Watchmaker
From Free net encyclopedia
A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. A modern watchmaker is more likely to repair a wristwatch or a pocketwatch than to actually create a watch from scratch. A skilled watchmaker can typically manufacture many of the parts found in a watch.
A watchmaker, as the name infers, works primarily on watches, not clocks. Some watchmakers work on clocks, but the skills and tools needed to work on a watch aren't always applicable when working on a clock.
Historically, in England, watchmakers would have to undergo a seven year apprenticeship and then join a guild, such as the Clockmakers' Company of London, before selling their first watch.
Watchmaker as metaphor
William Paley and others used the watchmaker in his famous analogy to infer for the existence of God (the teleological argument) .
Richard Dawkins later applied this analogy in his book The Blind Watchmaker, arguing that evolution is blind in that it cannot look forward and is random.
See also
- A list of watchmakers
- clockmaker
- horology
- chronometer
- The Watchmaker PC Video Game.
- AWCI American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute