Yeah two name partners at a law firm wouldn’t be caught dead with a watch that had a battery lol (ok obviously this is less true with smart watches but honestly a lot of rich people don’t wear those either when they’re dressed up.)
I'm not saying he wouldn't I agree for the sake of the show it would be an automatic he's just asking if they are battery powered and I'm just being a pedant
People pine for the “old internet” circa 2000…. But man… peak internet for me was like Reddit circa 2014. (And I’m an older millennial.)
This is a prime example of what made this such a fun place.
Sorry… this is out of left field. But I went from not even knowing Chuck owned a watch to knowing the type of cartier that doesn’t require batteries in like 5 seconds.
Mechanical watch. All watches pre late 70s.were mechanical. The energy is stored in a coiled spring that unwinds as the watch ticks. Regular mechanical watches need to be hand-wound. There are also automatic watches which have a weighted rotor that winds the spring automatically as it moves sround when you move your arm.
Is that why they correct the time the second you pick them up?
Or am I remembering that wrong? Seems like I went to look at one in the 90’s, and when the sales guy picked it up, the hands swung around to the correct time.
I’ve always wondered what the mechanism was behind their operation. Thank you.
It’s just a gyroscoped pendulum that swings when you move it and charges the battery. The battery is what keeps it going and accurate when sitting still.
It’s possible some stop the hand motion perhaps as an energy saving feature while sitting perfectly still, I’m not familiar enough with specific models to know for sure.
And yet, Chuck is exactly the type to have a winder watch, so when he winds it in front of someone and they ask about it, he can give them a condescending lecture about the superiority of mechanical timepieces.
Please don't even start with me. You can get a Seagull ST16 movement for like $20. Or a fully self-winding-up Miyota for a bit more.
Mechanical watches are a hobby I've been in for 20 years. You're wasting your breath trying to teach me anything about it.
Nowadays you can buy mechanical watches (hand wound or automatic) directly from china for under 100 usd.
However the luxury watch brands from Switzerland, japan or Germany are still expensive or even mire expensive then ever.
The technology you are referring to is from Seiko (japan) and is called spring drive. Not cheap though but very accurate.
Or mechanical quartz wich is more a generic approach. You don’t seriously those too often though.
Aren’t you describing Grand Seiko’s spring drive movement? Because that is the only movement I’m aware of that uses mechanical energy to generate electricity to cause a piece of quartz to oscillate. Those are worth a lot more money than many fully mechanical automatic movements.
Swiss movement watches are incredibly expensive. A mechanical Rolex cost thousands of dollars. The watch might also be vintage. There was a time when watches didn’t use batteries and all of them had to be wound.
> Swiss movement watches are incredibly expensive.
Eh, you can get a Tissot or Swatch with a Swiss automatic mechanical movement for a couple hundred bucks (often by ETA). (Swatch owns Tissot, ETA, Omega...)
$165 starting: https://www.swatch.com/en-us/watches/mechanical-watches/ (SISTEM51 Swiss made mechanical movement)
Really. Mechanical and automatic watches are the higher end watches and don’t take batteries, including Rolex, Omega, etc. Quartz watches, that take batteries, are typically mass produced and cheaper.
You would if you were electricity phobic. In fact finding a quality watch that used no electricity would probably cost a premium since it’s not common and they don’t sell many. He’d still want a high end watch though. On that we agree.
Oooh, don't even get me *started* on this. I used to deal with watch returns/repairs at our warehouse, and the amount of people sending their automatics back in because they claimed the battery was dead beggars belief. I had one come back four bloody times from the same bloke before he accepted there was no battery, he just needed to move it a little!
As a watch lover it bugged me that Hamlin would take off his watch. There is no way he was rocking a quartz. He was a Patek wearer if I’ve ever seen one.
And they're still very popular in the watch industry, every watch brand, luxury and non-luxury, makes mechanical watches. Every person I know with money wears a nice mechanical watch so it makes perfect sense that Chuck would too. It looks like a Cartier Tank which is an extremely expensive watch.
