The Rapid Collapse of the Swedish Mechanical Calculator Industry

[johnb]

(10-03-2022 08:05 PM)johanw Wrote:  Funny how completely different that worked out for the watch industry. First the Swiss watch industry is almost destroyed when the quarts movements are developed (lookup "quartz crisis" for more information), and now they manage to sell mechanical watches, who are in almost al, user aspects inferior to quartz watches (quartz is far more accurate, much cheaper to produce, much less fragile), for premium prices and make huge profits.

It's not quite as odd as it sounds.

Among watch collectors, a well-made "automatic" (that is, a mechanical self-winder) is a thing of joy and beauty. So, while my $50 Casio quartz-electronic has more functions and keeps better time, I get more enjoyment out of my automatics.

Which makes me realize how fortunate we are as HP collector/users, compared to some other collectors! A vintage HP calculator is not only much nicer to use than anything built since (SwissMicros excluded), but we also have the advantage that they are generally better tools than the newer stuff.


regards,
--johnb