There's explaining, and then there's explaining. It's one thing to try to explain why you like watches. It's another thing to try to explain why someone else should like watches.
There's also people who care, and people who don't. You got to know which one you're talking to. Most don't care, even though they say they do, like your bike buddy. He doesn't give a shit because it's really not that hard to understand why a person would like watches.
For example, I had a similar conversation about watches with my brother-in-law and a mutual friend. It didn't take long for the comment about why would I need a watch when his apple smart watch told the time and email. I was wearing an almost 60 year old 18K gold UG. The easy answer would be that my watch has been working for 60 plus years and will keep working for decades more, whereas your smart watch won't work in two years when Apple changes their software to force you to upgrade. My watch is a treat for the eye, whereas your watch looks like a shackle.
But that's not what got me. The mutual friend is into mid-century modern in a big way. He has good taste. He understands the difference between a folding chair and an Eames chair. He cares about how he dresses. So how can he not appreciate a beautiful watch? What's really going on in this inability to understand why someone likes watches?
Take your bike buddy for example. He probably appreciates bikes and parts for more than their utilitarian purpose alone. He probably understands asthetics. When someone says they can't understand why a person would be interested in time pieces, they are either a hermit with no interest in anything beyond the basic necessities of life or being a dick.
Surely, it's not that difficult to appreciate why a watch would interest someone. Naturally, not everyone will like watches as much as we do, nor do we ask them to. But it's not that big a stretch to say I get it, but it's not my thing.
Aside from being snarky arseholes who think they're clever, i think that for most people, watches are not part of modern society. They are just completely foreign to their everyday life. When they do think of them, it's totally utilitarian, like a toaster or a door knob, it does a job. They aren't conscious of what a watch represents or its details. That takes some mental focus to come around to the idea. For many people, they don't have any energy left over from their daily living. I can understand that. I can't understand how someone who appreciates the other finer things in life can't appreciate how a watch might be more than simply a way to tell what time it is.
The answer is not in being able to explain it better; the answer is accepting that some people just don't get it, and then accepting the fact that you are more evolved than your buddy with the bike fixation.
IMHO.
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