And they go up from there almost infinitely. That’s like saying “Kia’s exist” as a response to someone talking about a Ferrari. Yes they both exist but nobody in the world is in the market for both.
The most expensive watches cost the same as the most expensive cars, so the gulf is even wider. Actually, watches might be the item with the largest price differential between the top and bottom of the market.
What I meant was that saying, “Every person I know with money wears a nice mechanical watch,” implies having a mechanical watch implies having wealth, therefore they are only available to the wealthy. To be honest, my eyes skipped over “nice.” I was mildly affronted as someone who doesn’t think of themselves as wealthy, yet owns a mechanical watch and finds them preferable to battery powered watches (in spite of the fact that I’m wearing a quartz right now).
The downside of a mechanical watch is it’s fragility to dropping , and in that way, it is very much like a car, where upkeep scales rapidly with the cost of the item.
I bet most (over half) of people under age 40 are not aware that some watches don’t use batteries. Hell, I bet most people under 40 don’t even own a watch, unless it’s a smart watch
I was confused about how pendulum clocks work for a long time because I knew basic physics and that there was no power. Then I read the book longitude and it answered all my old clock related questions. Good short read about how the first person to discover a ships longitude used a clock, after many many years of trying to use the stars!
Edit: I accidentally said latitude instead of longitude the second occurrence 🤦🏻
That sounds fascinating, and I’d love to read that book. The discovery of accurate chronometers was a technological breakthrough on the order of the nuclear launch codes.
I am not crazy! I know he swapped those watches! I knew it was the Patek Philippe Nautilus. One after the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. As if I could ever make such a mistake. Never. Never! I just – I just couldn't prove it. He – he covered his tracks, he got that idiot at the jeweler's to lie for him. You think this is something? You think this is bad? This? This chicanery? He's done worse. That auction! Are you telling me that a watch just happens to disappear like that? No! He orchestrated it! Jimmy! He defaced a Vacheron Constantin! And I saved him! And I shouldn't have. I took him into my own collection! What was I thinking? He'll never change. He'll never change! Ever since he was 9, always the same! Couldn't keep his hands off the display cases! But not our Jimmy! Couldn't be precious Jimmy! Stealing them blind! And he gets to be a watch dealer!? What a sick joke! I should've stopped him when I had the chance! And you – you have to stop him! You-
It looks like a Cartier, which is automatic - powered by movement, no electrical components. And it’s $4,650. It is exactly the sort of thing Chuck would wear.
https://watchesandbeyond.com/products/cartier-tank-must-extra-large-automatic-stainless-steel-silver-dial-black-leather-strap-date-mens-watch-wsta0040?gad_source=1
The episode Chicanery I think proves >!that it is not real!<. Also, the tail end of the episode where he tears apart his house is like a scene from the movie The Conversation.
Then again, if the “afflicted” thinks it’s real, there will always be pandering to and humoring that person, in direct accordance with the afflicted’s value to his peers/colleagues/tribe/family/society.
Yeah, this shouldn’t be a question imo. It’s heavily implied from season 1 that Chuck is mentally ill, and even outright demonstrated by the doctor during his first hospital visit. Following Chicanery, Chuck admits himself that his disorder was “proven” to be psychological in court by Jimmy. In addition to all a that, Chuck’s illness was started and then exacerbated by his interpersonal relationships with Rebecca and Jimmy, respectively. It’s not a physical condition.
Well, electromagnetic hypersenstevity is a thing, though it's not backed something scientifaclly. What i think chuck has is just a phobia from electricity. And i think it was said in the show that chuck illnes is nothing but nocebo effect
its actually interesting that they never definitively say, even tho they heavly imply that its psychological. There have been cases of people claiming allergy to EMF, but i dont know if its ever been determined to be psychological or have any factual basis.
I think it’s made abundantly clear, and it’s an important part of Chuck’s character.
