Watches in the 21st Century

[Ron Texas]

Just like gear acquisition syndrome there is watch acquisition syndrome, usually called collecting.

Smartphones could be said to make the wristwatch obsolete. They provide time with accuracy updated by telecom providers and every possible complication ever built into a watch. So why wear a watch?

I asked someone before the pandemic started. He answered a watch provided a more discrete way to do a time check in a meeting than a phone. Not bad, but who goes to meetings in person these days? There are some other reasons I thought up. There are are many occasions when the activity would destroy a smart phone mainly due to being around or in water. This would explain the popularity of dive watches and G-shocks. It could be a fashion statement when the brown leather strap matches a brown belt and brown shoes. If one wears a Rolex it could be a death wish due to today's high crime rates and the insane prices of Rolex watches.

Quartz watches are far more accurate than the best mechanical watches, yet collectors' frown on them. This is like audio where vinyl persists alongside digital. Perhaps this is the involvement of making sure the watch stays wound or setting it once a week. Automatic watches worn by couch potatoes don't seem to make it through the night without winding.

Just some random thoughts...

 

[maverickronin]

I always wear my G-shock when I leave the house. Far more convenient than pulling my phone out of my pocket.

 

[Berwhale]

I bought a Huawei GT2e after my Alpina AlpinerX broke again last year (I bought the AlpinerX on Kickstarter and paid a little less than half the retail cost). The GT2e cost £90 (but you can pick them up for £65 now).

The GT2e has 14 day battery life, but the 10 minute charge it gets when i'm in the shower is enough to keep it between 85%-95% charged. I really don't get the point of smart watches that need to be charged for a couple of hours per day. I use mine for sleep tracking and would need to charge an Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch during the day when I would like to tracking my steps, measuring my heart rate, etc.

Because I like and wear the GT2e so much, i'm not wearing a nice Tissot T-Touch Titanium, a Citizen Eco-Drive drivers watch or my Seiko 5 automatic. I should probably sell them, but they don't eat anything (apart from the Tissot which needs a battery every few years).

 

[Berwhale]

I always wear my G-shock when I leave the house. Far more convenient than pulling my phone out of my pocket.

My softshell jacket has quite tight fitting elasticated cuffs (to keep the wind out), it's actually easier for me to get my phone out my breast pocket than to see my watch

 

[Inner Space]

I always wear my G-shock when I leave the house. Far more convenient than pulling my phone out of my pocket.

Yes, convenience for me too. And if I'm home, my phone might be in another room. I use a watch with hands, and find the angle between the hands somehow tells me more than the precise digits. I use Citizen solars - no charging, no battery changing.

 

[Doodski]

I wear my Marathon T5K423 all day even when I sleep. It does not fray my shirts and jackets at the cuff like my stainless steel Seiko did and it has large fonts and is easy to read day or night. When the battery dies I buy a new one. Great disposable watch. Expense is about CDN $34-$40 depending on sales and shipping rate.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I'd been wearing a watch since I was 5 years old. I always wore a watch. So much so when I retired, yes I wanted a nice retirement watch. And I was gifted a very nice titanium Citizen Eco-drive. I found after I retired I soon didn't wear a watch. When I needed to know the time I did have my phone, but I wasn't "on the clock" anymore. I was surprised.

Now I'm wearing a watch again, but it is a smart watch. It isn't very smart, but it does some basic fitness stuff, and it is handy if you get a text or email to see a quick note on your watch instead of having to pull out the phone. Oh, and it keeps time perfectly as it shows the phone's time. I wished it didn't need recharging every 3 or 4 days. I doubt I'll go back to wearing a conventional watch again other than perhaps as jewelry on a handful of occasions. I likely will upgrade my smart watch in a year or two.

Now I admired other watches, but they were a practical item. I was never a collector. In fact I wore the same Seiko for 32 years. It still works I just don't wear it anymore.

 

[mansr]

Smartphones could be said to make the wristwatch obsolete. They provide time with accuracy updated by telecom providers and every possible complication ever built into a watch. So why wear a watch?

Having worn a wristwatch daily since I started school, I feel like something's missing without it. It's also the one piece of bling I ever wear.

