Elsewhere, the mood was lighter, and in one corner of the industry it was close to joy.
The watchmakers did not agonize over the repair clause the way technologists did, though it touched something they held nearly as dear. Rolex and Patek Philippe guarded their servicing jealously; a watch was meant to return to its maker, always, both for the revenue and for the older, prouder reason that a movement was a thing only its maker's hands were fit to touch.
A Nova repair offended that instinct on paper. But the watchmakers read past the clause to the thing beneath it, and the thing beneath it delighted them.