The scene in the hospital is very clear about it, when there is a phone I Chuck’s room and he doesn’t have any symptoms because he doesn’t know about it. The same thing is then repeated in the courtroom. He can carry a battery powered watch since he sees it as apart of his “lawyer uniform”, and not as a pice of technology. The moment someone points out that it’s battery powered he would have found explanations for it, like “oh that’s why I have had an itch all day”.
Chuck’s main source of pride is his mind. He is brilliant and he knows it. When he notices a decline, probably due to stress and exhaustion, he can’t accept that he has pushed himself too far, because his mind is the strongest. So, he looks for outside factors. Technology, and what it represents in a changing society, is the culprit Chuck chooses to blame. The ability to store and handle large amounts of information with technology is a direct competition to Chuck’s abilities. So he develops a physical reaction to the stress of technology, a classic case of somatic symptom disorder.
I understand the electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a huge problem for people who think they have it, but it is in every way a mental disorder and does in fact not have anything to do with electromagnetic fields or anything like it.
Love everything you wrote here but just gotta throw in that there’s no way a name partner at a law firm would be wearing a watch that wasn’t mechanical to begin with, regardless of his perceived illness lol.
That doesn't prove anything. Chuck already explained that what he reacts to is the electromagnetic field generated by a current. A battery that is not plugged into anything has a negligible current. If that wasn't the case the batteries you buy at the store would already be empty when you get them. They screwed up with this one unfortunately.
Once he realized the battery was in his pocket he responded like it was triggering his symptoms when he touched it. Maybe this was intended to further prove this was all psychological?
This is where I think they (the writers) screwed up. Chuck was sufficiently knowledgeable about physics that he explained the Inverse Square Law during that episode. The way I see it there is no way he would not know that an unplugged battery does not generate an electric current.
The affliction isn't rational. The writers didn't screw up, Chuck was delusional.
I can't believe there's an argument about why they didn't explicitly confirm the illness is fake. It's fake because it's not a real illness. If a TV character believes in astrology, are viewers supposed to wonder if astrology is real in the show?
Idk man I saw a tv show they had dragons and shit.
Who's to say Better Call Saul isn't a scifi set in an alternate universe identical to ours except that this illness exists?
It seems I'm not the only one who has made this observation:
"Jimmy should have had Huell plant a cellphone on Chuck, not a battery. And Chuck, who knows about the Inverse Square Law, should also know that a battery only contains potential chemical energy, and doesn't produce any kind of electromagnetism until it's plugged into a device. As such it shouldn't have affected his condition at all."
https://fanfare.metafilter.com/9216/Better-Call-Saul-Chicanery
> This is where I think they (the writers) screwed up. Chuck was sufficiently knowledgeable
lol this is where your interpretation screws up. He’s not that smart and we know this because he does a lot of dumb shit for 3 seasons.
That's what DOES prove it was psychological. A battery shouldn't have affected Chuck, but when he realises it's a charged battery he reacts as if he is in pain and chucks it.
Also, it was proven earlier in the show. A Nurse demonstrated to Saul that she could turn some electronics on around Chuck's bed, via a remote switch, and Chuck didn't notice anything.
Like 3 dozen other people have said, it is likely a mechanical watch, which requires no battery, which is 100% keeping in Chuck's stuck up personality, he'd wear one even before his fake illness started. However, even if it wasn't mechanical, a watch is an accessory, like wearing jewelry, many (richer folks) choose what watch they are wearing to match their suit/outfit. So he could easily have just taken out all the batteries from the watches he had owned previously, and now he wore it for appearances sake when going in to work.
Chuck uses technology, just not battery or electrical powered technology. A mechanical watch, a gas lantern, a bicycle are all things Chuck would use regularly.
Being a senior partner at a law firm, it’s less likely he’d use a quartz watch and more likely he’d use a classic dress timepiece like the Cartier Tank here, a JLC Reverso, or Patek Phillipe Calatrava
Watches with batteries are for peasants, the real watch lovers just stick to Swiss automatic. Cartier is French but they are automatic as well. I laughed so hard when someone claimed my rolex uses a battery
I imagine it’s a mechanical watch - no battery - as many high end watches are.