 

[BlackTalon]

I had a Seiko quartz for >30 years. When the bracelet broke I went without a watch for a year or so. Then I decided to dip my toes in modem watched, and bought a quartz diver. That led to some manuals and automatics, and a couple vintage manuals. To me they are more about very cool mechanical pieces of art then accuracy. But a few seconds per day doesn't exactly make me late for meetings and video conferences. Knives are similar -- you can go way past a really good carbon steel Japanese knife without improving on their utility.

 

[Count Arthur]

I have a couple of Citizen Eco Drive watches that I've had since before my first smart phone and I wear one or other of them every day.

It's become such a habit to look at my wrist for the time that I find myself looking at my watch even when I'm sat at my PC with the time displayed at the bottom right of the screen.

 

[valerianf]

Since it exist I am wearing watches with quartz movement, mainly analog ones.
Evolution with time, I have abandoned the backlight and perpetual calendar functionalities.
All the time I have my cellular phone with me.

The watch is more one of the rare "jewelery" that a man wears.

 

[Prana Ferox]

Wearing a G-Shock is more effective birth control than wearing a condom.

I daily wear a Coros Pace 2. It's a fitness tracker with some special bits (useful run power etc) and is reasonably subtle in appearance compared to most giant smartwatches / iWatches. I've got small wrists and a big clonky watch just looks and feels wrong. The Pace 2 also has pretty good battery life, my previous Garmin and Huawei did not.

I have a reasonable collection of 'affordable' mechanical watches (and a pile of quirky cheap ones) but since getting the Pace 2 I just don't wear them. I don't want to give up the fitness data. Frankly the occasions to dress up enough to wear a 'nice' watch just aren't that common any more. A colleague of mine bought a nice Omega as a promotion present for himself and I planned on doing the same, but my promotion came and went and I didn't bother.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Wearing a G-Shock is more effective birth control than wearing a condom.

I daily wear a Coros Pace 2. It's a fitness tracker with some special bits (useful run power etc) and is reasonably subtle in appearance compared to most giant smartwatches / iWatches. I've got small wrists and a big clonky watch just looks and feels wrong. The Pace 2 also has pretty good battery life, my previous Garmin and Huawei did not.

I have a reasonable collection of 'affordable' mechanical watches (and a pile of quirky cheap ones) but since getting the Pace 2 I just don't wear them. I don't want to give up the fitness data. Frankly the occasions to dress up enough to wear a 'nice' watch just aren't that common any more. A colleague of mine bought a nice Omega as a promotion present for himself and I planned on doing the same, but my promotion came and went and I didn't bother.

That does look like a nice fitness watch.

 

[rdenney]

My big tuba is silver-plated. In no way does that make it sound better than if it was raw brass. But it’s purty. Sometimes, mere functionality is just boring.

Wristwatches began replacing pocket watches somewhat more than a century ago. Nobody ever had to explain why, though pocket-watch users claimed (with justification) that pocket watches were intrinsically better. Well, except for being able to read the time when both hands are not available.

People loved wristwatches because they could be used when the act of pulling out and opening a pocket watch would be unseemly.

And the clothing that supported pocket watch use—particularly vest pockets—became passé.

Here we are right back to the pocket-watch era, complete with clothing that is often incompatible with the modern “pocket watch”.

Rick “sometimes in places where phones are not allowed” Denney

 

[Ron Texas]

Wearing a G-Shock is more effective birth control than wearing a condom.

Does wearing a Rolex get you laid?

 

[Blumlein 88]

Does wearing a Rolex get you laid?

I think a Rolex gets you extra attention by pros. So in a way maybe it does.

 

[rdenney]

Does wearing a Rolex get you laid?

Not by anybody you’d want to have a conversation with after the five minutes are up.

Rick “who has managed to avoid owning a Rolex” Denney

 

[Ron Texas]

I think a Rolex gets you extra attention by pros. So in a way maybe it does.

I think it gets you extra attention from armed robbers.

 

[pseudoid]

Shouldn't this post be rolled into the 32-page post of "Watches! What do y'all have on your wrists?"
I am not trying to instigate infighting but even that can be fun to watch...
I use my watch as the proverbial Peanuts' character LinusVanPelt's blanket.

 

[JeffS7444]

Shouldn't this post be rolled into the 32-page post of "Watches! What do y'all have on your wrists?"

Too many closeup photos of hairy wrists in that thread clearly there are no professional hand models here.