> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.itsabouttime.email/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Caseback Issue 2: Out In The Cold - URL: https://www.itsabouttime.email/the-caseback-issue-2-out-in-the-cold/ - Published: 2026-10-17T17:40:45.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-17T17:43:23.000Z - Author: Vuk Radic - Tags: The Caseback, Featured Hey friends, Welcome to the second issue of The Caseback. Cold is where you find out whether something was built properly. A watch, a glove or a group of men at an Antarctic station can look fine at room temperature. Take the heat away and the weak parts show. Every story in this issue is about that in some way. The long read started with a small question. What did watchmakers use to oil a pocket watch before modern lubricants, and the history kind of blew my mind. I had to focus on this one horrific period when American watchmakers used oil cut from the heads of pilot whales and porpoises, most of it from Cape Cod, and the story behind it is far darker than I expected. I'm very happy with how it turned out, and I'd read it with some time on your hands. The School looks at what temperature does to a balance spring, and how watchmakers spent two centuries fixing it. The Seiko Thermic ran on the difference between your wrist and the air, so it worked best in winter. Hestra makes the gloves I'd buy if I could only own one pair. Some of you might know that I went to school for Cinema Studies which is not filmmaking but rather theory. Which means when I'm not doing watches, I'm deep into movies. So why not start writing about them here, as well, right? Recently, I've rewatched and read a lot of stuff on one of my favorite movies of all time, The Thing. It's a film about a copy so good that nobody can tell, and about men who destroy each other looking for a test that works. If you've ever bought a vintage watch from a stranger, you know the feeling. In Dead Seconds I go after the brands that stopped selling spare parts to independent watchmakers. They won in court. I still think they're wrong. **This was supposed to be the first paid issue**. I liked it too much to lock it away, so it's free for everyone. From next Sunday, The Caseback really goes only to paying subscribers. Until the end of this weekend [you can get the paid subscrition at a discount](https://www.itsabouttime.email/annual-its-about-time-is-back-discount). If you enjoy this one, I'd love for you to stick around. If you don't, reply and tell me why. I read every reply. ****Help me RUN It's About Time** I write this newsletter on my own, and paid subscribers are what keep it running. If you'd like to support it, you'll also get The Caseback, a weekend magazine with longer writing, every Sunday. ****The paid subscription is discounted for just a few more days, so get it now.** [Support IAT ](https://www.itsabouttime.email/annual-its-about-time-is-back-discount) --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/98/15/981552fd-1b67-4d3c-8ad7-fc38a52bf9fb/content/images/2026/10/Your-Next-Watch-2-1.jpg) ## Your Next Watch ### Ten Explorer Watches For Sale Right Now, From A €199 Soviet 24-Hour To A $7,200 Breitling Cosmonaute Ten watches for the cold, the mountains and a little further up, from a €199 Raketa with a 24-hour dial to the Navitimer type Scott Carpenter wore on Aurora 7\. In between are a 1959 Smiths Everest for £880, a Poljot made for the crew of a nuclear icebreaker, the Accutron CIA pilots wore in the A-12 and a Sinn chronograph that flew on Mir. [Read it on the site →](https://www.itsabouttime.email/your-next-watch-a-consideration-for-your-next-expedition/) --- ## How Watchmakers Stopped The Cold From Ruining Timekeeping, From Bimetallic Balances To Silicon A plain steel hairspring drifts by about 11 seconds a day for every degree the temperature changes, which made early watches close to useless from one season to the next. Here's how watchmakers fixed it. [Read it on the site →](https://www.itsabouttime.email/watch-school-why-cold-makes-a-mechanical-watch-run-wrong/) ## The Long Read ### For More Than A Century, American Watches Ran On Oil From The Heads Of Pilot Whales ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/98/15/981552fd-1b67-4d3c-8ad7-fc38a52bf9fb/content/images/2026/10/out-in-the-cold-1-1.jpg) In November 1884, the men of the outer Cape drove a school of pilot whales into Wellfleet Harbor and killed about 1,500 of them on the flats with lances, axes and scythes. The papers explained why the catch was worth so much: the oil in the whales' heads stayed liquid in the cold, and it went into watches. This is the story of that oil, from a few gallons sent to a New Bedford watchmaker in 1829 to a monopoly, a dolphin fishery in North Carolina and the law that ended it in 1972. [Read it on the site →](https://www.itsabouttime.email/left-out-in-the-cold-from-fish-to-finish/) --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/98/15/981552fd-1b67-4d3c-8ad7-fc38a52bf9fb/content/images/2026/10/seiko-thermic-1-1.jpeg) ## Odd One Out ### The Seiko Thermic Ran On Body Heat, Which Worked Well Until Summer In 1998 Seiko made 500 watches powered by the difference in temperature between your wrist and the air around it. Getting there took ten tiny generators, a circuit that boosted their output 16 times and a case designed to work as a radiator. On a hot day the temperature difference disappeared and the watch stopped charging. I love it anyway. [Read it on the site →](https://www.itsabouttime.email/unusal-watches-this-weird-seiko-is-powered-by-your-body-heat/) --- ## The Carry ### Hestra Still Makes Nothing But Gloves, And There's A Reason Why That Works ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/98/15/981552fd-1b67-4d3c-8ad7-fc38a52bf9fb/content/images/2026/10/hestra-1-1.jpg) Hestra is a Swedish family company in its fourth generation, it owns its factories and it buys its own leather. I picked two pairs. The Army Leather Heli Ski is for the mountain, with a liner you can pull out to dry and replace when it wears flat. The Elk Handsewn Cashmere is for the walk to work. Neither is cheap, and both are made to last forever. [Read it on the site →](https://www.itsabouttime.email/the-carry-these-are-the-only-gloves-anyone-will-ever-need/) --- ## The Essay ### The Blood Test: What John Carpenter’s The Thing Teaches Us About Superfakes ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/98/15/981552fd-1b67-4d3c-8ad7-fc38a52bf9fb/content/images/2026/10/the-thing-1-1.jpeg) The Thing opened two weeks after E.T. in the summer of 1982, lost badly, and was called junk by most of the critics who saw it. It has since become one of the most admired horror films ever made. It's also a film about a creature that copies people so well that faces stop counting as evidence, which is the problem every serious vintage buyer has. I wrote about how it was made, why it failed and what it says about superfakes, redials and frankenwatches. [Read it on the site →](https://www.itsabouttime.email/the-blood-test-what-john-carpenters-the-thing-teaches-us-about-superfakes/) --- ## Dead Seconds, A Column ### Swiss Brands Won The Spare Parts Fight And Left Independent Watchmakers Out In The Cold For more than 20 years, the big watch groups have been cutting independent watchmakers off from spare parts, and the courts in Brussels, Bern and London have let them. I understand the brands' reasons and I think some of them are fair. I still think they're wrong, and that anyone who owns a mechanical watch should care. [Read it on the site →](https://www.itsabouttime.email/dead-seconds-twenty-years-of-court-cases-left-independent-watchmakers-out-in-the-cold/) --- That's issue two. Thanks for reading all the way down here. See you next Sunday. \-Vuk P.S. Next week’s issue goes to paying subscribers only. If you want to keep getting it, [subscribe now](https://www.itsabouttime.email/annual-its-about-time-is-back-discount) and the launch discount is yours.