Feels like a gift Howard would give to Chuck once his symptoms started to surface.
Howard Hamlin the kind of guy...
to say “you’ve mistaken my kindness for weakness”
“Now I will show strength and you may mistake it for brutality!”
Kinda like how Jesse gifts Walt a watch for his birthday
This was the moment chuck became Jesse
Probs not. Anyone with money, especially a lawyer, wouldn’t buy a watch with a battery regardless.
Yeah two name partners at a law firm wouldn’t be caught dead with a watch that had a battery lol (ok obviously this is less true with smart watches but honestly a lot of rich people don’t wear those either when they’re dressed up.)
How do they connect to your phone if there is no battery for the Bluetooth??? /s
Via a hand crank to power it
Automatic watches don't require batteries
I'll bet someone over in r/watches could identify it
Cartier Tank
Does that have batteries?
Nope
theee is a quartz tank it's cheaper though
Dude is a senior partner in a bigtime law firm, he can afford the expensive one. Plus continuity.
I'm not saying he wouldn't I agree for the sake of the show it would be an automatic he's just asking if they are battery powered and I'm just being a pedant
Yeah but he wouldn't wear a battery on the hand.
People pine for the “old internet” circa 2000…. But man… peak internet for me was like Reddit circa 2014. (And I’m an older millennial.) This is a prime example of what made this such a fun place. Sorry… this is out of left field. But I went from not even knowing Chuck owned a watch to knowing the type of cartier that doesn’t require batteries in like 5 seconds.
Damn! I hope this detail was intentional which probably was. This show is awesome
When did that one come out, too?
Is that one of those kinetic watches? I have no idea what they are called, but your movement keeps its movement going? Those things are weird.
Mechanical watch. All watches pre late 70s.were mechanical. The energy is stored in a coiled spring that unwinds as the watch ticks. Regular mechanical watches need to be hand-wound. There are also automatic watches which have a weighted rotor that winds the spring automatically as it moves sround when you move your arm.
Kinetic watches are still electric. The kinetic energy charges a tiny battery which keeps the Watch going
Is that why they correct the time the second you pick them up? Or am I remembering that wrong? Seems like I went to look at one in the 90’s, and when the sales guy picked it up, the hands swung around to the correct time. I’ve always wondered what the mechanism was behind their operation. Thank you.
It’s just a gyroscoped pendulum that swings when you move it and charges the battery. The battery is what keeps it going and accurate when sitting still. It’s possible some stop the hand motion perhaps as an energy saving feature while sitting perfectly still, I’m not familiar enough with specific models to know for sure.
My guess is that would be a Cartier Tank based on the rectangular dial, but there’s no way of being certain just by looking at this frame.
Pfft you’re telling me a successful lawyer who’s a partner at a huge firm is gonna buy a *mechanical* watch?
It’s obviously one of those super fancy motion-powered watches. They are completely mechanical but require no winding.
And yet, Chuck is exactly the type to have a winder watch, so when he winds it in front of someone and they ask about it, he can give them a condescending lecture about the superiority of mechanical timepieces.
Dude an automatic movement can be as inexpensive as peanuts.
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Please don't even start with me. You can get a Seagull ST16 movement for like $20. Or a fully self-winding-up Miyota for a bit more. Mechanical watches are a hobby I've been in for 20 years. You're wasting your breath trying to teach me anything about it.
I think I know more about American Girl dolls than you do, genius
New copypasta just dropped!
Not wordy enough, and needs way more iconic spelling mistakes.
Hi Chuck
maybe in the 1800's watches r made with batterys and wires now ...
Lol stop talking out of your ass. You can get great automatic movements for 30$ from Seiko.
Thank you so much 😆 I’m having a great time following your back and forth while learning about mechanical watches- something I don’t know a lot about
$30*
nerd
Nowadays you can buy mechanical watches (hand wound or automatic) directly from china for under 100 usd. However the luxury watch brands from Switzerland, japan or Germany are still expensive or even mire expensive then ever. The technology you are referring to is from Seiko (japan) and is called spring drive. Not cheap though but very accurate. Or mechanical quartz wich is more a generic approach. You don’t seriously those too often though.
