Using Mechanical Marvels to Personify Friends

ken kato and I first began collaborating years ago when we were both developing solutions for the Air Operations Center while innovating at USAF Kessel Run. We've always had a bias for action, a bias to get stuff done, and we loved to work across functional areas throughout our organization to experiment with different perspectives to achieve the highest quality outcomes.

When I first met Ken, he was standing over an Edge Cloud Device, running resource tests; we talked about how that device would change the way we conduct command and control someday. A few experimental collaboration sessions later, we discovered that we both really appreciated the aspect of "time", and how relevant it was to be successful in modernization and scaling solutions.

In the Department of Defense, capability creators acknowledge "cost", "schedule", and "performance". These are pretty straight forward factors to consider, but there are a TON of other variables that determine how successful a program was at creating capability. Uniquely, the one factor that we have the least control over - "schedule", or at least the input to schedule "time", impacts our ability to "strategically deter" National Security threats. Theoretically, we can waste money, we can create things that don't perform as well as we would have liked, but we can't waste time.

The obsession with time and its significance led Ken and I down a number of horology "rabbit holes", discussing timepieces, movements complications, etc. It was a blast. We both view watches as a mechanical organ of ours, it's almost an extension of our bodies -- our love for watches always reminds us of the importance of respecting "time".

Our Recent Random Conversational Pivot

This Sunday, Ken and I met for a collaboration session. We were deep-diving on system architecture, customer success, and theories around measuring value, when we decided to take a tactical break. Of course watches came up. I immediately associated the eccentric "Ball Engineer Watch" with Ken and his personality. He thought it was hilarious and within 5 seconds, pinned my personality to a "Panerai Luminor Due Luna"; his confidence in that association was absolutely hilarious. We were having fun.

We committed to writing a short explanation that outlined why we selected those timepieces for each other. The overviews are published below:

Ken's Excerpt: "Why is Rob a Panerai Luminor Due Luna"

Rob and I like to thrash on creativity. My time with Rob is like an open space that invites musicians together with the pure intent to play what you're inspired by. In one of those thrash/ja/design/ideation sessions we got talking watches and Rob posed that watch that distills my essence in a wrist wearable horological innovation is a Ball Engineer and this in turn launched the idea, how would we describe our friends and colleagues in watches? The moment that was posed I immediately knew, with no hesitation even before Rob could say the idea aloud, that Rob is a Panerai Luminor Due Luna, specifically the PAM01180 with the white strap.?

The Luminor Due Luna is a weird release from Panerai, but a really good kind of weird, the way we love Goonies and why a reboot will never work. The moon phase is a complication that doesn’t have a wide range of usage as far as watch functions go. Chronographs have an explicit reason, calendars have daily practical implications. But a moon phase? I can tell you the amount of daylight and what the moon will be? What I love about moon phases is first, they’re always pretty. There isn’t a moon phase out there that has ugly displays and unfortunate representations of the moon and night sky. The blue especially in the Due Luna is perhaps the best blue with the ideal contrast for the moon. It’s just lovely. It reminds me of Rob’s greatest strength to inspire.?

The watch size is another oddity. Panerai is known for their masculine, chunky, large present watch sizes that make you think they are reserved for large wrists. This watch scales down to thirty-eight millimeters, small not just for Panerai but in today’s watch market in general where common sizes are around forty millimeters. Those two tiny millimeters doesn’t sound like a lot, but the difference is visually noticeable. At thirty-eight wide the Due Luna is very wearable, something that Rob pours the mold for that interesting fit between ease and usability with out-there ideas. To that aspect the dial too, Panerai is famed for the usage of a sandwich dial, something that impacts the case height and has to give deep consideration to the ideal sandwich-ness of a dial. Because this is Rob, so what is it about the sandwich dial that adds that additional layer of value?

Panerai is steeped in Italian naval heritage that informed the overall design and development. Rob applies not just his mind to problems, by bringing life experiences into his motions he finds new perspectives that aren’t seen by anyone else. Time and external influences changed the design just as much, the crown lever wouldn’t have been necessary except that Rolex figured out an improved screw-down crown first. Rob has the ability to never accept something at face value and ask the simple and fundamental question: why? It’s for all of these reasons that Rob’s watch is a Panerai Luminor Due Luna.

Rob's Excerpt: "Why is Ken is a Ball Engineer Watch"

Class meets function. Quality meets quirkiness, this is why the Ball Engineering watch reminds me of Ken Kato. An unstoppable innovator that leverages years of tactical engineering to prioritize solutions that are new, risky, but resilient.?

Every time Ken and I collaborate, I feel like my brain grows in density. His inputs are so considerate, multi-layered, and intimate. When Ken and I collaborate, I feel like there’s always this ridiculous psychic connection, where we’ve crossed paths in the delivery trenches so often, and we have similar cultural experiences, that we can transverse topics and solve problems rapidly without overly explaining anything.

Ken’s a seer in my industry, he’s a living machine learning model that’s evaluated so many problem statements and computed a variety of possible outcomes…over and over and over again. Ken engulfs his delivery & approach with scientific curiosity, humility, and caution. His expertise allows him to wander the chaotic wastelands of public sector delivery with confidence, his technology startup scars issue comfort to the teams that depend on him.

Why did I choose Ball Watch Company’s Engineer watch for Ken?

The Ball Engineer watch has a ton of overlooked history. Ball watch was an American time-keeping company founded in 1891 that got its start in the railroad industry. Ken’s commitment to industrial innovations and respect for history reminds me of this brand. The watch is built for practical environments, and it focuses on resiliency. Let’s look at a few of Ball Engineer’s features:

• It’s 100M / 330 FT water resistance; which is the standard for general water resistance for an automatic watch.
• It’s crafted using 904L Stainless Steel, the same metal used by Rolexes

The dial incorporates sophisticated micro gas tubes containing Hydrogen that illuminates indices with a brightness that is unique to Ball Watches. It immediately reacts to dark conditions. Yes...it's radiation in tubes that light up the indices and provide the time-related insights that you depend on in the dark lab you're tirelessly innovating inside of. This unique scientific sophistication oozes Ken Kato; the anti-magnetic resiliency mimics the approaches the quality and resiliency that Ken bakes into the platforms he builds and manages.?Ken is the ultimate engineer, and this watch is the ultimate engineering watch. I imagine him timing his experiments, both mechanical and technical, staring down at this timepiece, watching the kinetic seconds hand swoop towards the next iteration that him his team will have.