Looks like a real labour of love, a restoration that has taken 11 years…

Link in case the site adverts mangle the embedded video https://youtu.be/LYsI9RLReLw

This looks impressive

On sale later today at £3795

https://www.christopherward.com/int/…o-landing.html

These kind of things:

Anyone got one? Not really thinking of the "premium" titanium ones, more the cheapo steel (?) ones as pictured. Blue, maybe.

I am tempted for my DW-5600 as a bit of fun, but worried they might just be tat, despite the above claims of quality.

While others offer innovative new bezel colours and case dimensions, Casio quietly drops this one…

About £120, released in Japan on the 11th of this month. Usual G-Shock stuff, beeps and things, with a 10-year battery.

About time really…

Britain Unveils the Future of Timekeeping

Government Announces Bold Plan to Make Big Ben the Greatest Clock on Earth

In a world-leading display of British ingenuity, the UK government has announced a revolutionary modernisation of Big Ben, ensuring that the beating heart of the nation will tick with unparalleled accuracy for centuries to come. The outdated, high-maintenance Victorian mechanism it inherited will be proudly replaced with a cutting-edge British quartz movement, making Big Ben the Greatest, most precise landmark clock in human history.

As part of the upgrade, the Great Bell of Westminster whose sonorous notes have echoed across London since 1859, will be retired in favour of something fit for the 21st century: a modern electronic chime, approved by experts in British excellence and a consultant from Bremont.

A Great British Innovation for a Great British Icon

Minister for Time and Progress, Professor Lasø Obliviøus, hailed the move as the latest example of British innovation leading the world:

“For too long, this nation has been shackled by the inefficiencies of the past. We inherited antique church bells and crumbling clocks, but choose to make the change Britain demands”

How the New Big Ben Will Be Unstoppable

The transformation will bring several truly British advancements:

• The World’s Most Accurate Clock – Regulated by a British-grown quartz crystal, Big Ben will be inherently more stable, more steadfastly upright, than any mechanical system. Guaranteeing that the nation never runs late again

• Energy Independence – Big Ben’s planned new solar array and discreet 120m Westminster wind turbine means no longer relying on costly maintenance, making it self-sufficient and unstoppable – just like Britain itself

• Patriotic Chime – Rather than old-fashioned bells, the new system will sound an electronic chime. Using in-house ZX25 AI technology hosted in British Clouds, its Large Flapper Model has been expertly trained on the crowd’s roar after England’s 1966 World Cup win

• Designed and Built in Britain – From its precision-engineered quartz movement to its state-of-the-art speaker system using audiophile components, every aspect of the upgrade will be developed by British engineers and British scientists in British Sheds

Global Reactions: The World Watches in Awe

International leaders have already expressed their admiration, with Paris Mayor Aubergine le Petit Déjeuner considering digitizing the Eiffel Tower clock, while New York leaders are scrambling to install an hourly electronic bugle performing The Star-Spangled Banner in Times Square.

What’s Next? The Future of British Timekeeping

With Big Ben and the UK leading the world once again, the government is already looking ahead to our next great triumphs. Christopher Ward have been engaged to provide technical assistance, with a full 60 day / 60 month guarantee providing great value for the hardworking British taxpayer. Plans are in motion for a digital sundial in Trafalgar Square, featuring Lumi-Brit illumination for night viewing. And coming soon, full smartwatch integration is planned for Stonehenge.

Prof Laso Oblivious added “Big Ben – The Great British Ringtone will be available from today"

May your weekend blossom

Scuppered again by this sub forum’s inexplicable inability to embed Youtube videos, but it’s here:

https://youtu.be/i4XTnmvpcNo

A full disassembly and service, including case and bracelet refurb.The presenter describes himself as an amateur, but he has all the right equipment and truly enjoys his work. The videography is excellent, well lit and in focus – even the macro views. There is a comprehensive list of tools and equipment used in the description.

I knew I was a hopeless weekend tinkerer, but this is next-level for an amateur. I really enjoyed it.

Amazon are reportedly removing the capability to download purchased Kindle books to your computer on February 26th.

After then, the only way to access your purchased content will be through Amazon devices, their web site or Amazon apps as the signed-in user who bought them. If that’s how you use Kindle books, never think you’ll stop using Amazon, and are happy for your access to die with you, nothing will change.

If you thought you bought the books, rather than bought a license to read via Amazon’s channels, you can still download them until Feb 26th.

Go to your account and "Content Library". As far as I can recall, you have to download each book one by one. You’ll then have a local copy, in Amazon’s ebook format. If you wish, there are ways to change the format (and remove the DRM, which I won’t detail here) so you can read these on other platforms or without needing to be signed in to an Amazon device or service.

But in a week’s time, you won’t have that option again. So if you ever think you might want a local backup with some options outside Amazon, best to download now I think.

It’s been doing the rounds but worth a watch if you haven’t seen it:

It brought back memories of the company car heyday of the 80s. My Dad wasn’t a rep but the company car thing became so prevalent among middle-class jobs that he eventually found himself with one too.

He went from a Cavalier 1.6 to a Granada Ghia to a Vauxhall Carlton CD (with a CD player, oh yes) to a Mercedes C class. I remember when the Granada arrived. I witnessed a neighbour sneak across the street at dusk to check the rear badge for the all-important "i" after the 2.0. He returned, crestfallen presumably, to his Ford Orion GL.

The initial idea I believe was to make it tax-efficient for those that needed cars for work. But the tax savings made it appealing to a wider group of employees and indeed employers, who could entice staff with a new incentive that cost less than actual pay rises. It became standard for a company car to be offered with many white-collar jobs.

The tax loopholes were eventually negated, I understand, but as a peruse of the What are you driving? thread might suggest, the ethos of badge competition and implied status surely remains as forceful as ever. In watching the above, I wondered what they drive now? And has "Maestro Man" ever recovered?

Chances are, you use Google. It accounts for around 90% of searches. Which is probably because it is so good.

The next ranking search engine is Bing, which Microsoft installs as the default on Windows and gamely hopes you’ll stick with it. It records a market share of under 4%. Which gives you the answer to that. The remainder of the tail, after Google and Bing are:

Yahoo
Baidu
Yandex
DuckDuckGo
Ask.com
Ecosia
Aol.com
Internet Archive

By the time you get to the likes of AOL (!) the market share is around 0.05%, all but irrelevant. I have tried Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia before, but found them wanting. Recently, I decided to try to reduce tracking/fingerprinting a little more and see if I could finally jettison Google search.

I have been very surprised with DuckDuckGo. I don’t like the name. I don’t like the logo. But the search results (and it does the AI summary thing, like Google) now seem excellent.

If you haven’t tried one of these alternatives in a while, and think that Google just needs some competition to stop "accidentally" finding new ways to exploit your data, might be worth a revisit.