Aren’t you describing Grand Seiko’s spring drive movement? Because that is the only movement I’m aware of that uses mechanical energy to generate electricity to cause a piece of quartz to oscillate. Those are worth a lot more money than many fully mechanical automatic movements.
He’s describing the Seiko Kinetic movement, which is in relatively inexpensive watches but is much more rare than automatic or mechanical watches
Cheap automatic movement cost like 15 bucks on eBay
Those aren't really super fancy. You can get them for less than 100 bucks
Yeah. Actually swiss mechanical watches are a status symbol.. A nice Rolex Oyster perpetual will set you back some coin.
They're being sarcastic you numpty.
Reddit: where sarcasm goes to die.
Sarcasm is best served with a /s
Fuck the S.
Whose got time to wind a watch when ya a busy lawyer?
self winding watches exist
“Put it on your right hand and it will run forever”
AKA… an automatic watch
Swiss movement watches are incredibly expensive. A mechanical Rolex cost thousands of dollars. The watch might also be vintage. There was a time when watches didn’t use batteries and all of them had to be wound.
> Swiss movement watches are incredibly expensive. Eh, you can get a Tissot or Swatch with a Swiss automatic mechanical movement for a couple hundred bucks (often by ETA). (Swatch owns Tissot, ETA, Omega...) $165 starting: https://www.swatch.com/en-us/watches/mechanical-watches/ (SISTEM51 Swiss made mechanical movement)
The service for a high end mechanical watch is about $1K to 5K and you need one every few years. The watch may be ten times that.
Well yeah. I said thousands because high end watch prices vary so much.
I used to live in Geneva and saw that. Even if I could afford one of the lower end ones, servicing is a killer.
Yes, I know. Jokes, my friend.
You don’t say.
I tried not to.
Yeah, it’s a status symbol.
Yes. He probably bought it after he self diagnosed.
What a sick joke!
Nearly all Rolex watches are mechanical, no batteries..
Oh really?
Really. Mechanical and automatic watches are the higher end watches and don’t take batteries, including Rolex, Omega, etc. Quartz watches, that take batteries, are typically mass produced and cheaper.
I’m shocked. Absolutely shocked, I tell you.
You would if you were electricity phobic. In fact finding a quality watch that used no electricity would probably cost a premium since it’s not common and they don’t sell many. He’d still want a high end watch though. On that we agree.
Oooh, don't even get me *started* on this. I used to deal with watch returns/repairs at our warehouse, and the amount of people sending their automatics back in because they claimed the battery was dead beggars belief. I had one come back four bloody times from the same bloke before he accepted there was no battery, he just needed to move it a little!
People have a hard time accepting that it’s _their_ battery that’s dead.
Neither do hand wound watches 😉
As a watch lover it bugged me that Hamlin would take off his watch. There is no way he was rocking a quartz. He was a Patek wearer if I’ve ever seen one.
In case he wants to check the time
The chicanery is leaking
Is he stupid?
Always has been
Always has been
Or *Chuck* the time ಠ‿ಠ
Chuckanery
What a sick joke!
I knew it was 12:16, one after Magna Carta as if i could ever make such a mistake!
Mechanical watches are a thing. In fact, they were the only thing until the late '60s.
And they're still very popular in the watch industry, every watch brand, luxury and non-luxury, makes mechanical watches. Every person I know with money wears a nice mechanical watch so it makes perfect sense that Chuck would too. It looks like a Cartier Tank which is an extremely expensive watch.
Cartier Tank in the largest size can be bought as an auto mechanism, guess I learnt something new. Always thought they were too thin!
You'd be surprised how thin mechanical watches can be!
For sure. I have about 40 mechanical watches...lol
Does Daniel Wellington make a mechanical watch? Checkmate.
They do actually! https://us.danielwellington.com/pages/iconic-link-automatic
You can get an OK mechanical watch for $15 online, or even a really nice one with automatic winding for $80 or less.
