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Why do you prefer a mechanical watch?

E
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I really don’t know what I like anymore, I bought a bunch of mechanical watches recently but i also bought a stainless steel Apple Watch series 6 and an aluminum case for my girlfriend. I have a series watch 4, that used to be my daily but when I wore my mechanical watches i wore them because they were the new “toy”, when I spun up the series 4 watch for a few hours I realized that despite the fact that the series 4 is electronic, there’s more to do with an electronic watch than just staring at a mechanical watch all day that just “gives” you the time.

Now I’m even debating on selling my mechanical watches and just stick to digital since it’s hard to go back on not getting notifications from messages, phone, music, relaxing, I don’t know, mechanical watches are cool but at the end of the day it all boils down to usage in this day and age, 10 years ago nothing would had changed, but no one pays attention to what you wear on your wrist except for digital watches, i showed my omega to my niece the other day and she was like what’s that? It doesn’t look like an Apple Watch and she was making fun of me so it made feel like a dinosaur haha, i don’t know. To each their own. Now i want mechanical watches to do something, I feel that the Lume dials should be just digital haha jk right? Or am I really kiddin? LOL
 
BlackTalon
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E eldiano84
... it’s hard to go back on not getting notifications from messages, phone, music, relaxing
That's where I differ. Getting messages, phone, etc. on a watch is about as opposite as relaxing as it can be for me.

Give your niece a few more years to experience some extended power outages from storms, etc. and she may come to realize going all digital has it's limitations.
 
E
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BlackTalon BlackTalon
That's where I differ. Getting messages, phone, etc. on a watch is about as opposite as relaxing as it can be for me.

Give your niece a few more years to experience some extended power outages from storms, etc. and she may come to realize going all digital has it's limitations.
It’s a habit, i catch myself tapping my sapphire crystal swiping thinking it will do something but it will not. For example when driving, it became intuitive for me to have the watch as a guide on telling me right or left by the wrist vibrations when the gps voices are not loud to hear on the phone, or when you don’t want to pull out the phone from the pocket to check what notification from your watch, believe it or not it’s the ultimate level of laziness since the phone might give you a harder time due to privacy settings or something causing all this big deal to get to the email/messages to see the full message for example

Or using the phone as a method of payment or a method of airplane ticket qr device so you fly, even then, once disney ditches their cubersome magic bands and finally opts out for their apps, the digital watches will be the new “it” experience, but don’t get me wrong I’ve shelled out some insane amount of money of mechanical watches, but i flinched and had a heart attack when i spent 800 bucks on a digital watch and don’t really know why, when I dropped 6 times more on something that completely does nothing more than just tell the time. That digital watch slowly but surely became a weird necessity now or maybe it’s the fact that it’s just a gadget that conveniently disguises it self as a watch...
Edited:
 
Walrus
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I really like Apple and I see how the new series has an accurate O2 sensor and some other medical advances. It is amazing the tech in those watches. Thing is I like mechanical because it is old school. It doesn’t beep and remind me of stuff. I keep appointments on my iPhone and I was looking next week I have 40 appts. 99% of them are work related, if my watch reminded me of those I’m afraid my head would explode. I’m not anti tech in anyway, one day I would like an Apple Watch. There are too many reasons to mention why I like mechanical watches but one of them is because it isn’t “techy”
 
Walrus
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Having said that I am a bit afraid if I get one what has happened to you will happen to me. It’s not like smart watches are a fad they are big sellers because they are useful, I can’t argue with the numbers.
 
Canuck
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A cheap quartz watch is accurate to a few seconds per month as a rule. An exceptional mechanical watch might match the cheap quartz watch for accuracy. Why should a watch be relegated to the status of a “throw away”, like a lighter, pen, razor, etc., like most cheap (but very accurate) quartz watches are. Give me exceptional. H_ _ l, I’m even happy with very good mechanical watches. Can there really be a sense of the aesthetic in a Quartz watch whose sole virtue is accuracy.
 
