’ll get any more traffic… ;) - #4
- Jonathan M. Hollin
- 1248 days ago
- Great post Matthew. It’s always interesting to learn of the reasoning/motivation behind a website. More so in this case – I too had wondered at your choice of domain name.
- #5
- Stephane Deschamps (nota-bene.org)
- 1225 days ago
- Oh yeah, Watchmen is one of my all-time favourite. It ranks up there with Maus, V for Vendetta, and a few others.
In retrospect, it’s great that you come from such a background. I felt like your site’s name came out of the blue, and am quite happy to see a shared reference as its origin :)
(on the music of ‘everybody needs somebody to love ;))) - #6
- Adam Martin
- 720 days ago
- I’m a Watchmaker as well, and I wondered about your name as well. Thanks for explaining. I’ve always enjoyed that Einstein quote.
- #7