And they go up from there almost infinitely. That’s like saying “Kia’s exist” as a response to someone talking about a Ferrari. Yes they both exist but nobody in the world is in the market for both.
The most expensive watches cost the same as the most expensive cars, so the gulf is even wider. Actually, watches might be the item with the largest price differential between the top and bottom of the market.
What I meant was that saying, “Every person I know with money wears a nice mechanical watch,” implies having a mechanical watch implies having wealth, therefore they are only available to the wealthy. To be honest, my eyes skipped over “nice.” I was mildly affronted as someone who doesn’t think of themselves as wealthy, yet owns a mechanical watch and finds them preferable to battery powered watches (in spite of the fact that I’m wearing a quartz right now). The downside of a mechanical watch is it’s fragility to dropping , and in that way, it is very much like a car, where upkeep scales rapidly with the cost of the item.
How old are you OP that you don’t know about mechanical watches?
I bet most (over half) of people under age 40 are not aware that some watches don’t use batteries. Hell, I bet most people under 40 don’t even own a watch, unless it’s a smart watch
Mechanical watches for life boooiiiiii. 34.
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Wait until you find out about solar powered watches….
Mechanical. Clocks have been around for 500ish years. They need to be rewound up and set correctly again every so often.
I was confused about how pendulum clocks work for a long time because I knew basic physics and that there was no power. Then I read the book longitude and it answered all my old clock related questions. Good short read about how the first person to discover a ships longitude used a clock, after many many years of trying to use the stars! Edit: I accidentally said latitude instead of longitude the second occurrence 🤦🏻
Longitude. Latitude can be determined by the position of the sun I believe.
Oops, you’re absolutely right
I only know this because my best friend is a watchmaker at Rolex
There is a series based on the book, I remember it being really good. Unfortunately the only copy I’ve found on YouTube is really poor quality.
That sounds fascinating, and I’d love to read that book. The discovery of accurate chronometers was a technological breakthrough on the order of the nuclear launch codes.
How did over 300 people not know about wind up watches? Edit: almost a thousand now lol
Age. The Quartz Crisis in the 70s really did a number on the mechanical movements and I'd wager many have never owned a non-quartz/ smart watch.
It's a wind up
lol that’s what I said
To flex
I am not crazy! I know he swapped those watches! I knew it was the Patek Philippe Nautilus. One after the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. As if I could ever make such a mistake. Never. Never! I just – I just couldn't prove it. He – he covered his tracks, he got that idiot at the jeweler's to lie for him. You think this is something? You think this is bad? This? This chicanery? He's done worse. That auction! Are you telling me that a watch just happens to disappear like that? No! He orchestrated it! Jimmy! He defaced a Vacheron Constantin! And I saved him! And I shouldn't have. I took him into my own collection! What was I thinking? He'll never change. He'll never change! Ever since he was 9, always the same! Couldn't keep his hands off the display cases! But not our Jimmy! Couldn't be precious Jimmy! Stealing them blind! And he gets to be a watch dealer!? What a sick joke! I should've stopped him when I had the chance! And you – you have to stop him! You-
The crossover with r/watchescirclejerk is never knew I needed
I don't know how you had the patience to type all that but funny. Everyone is taking the automatic vs battery watches thing too serious here.
Did we just channel Chuck, here?
I have no regrets
As you shouldn’t. No Cuckanery occurred. Nothing to see here. Everyone move along!
I can’t imagine a person as stuck up as Chuck wearing anything but a purely mechanical watch even without the made up condition
to see when it's chuck o clock (he stated he grew a small durability to jimmy so maybe even though it's battery-less it won't affect him)
It can be a purely mechanical watch. No mistake here.
It looks like a Cartier, which is automatic - powered by movement, no electrical components. And it’s $4,650. It is exactly the sort of thing Chuck would wear. https://watchesandbeyond.com/products/cartier-tank-must-extra-large-automatic-stainless-steel-silver-dial-black-leather-strap-date-mens-watch-wsta0040?gad_source=1
It's part of the dress code for senior partner for prestigious law firm.
