Full Moon Update — Lunar Movement News
about 3 years ago
– Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 01:26:39 AM
Hello fellow time travelers,
The adventure continues.
Today’s update focuses on where we are in the development of our lunar movement.
FORK IN THE ROAD
Just after the campaign wrapped up last October I received news that the company I worked with in the past to develop the world's first annual movement that auto-sets itself to the present, will not be producing our lunar movement. In fact, besides the last batch of annual movements they are making for us, they will no longer make clock movements as a part of their business at all.
Now that was understandably unfortunate news but I am optimistic to a fault, thanked them for everything including considering engineering the lunar movement and wished them luck. Also, I reserved the need to share this information with you until I had a solid solution. That solution is what today's update is all about.
OKAY SO WHAT NOW?
Well, first I located and purchased every lunar movement that already exists to begin testing. I was only able to find three different versions on the planet. However, the movements are poorly made, loud and after many moons of testing, I was unable to find one that could remain accurate from moon to moon.
JOSH.COM
At a conference in the fall of 2019 I had the pleasure of meeting Josh Levine. Among many, many other things Josh is an electrical engineer and is the technical mind behind Kickstarter Creator Jonathan Bobrow's inventive digital board game Blinks.
Josh was also the technical brain behind Kickstarter phenoms CW&T’s gorgeous temporal experiment, 'Time Since Launch'
Both of these projects are beautifully made works art so I invite you to calm any nerves you may have about the newest player in the game of The Present. BTW if you don’t recall, CW&T is the industrial design agency I am lucky to be working with on the latest editions of our timepieces.
As soon as I found out that my German team was a no-go back in October, I set up a meeting with Josh to discuss the development of an original Lunar Movement for The Present Moon. The brief was to make the movement as elegant as possible in form and function.
LUNAR MOVEMENT PROTOTYPE ACHIEVED!
Wow that was fast! Yep. Last night I met up with Josh in the Upper West Side of Manhattan to collect the first prototype of the new original Lunar Movement.
HANG ON TO YOUR SEATS
As we got deeper into creating this original movement it became apparent that not only could this movement function as a quiet and accurate Lunar Movement it would not take too much fussing around to make it also run as a Year and Day movement if I wanted that to happen. I said, "Yes. Please. Thank you."
What I am saying here is that after ten years of developing this brand, this story, these timepieces, what I now have is a single movement that I will be able to program during assembly as a Day Moon or Year movement.
TRANSFORMATIVE
Going into working with Josh all I hoped for was a legit Lunar Movement. What we have emerged with is a gift I have been unwrapping ever since I took the leap to create the first prototype of The Present Year in the summer of 2011.
An original, singular movement that is able to be programmed by me during assembly to run as The Present Day, The Present Moon or The Present Year truly is a gift.
Something about walking to the 53rd street subway station late last night felt like every single thing I’ve done since I moved to New York in 2004 has led to this breakthrough.
To everyone who has been on this adventure with me for all of these years, it really feels like this is the most significant update of the entire journey so far. I’m so grateful for your support and patience and for having the opportunity to work with CW&T who opened the door to working with Josh.
Thank you for enabling this story to come to life dear reader. Sometimes it takes ten years to realize you are just now getting started. Sometimes it takes ten years to land on a brand like this:
ONE MOVEMENT = THE PRESENT
There is still so much more that I want to tell you about this super-movement.
Before I do though, I wanted to invite you to take a moment to have a peek at some of the testimonials I’ve received over the years from owners across the world who've lived with The Present. You may even recognize your own comments even though they are all anonymous.
While the reviews of The Present are uplifting and in some cases, profound; it reminds me that The Present has been out there for some time now.
Meaning, I also know what the most common malfunction has been.
PLEASE CHANGE THE BATTERIES ONCE EVERY FOUR YEARS EVEN IF IT RUNS FINE
In fact, the only thing that has made The Present defective so far is when owners forget to change the batteries and said batteries naturally / eventually burst and make a mess that cancels out the ability for the movement to receive power.
So in order to prevent that from happening in the future to The Present, the movement we’re developing has taken this nasty problem into account and solves it.
HOW LONG WILL THIS NEW MOVEMENT LAST BEFORE NEEDING TO CHANGE BATTERIES?
Okay, what I am about to tell you is by any account effectively news. This advanced movement will include a pair of the Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries with “never leak” tech so we don’t have to worry about leakage problems.
Here is the kicker though, you will not have to change the batteries for a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of well… a very, very long time.
I'm not going to guarantee anything over 10 years but the way this movement is made, it is totally within the realm of possibility that The Present will remain accurate without needing the batteries to be changed for upwards of 20 years and beyond.
WHAT? HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?
Again, let me be clear that I am not going to guarantee anything beyond 10 years. Every year after ten years that The Present is still running on the batteries it ships with, I will extend that guarantee by one year. Once we literally reach 20 years, I will guarantee it for twenty years but not before then.
However, the way this thing is engineered requires so little battery power that it stands to run accurately for an extremely long time. So long that we honestly will not know, until we all know, y'know?
