A cheaper, less charming machine arrived. The incumbents diagnosed it correctly. Two thirds of them lost their jobs anyway.On Christmas Day 1969, Seiko put a watch on sale in Tokyo called the Astron. It cost roughly as much as a modest car, kept time to within about five seconds a month, and contained a small vibrating sliver of quartz instead of three hundred years of accumulated Swiss judgement. The Swiss watch industry looked at it and reached a verdict that was, on the merits, entirely correct. The thing had no soul. No escapement to regulate, no balance wheel breathing away...