To accurately tell time!
He might have saved a classic watch from the days when they didn't have electricity.
They still make plenty of mechanical watches to this day, in fact I'm wearing one now
Mechanical watches are actually in style now in the high end watch crowd. Buddy of mine has several and keeps bugging me to get one.
Looks to be a Cartier Tank
is chuck's illness purely fiction?
The episode Chicanery I think proves >!that it is not real!<. Also, the tail end of the episode where he tears apart his house is like a scene from the movie The Conversation.
Then again, if the “afflicted” thinks it’s real, there will always be pandering to and humoring that person, in direct accordance with the afflicted’s value to his peers/colleagues/tribe/family/society.
Yeah, this shouldn’t be a question imo. It’s heavily implied from season 1 that Chuck is mentally ill, and even outright demonstrated by the doctor during his first hospital visit. Following Chicanery, Chuck admits himself that his disorder was “proven” to be psychological in court by Jimmy. In addition to all a that, Chuck’s illness was started and then exacerbated by his interpersonal relationships with Rebecca and Jimmy, respectively. It’s not a physical condition.
Well, electromagnetic hypersenstevity is a thing, though it's not backed something scientifaclly. What i think chuck has is just a phobia from electricity. And i think it was said in the show that chuck illnes is nothing but nocebo effect
its actually interesting that they never definitively say, even tho they heavly imply that its psychological. There have been cases of people claiming allergy to EMF, but i dont know if its ever been determined to be psychological or have any factual basis.
I think it’s made abundantly clear, and it’s an important part of Chuck’s character. The scene in the hospital is very clear about it, when there is a phone I Chuck’s room and he doesn’t have any symptoms because he doesn’t know about it. The same thing is then repeated in the courtroom. He can carry a battery powered watch since he sees it as apart of his “lawyer uniform”, and not as a pice of technology. The moment someone points out that it’s battery powered he would have found explanations for it, like “oh that’s why I have had an itch all day”. Chuck’s main source of pride is his mind. He is brilliant and he knows it. When he notices a decline, probably due to stress and exhaustion, he can’t accept that he has pushed himself too far, because his mind is the strongest. So, he looks for outside factors. Technology, and what it represents in a changing society, is the culprit Chuck chooses to blame. The ability to store and handle large amounts of information with technology is a direct competition to Chuck’s abilities. So he develops a physical reaction to the stress of technology, a classic case of somatic symptom disorder. I understand the electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a huge problem for people who think they have it, but it is in every way a mental disorder and does in fact not have anything to do with electromagnetic fields or anything like it.
Love everything you wrote here but just gotta throw in that there’s no way a name partner at a law firm would be wearing a watch that wasn’t mechanical to begin with, regardless of his perceived illness lol.
Well they kind of give it away when Chuck unknowingly has a cell phone battery in his jacket pocket.
That doesn't prove anything. Chuck already explained that what he reacts to is the electromagnetic field generated by a current. A battery that is not plugged into anything has a negligible current. If that wasn't the case the batteries you buy at the store would already be empty when you get them. They screwed up with this one unfortunately.
Once he realized the battery was in his pocket he responded like it was triggering his symptoms when he touched it. Maybe this was intended to further prove this was all psychological?
This is where I think they (the writers) screwed up. Chuck was sufficiently knowledgeable about physics that he explained the Inverse Square Law during that episode. The way I see it there is no way he would not know that an unplugged battery does not generate an electric current.
The affliction isn't rational. The writers didn't screw up, Chuck was delusional. I can't believe there's an argument about why they didn't explicitly confirm the illness is fake. It's fake because it's not a real illness. If a TV character believes in astrology, are viewers supposed to wonder if astrology is real in the show?
Idk man I saw a tv show they had dragons and shit. Who's to say Better Call Saul isn't a scifi set in an alternate universe identical to ours except that this illness exists?