E
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Walrus Walrus
Having said that I am a bit afraid if I get one what has happened to you will happen to me. It’s not like smart watches are a fad they are big sellers because they are useful, I can’t argue with the numbers.
It’s exactly HOW I felt whenever I got my very first Apple Watch series 3. I was like I didn’t need this at all, is useless, there’s nothing i would need from this, bleh it’s digital, annoying, then the more you get used to it, I use the cellular model of course, the more i realize the nature behind it.

It is meant to be used as bridge between your phone and you. Can it be used as a standalone device? Absolutely, you can forget your phone and it will still function with the basics such as receiving messages, phone calls, emails, music, health apps, etc. One widget that’s useful is a tip calculator that’s exclusive to the watch, it’s there but it’s useful. Apple/Samsung are trying really hard to market you into believing they are experts in band making and that’s where i draw the line. Nothing will be ever as comfortable as an oyster bracelet or omega rubber/nato strap on my wrist, with that said, if you ever walk into their stores listen to their sales pitch in sizing your wrist, it’s kind of hilarious to be honest but the average buyer has no idea on what perfection sounds like but that’s just me.

At the end of the day complications such as api index, activity rings, little things like the breathe app(it help during an anxiety attack) like you said are useful, there was a time were i used digital watches for a year straight with my mechanical watches in storage. If it wasn’t for me falling in love with the new omega 300m seamaster redesign I wouldn’t be here.

But the only reason I ended with an Apple Watch was because of the company I worked for was giving employee Discounts at the time, so if you bought one you got $200 off retail as a perk, that was a no brainer for me! Haha
 
Walrus
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E eldiano84
It’s exactly HOW I felt whenever I got my very first Apple Watch series 3. I was like I didn’t need this at all, is useless, there’s nothing i would need from this, bleh it’s digital, annoying, then the more you get used to it, I use the cellular model of course, the more i realize the nature behind it.

It is meant to be used as bridge between your phone and you. Can it be used as a standalone device? Absolutely, you can forget your phone and it will still function with the basics such as receiving messages, phone calls, emails, music, health apps, etc. One widget that’s useful is a tip calculator that’s exclusive to the watch, it’s there but it’s useful. Apple/Samsung are trying really hard to market you into believing they are experts in band making and that’s where i draw the line. Nothing will be ever as comfortable as an oyster bracelet or omega rubber/nato strap on my wrist, with that said, if you ever walk into their stores listen to their sales pitch in sizing your wrist, it’s kind of hilarious to be honest but the average buyer has no idea on what perfection sounds like but that’s just me.

At the end of the day complications such as api index, activity rings, little things like the breathe app(it help during an anxiety attack) like you said are useful, there was a time were i used digital watches for a year straight with my mechanical watches in storage. If it wasn’t for me falling in love with the new omega 300m seamaster redesign I wouldn’t be here.

But the only reason I ended with an Apple Watch was because of the company I worked for was giving employee Discounts at the time, so if you bought one you got $200 off retail as a perk, that was a no brainer for me! Haha
That makes perfect sense to me. A financial incentive would probably push me over the edge like it did you. Are the watches as dependable as the iPhones? I started with a 5s. Now have an 8plus and I’m currently looking for an upgrade. That 5s I gave to someone who was having financial difficulties. Fortunately their situation improved, they gave that 5s or whatever it was to another family member who is still using it to this day. Do you find the watches to be reliable and long lasting?
 
E
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Walrus Walrus
That makes perfect sense to me. A financial incentive would probably push me over the edge like it did you. Are the watches as dependable as the iPhones? I started with a 5s. Now have an 8plus and I’m currently looking for an upgrade. That 5s I gave to someone who was having financial difficulties. Fortunately their situation improved, they gave that 5s or whatever it was to another family member who is still using it to this day. Do you find the watches to be reliable and long lasting?

They are actually, it all depends with the case material that you get, aluminum takes a beating of course, the screen scratches like regular quartz watches, stainless steel models introduce sapphire crystal screens. This is Apple Watch can’t speak for samsung watches but add in apple care and your can replace whatever issues you have with your watch no matter the problem this is my series 4 watch of two years to date, but i take care of my stuff, i used to have a case for watch but it makes it bulky and screen protectors just feel weird. In terms of dependable as a machine, it’s one of the few gadgets that electronically i have few problems with. Heck you can take these for a swim and answer phone calls in the pool and not worry about anything just like dive watches.
 