It will be just another fun element of living with The Present; to participate in discovering together just how long a long time really is lol. You can tell your friends that the reality is no one knows just how long The Present will last before needing a battery change.
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!
The Present will now ship with these super batteries already installed.
No need to fiddle with batteries on this work of art! All you will have to do now once you receive The Present is open the back plate up and press the auto-set button.
How about that!?
Basically, The Present is one of the best gifts you can possibly give or get. The hand will then begin spanning the clock face for one revolution for a maximum of six minutes. After stopping at the top again, it will then accurately set itself to The Present Moon or The Present Year.
WHAT ABOUT THE PRESENT DAY?
The Present Day ships with the hand at noon. The owner will remove the back plate and press the button AT NOON. The hand will then move at 24 hours a day for 10+ years.
We went down the road of triangulating the exact time no matter where you are on the planet and the reality is that being able to do that is far too complex and costly for the scope of this project.
Providing that sort of functionality would leave me no choice but to increase the cost of The Present Day by an order of magnitude. The most elegant solution is to simply have the owner press the button at noon, badda-bing-badda-noon.
IS THIS UPDATE GOING TO GO ON FOR 20 YEARS?
- Let’s recap.
- Germany is no longer a viable option.
- Existing lunar movements are a joke.
- Josh Levine enters the picture.
- In a few short months we have a prototype.
- We are now running tests on the prototype.
- Clocks will ship with “never-leak” batteries installed.
- Owner simply pushes a button to auto-set The Present Moon and Year.
- Owner pushes a button at noon on The Present Day.
- Easy peezy
DOES THIS MEAN EVERYTHING WILL BE DELAYED?
At this point you will have this timepiece for 10+ years before needing to change the batteries. I did not expect that to be the case and I hope you are able to see the value in what I clearly consider a major milestone in the life of The Present.
That said, I definitely do not expect to be shipping anything at all until September, including the standard non-steel/glass timepieces. The delay is actually not related to the new movement which should be ready to go in the next month or so.
The fresh new delay is the fact that my printer literally gave up on printing the graphic for The Present Moon as you may already know.
I’m not wasting anytime though and have been in contact with Duggal Visual Solutions since mid January to manage all the prints this time around. I am currently awaiting a round of sample prints from them on a series of printing substrates like gallery grade C-Prints and even direct to substrate printing (printing right on the steel plate itself).
WHAT'S UP WITH THE CORK?
I have the final cork prototypes and I’m meeting with CW&T on Monday to review and confirm if they actually are the final version or not. The new movement is a different depth than the others and will likely require a minor shift in depth on the inside of the cork. That said, we’ve already prototyped an earlier thicker version of the movement pocket that we can switch back to things to before ordering the mold, so things are closer than ever with Portugal. I realize that might be a bit confusing, what I'm saying is that a whole different set of prototypes probably does not have to be made.
YO WHAT ABOUT MY PINS!?
Everyone in the US should have their pins. If they were messed up in any way and you want a new set please email me at [email protected] and I will get you a new set. If you don't have your pins at all you've got to let me know so I can send you another parcel.
If you grabbed the pins as an ADD-ON to your clocks on Backerkit and you live outside of the US, you'll have to forgive me but I will need to include those pins in the packaging of your clocks when they ship. The cost of sending the pins separately internationally is much more expensive than the expected shipping costs. By inserting them in with your upcoming shipment it helps keep things sane. If this upsets you and you would prefer a refund on the pins let me know and I can make that happen.
@daymoonyear
THANK YOU FOR READING!
I'm so excited about this development and have been giddy about sharing the news for awhile now. I look forward to showing you where we are on the next full moon!
In time,
Scott Thrift
The remainder of the update is only for the backers who are expecting The Heart of The Present.
WHAT ABOUT THOSE OF US WHO ORDERED THE HEART OF THE PRESENT?
Well, now you have a choice.
I will soon have the last small batch of annual movements from Germany. I can have those shipped to you relatively soon. If you use Energizer Lithium Batteries (not included) I can guarantee that they will last a minimum of seven years without needing to change the batteries.
If you would rather wait for access to the new movement design, you can request a Day, Moon or Year movement. The movements will be programmed by me before being shipped and once they are programmed they cannot be switched in any way between modes.
For clarity and elegance the movements can be one thing and one thing only. However, the shipping for the newest version of The Heart of The Present will likely not be ready until later this year as the movements will first need to be moved into clock bodies to get those out as soon as possible. It's a more involved process than ever before as I will be soldering each movement and programming it specifically for each backer, one at a time.
Only until I complete the assembly of the existing clock orders will I be able to focus my time on making The Heart of The Present available independently. Both movements are works of art and the original German engineered movement is now a rare item as they will never be made again in this way.
I will reach out to each backer who ordered The Heart of The Present towards the end of March once I have the annual movements in hand and can ship if you so choose. In the meantime give it some thought. For anyone who wanted a Moon or Day movement, you can switch from the Year to one of those if you so wish, but again, it won’t ship until November realistically.
Please email me at [email protected] if you have questions or need to vent.