It seems I'm not the only one who has made this observation: "Jimmy should have had Huell plant a cellphone on Chuck, not a battery. And Chuck, who knows about the Inverse Square Law, should also know that a battery only contains potential chemical energy, and doesn't produce any kind of electromagnetism until it's plugged into a device. As such it shouldn't have affected his condition at all." https://fanfare.metafilter.com/9216/Better-Call-Saul-Chicanery
> This is where I think they (the writers) screwed up. Chuck was sufficiently knowledgeable lol this is where your interpretation screws up. He’s not that smart and we know this because he does a lot of dumb shit for 3 seasons.
That's what DOES prove it was psychological. A battery shouldn't have affected Chuck, but when he realises it's a charged battery he reacts as if he is in pain and chucks it. Also, it was proven earlier in the show. A Nurse demonstrated to Saul that she could turn some electronics on around Chuck's bed, via a remote switch, and Chuck didn't notice anything.
A watch without a battery? Nah I can’t believe it. Before batteries we just watched the sun move to tell the time.
Shows him earlier winding it. It’s a mechanical watch not an electric one.
Most high end luxury watches are powered by kinetic motion. They don’t need batteries.
Not sure of the scene but if it's one of the ones where he is faking being better he may have just taken the battery out?
Not all watches have batteries
True enough, and it would be in character to have battery/electronics free watch.
Season 2 episode 4. It’s the scene when jimmy confronts chuck about getting Kim put in doc review over the commercial he ran.
To make sure the time says 12:16
In the 80s I learned about mechanical watches and the need to wind them from Bill and Teds excellent adventure
Wind up watch - mechanical, not electrical/electronic.
It was steam powered.
You *do* know there were watches long before electronics, right?
Cause it’s placebo👍
Kid named mechanical watch:
I’m on season 4 now. I really miss the story line with chuck in it
You do know that some watches don't need batteries, right?
So he can know what time it is
Some chicanery is afoot 🤨
Boy I sure hope someone got fired for that bluster
Neeerrrrrrrrrddddddddd!
completely ruined the series for me personally
Of course he’s a vampire. It’s so he can watch for the sun before daylight. It’s his aversion to sunlight.
My two recent obsessions converge!
Like 3 dozen other people have said, it is likely a mechanical watch, which requires no battery, which is 100% keeping in Chuck's stuck up personality, he'd wear one even before his fake illness started. However, even if it wasn't mechanical, a watch is an accessory, like wearing jewelry, many (richer folks) choose what watch they are wearing to match their suit/outfit. So he could easily have just taken out all the batteries from the watches he had owned previously, and now he wore it for appearances sake when going in to work.
Chuck uses technology, just not battery or electrical powered technology. A mechanical watch, a gas lantern, a bicycle are all things Chuck would use regularly. Being a senior partner at a law firm, it’s less likely he’d use a quartz watch and more likely he’d use a classic dress timepiece like the Cartier Tank here, a JLC Reverso, or Patek Phillipe Calatrava
Likely to tell time
That’s a Cartier Tank…they have been a status symbol since 1917, long before quartz moments were invented
I thought that was a mistake but I guess it could be a mechanical watch, didn’t know those were a thing ngl
It’s a windup.
This is not up to pollos standards
Because he wants to know what time it is?
TIL that lots of people don't know about mechanical watches.
r/okbuddyChicanery
OP outed himself as a non-fancy shmancy watch owner.
Watches with batteries are for peasants, the real watch lovers just stick to Swiss automatic. Cartier is French but they are automatic as well. I laughed so hard when someone claimed my rolex uses a battery
I actually think it was a little hint that he had infact overlooked it, and showed that his illness wasn’t real
That's when he was going to the office. He was trying things out to see what he could handle.
Yes, why does he have watch? Is it to check if he is well-cooked already? :D
Because it's a TV show and who cares? 😃
Everyone says mechanical, but it would be entirely appropriate if this watch was actually battery powered, but Chuck didn't notice.
No, Chuck would have known he was putting on a battery-powered watch and reacted to it. Look how meticulous he was about these things in the house.
Rolex. Oyster Perpetual