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pdxleaf
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It's how we can identify the humans; robots don't wear watches.

Seriously, as others have said, the connection to life before computers. The miniture scale and turning of gears. For vintage, the softening of metal worn smooth from years of rubbing against flesh, another's life preserved and carried forward by mine.

As for instruments that keep more accurate time, there is nothing in my life that will deteriorate or be made more complete by the difference of a few seconds per day. Why would I need seconds a day accuracy to meet someone when we agree on meeting some time between 1 and 1:30? Will anything I cook be changed by an additional two seconds?

The beauty of accuracy in a mechanical watch is the challenge of designing a tiny machine that will work with such precision. Climbing the mountain because it is there. Following an instrument that tracks time within seconds a year is inhuman and cruel.

There is enough about modern life that controls how I live. Rather than constricting me to a regimen, a mechanical watch on my wrist actually liberates me from some of that modernity.
 
Professor
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I had an early Timex electric watch. One day I took a narrow gauge railway ride around Iron mountain. The Timex stopped cold and never hit another lick.
I spent money on a battery change without effect.
Maybe it was the strong magnetic field of Iron Mountain or perhaps the watch had just reached its expiration date. I never found out.
It was an excellent time piece until one day it just wasn't.

With a battery powered watch even if left with the stem out and not running when you next need it the battery may have degraded and leaked.
I've opened up quartz watches to change out the battery and found corroded contacts or contacts that snapped for no apparent reason.
With a mechanical it can remain unused for years and you just pick it up and wind it and its good to go. Barring age having gelled or hardened the lube that is. Modern lubes make that far less likely.

All that said I have a thirty + year old cheap quartz that is still running nicely. When I first got it it was accurate to the second between battery changes and a cheap 377 battery would last three years or more. Now it runs a couple of seconds fast per week, still more accurate than most mechanical watches.
Edited:
 
gbesq
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To me they represent quality and a sense of permanence in an age where everything else seems to be increasingly temporary and disposable. Some will continue to increase in value, some may not, but their investment potential is of secondary importance to me. I’ll still be wearing and admiring my vintage Constellations long after many generations of Apple watches are in landfills.
 
Bugbait
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I like the idea of the design and precision in relying on a spinning wheel to tell the time within a few seconds a day. I have my share of quartz watches as well but no smart watches.

Regardless of what the smart watch screen displays, it's like looking at a print of a good oil painting, or a picture of a nice sculpture. There's simply no depth to a smart watch display. Give me a mechanical or quartz analogue over a smart watch with a screen any day. If I want to do more then I'll pick up my phone. I'm not an athlete so I don't need to track my health statistics all day long either.
 
gbesq
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I have to say that there are some really well written posts in this thread that express some equally important thoughts and sentiments. Makes me smile just reading them and knowing that there are others who share my passion for mechanical timepieces.
 
MikiJ
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I've always kept a higher-end, three handed, manual wound dress watch simply because I didn't need to fool with changing the date.
 
Charlemagne1333
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H Hellen Sher
I do prefer a mechanical/ automatic watch, and that is because there is no electronic components in it, it is not traceable by google or any web/ wifi means.
What is your reason?
A bit strange this one

You need to be online to post here, so an aversion to smart watch connectivity is a bit of a contradiction

You’ve given me food for thought now. I’m paranoid that MI5 will know that my Longines quartz is packing a Renata 1.55v

Anyway, welcome to OF, and plenty of photos of your mechanical watches - or it didn’t happen

Have a good one 👍
 
Tet
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I remember a time I swore I would never buy another quartz, in the past few years I've bought several and enjoy them just as much as my mechanicals. Funny how mindset can change over time.

I still enjoy a nice manual wind though, winding my Speedy always feels a bit special for some reason.
 
Jeeper
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For me, it is the ability of man to create this mechanical marvel, that keeps track of time using nothing other than gears & spring. I am in awe of the watchmakers art.
 
SkunkPrince
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If your watch gains 3 seconds a day, that's an error of 0.00035%.

How's that for tolerance?
 
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