The article succeeded in its purpose of getting us all to talk about it, but it is not clear whether the writer spoke to
even one person who actually doesn’t set their watch to the correct time. Not that it’s worth reading again, but if you do you’ll see that a boring rundown of various people acknowledging that their phones are more accurate than their watches has been tweaked by the editor and headline writer to make it seem like they’re saying they don’t set their watches at all.
[I did not read the article, just the OP and a few comments. ]
It seems that one theme is that digital watches are superior and another theme is that watches are mainly useful as jewelry?
As far as the old digital/phone is superior argument, the advocates seem to focus on only one feature, the longevity of accuracy.
Meaning, to say a digital phone is more accurate, you can't really compare them for one day, as a watch can be +0/-0 for 24 hours. The argument usually means their digital watch will be accurate in one year and longer.
A problem with this argument is that the proponents of digital have too short a time space. Extending it out 60 plus years, a mechanical watch will be more accurate because the digital will be dead. There's a good chance that the same phone will last 2 to 5 years due to the software. Digital watches also have a self life.
Therefore, comparing accuracy is somewhat selective.
The other argument in favor of digital seems to be that the digital/phone person doesn't need to do anything to maintain accurate time.
This is just a sad argument. It sounds lazy. A person who doesn't have 20 seconds a day to wind a watch is either too busy with the wrong priorities or too lazy.
Winding or winding and setting a watch (assume no date) will also keep that accuracy within seconds, which is more than enough. When anyone asks the time, who answers "9:38"? Most people will sat "9:40" or even "Quarter to ten". Comparing time accuracy between digital and mechanical is a poor comparison when arguing the superiority of one over the other.
I could go on (on on and on) about the value of mechanical watches but this is already TLDR.
These people who delight in arguing that mechanical watches are not useful are like people who only wear khaki pants and only drive the brand of car that is on top of Consumer Reports and that is at least 4 years old because who would ever buy a new car? Dull.
Lastly,
QED