"This would be his twentieth release, Charlie! And you know what he does? He takes my criticisms- and they started real polite, 'cause I wanna give another person with interest in things like watch-making a chance- but he always, ALWAYS takes these awful little shortcuts! Like- like-"
He slapped the back of his hand into his other palm. "Jewels! More doesn't always mean better, but he thought having a higher jewel count makes him better than the competition! Then the alloys he uses for some of the parts are things he NEVER stops cheaping out on! You want watches to last! You want something to maybe pass down, or- or- treat like the works of art they are, but if you put in some dime-a-dozen parts that were sitting in the sun too long and get warped- which gums up the clockwork, for one thing- or even cheap out on the points and and plates so that even something important like oil gunks up or- heaven forbid- CORRODES the inner workings and you just get dead watches...!!"
He started to pace. "And I get the scheme: Keep paying for repairs, keep buying replacements! But that's just throwing parts away, that's throwing time pieces away! It's wasteful! It's... it's an insult to the art, the craftsmanship, the beauty of all those little pieces working together, and...!"
He stopped, short of breath. After the pause, he stood upright and smoothed back his hair. Deep breath.
"He does it to annoy me, Charlie. It's why he turns to me and not just some other guy who died and fell down here who used to work with Rolexes or something. He thinks maybe one day he can make something that passes me unnoticed and can market the Hell out of it like 'The King Approves!!', so I have to be hard on him. I have to tear his prototypes apart. I call it more of a 'rivalry' than anything else, and catching his stupid ways of cheaping out is- as frustrating as the insult to craftsmanship this is- weirdly... angry-fun? Fangry?"
no subject
"This would be his twentieth release, Charlie! And you know what he does? He takes my criticisms- and they started real polite, 'cause I wanna give another person with interest in things like watch-making a chance- but he always, ALWAYS takes these awful little shortcuts! Like- like-"
He slapped the back of his hand into his other palm. "Jewels! More doesn't always mean better, but he thought having a higher jewel count makes him better than the competition! Then the alloys he uses for some of the parts are things he NEVER stops cheaping out on! You want watches to last! You want something to maybe pass down, or- or- treat like the works of art they are, but if you put in some dime-a-dozen parts that were sitting in the sun too long and get warped- which gums up the clockwork, for one thing- or even cheap out on the points and and plates so that even something important like oil gunks up or- heaven forbid- CORRODES the inner workings and you just get dead watches...!!"
He started to pace. "And I get the scheme: Keep paying for repairs, keep buying replacements! But that's just throwing parts away, that's throwing time pieces away! It's wasteful! It's... it's an insult to the art, the craftsmanship, the beauty of all those little pieces working together, and...!"
He stopped, short of breath. After the pause, he stood upright and smoothed back his hair. Deep breath.
"He does it to annoy me, Charlie. It's why he turns to me and not just some other guy who died and fell down here who used to work with Rolexes or something. He thinks maybe one day he can make something that passes me unnoticed and can market the Hell out of it like 'The King Approves!!', so I have to be hard on him. I have to tear his prototypes apart. I call it more of a 'rivalry' than anything else, and catching his stupid ways of cheaping out is- as frustrating as the insult to craftsmanship this is- weirdly... angry-fun? Fangry?"