Bob,
Your analysis with the watch is faulty because at each step someone used reason to evaluate the workings and make SPECIFIC improvements, not happenchance. Testing, re-evaluation by some designer (you even use the word "design"). So the pocket chronometer didn't appear from lots of big clocks sitting around rotting.
Secondly, your history of the pocket watch needs a little help. Small watches were developed very quickly when the British Navy decided they needed a reliable method of determining longitude at sea. What was eventually developed (by a carpenter, not a "trained" scientist) was a very small, circular clock which used a wheel pendulum powered by springs. Why? "big" meant more susceptible to errors induced by rolling of the ship. The problem in making it small wasn't for lack of idea but for lack of machine tools to make small parts with sufficient precision. The concept of the small design actually happened rapidly but preceded the ability to execute it technologically (kind of like Einstein's theories). AND scientists really got a black eye on this one because they delayed paying the reward (several thousand pounds British sterling) for about 20 years because the guy wasn't a scientist. Just to present his results and get his devices tested, he had to have a member of the British Royal Society sponsor him and escort him to meetings. Now, THAT'S a club!
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The analogy to a mechanical pocket watch being "too complex" to have
appeared without an intelligent designer is also bogus. The mechanical
pocket watch evolved like any organism. Each part (like gears, springs,
pointers, etc.) were first used for other purposes. The first clunky
mechanical clocks slowly evolved as various craftsmen improved the
designs. Smaller clocks were created for the wealthy. Eventually, the
miniaturization led someone to conceive of a "pocket" watch using all
the refinements that had evolved through the years. Instead of being an
example to be used to beat Darwinism over the head with - the pocket
watch is an excellent example of how evolution can result in a pocket
watch without the need for an "Intelligent Designer" to dream the whole
device up all at once.
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