[unethical_ban]

I respect Quartz watches. In fact, I've thought about getting a Citizen eco-drive. I've had a timex for years.

But I got into mechanical watches earlier this year - a Hamilton Pilot and a Field. There is a beauty in the combination of accuracy, complexity and the lack of reliance on electricity that I find fascinating, just as someone can appreciate a sailboat or a record player for their amazing engineering.

I haven't figured out how to express it clearly, but things like mechanical watches, pour-over/press coffee, record players, coal grills. They all involve a lack of electricity and lack of network connectivity. The heat is right there from the coal. The coffee was ground and made by /me/. The power comes from the sails. The watch moves from my winding it - it depends on me. The sound is imprinted on the record - The source of the sound, right there on a platter, vibrating a needle, not from a coded bitstream I can only access with an internet subscription, a computer and a music subscription.

Anyway. There is a better essay somewhere in here. My point is, I get the superiority of Quartz over mechanical re: accuracy and maybe even ruggedness, but there is a lost romance.

[ggm]

Got a Citizen Eco/RadioSync. Never been happier. Had to use an RPi to fake the YYJ/WWVB signal (I live outside the reception area for any radio timesync signal)

Sunshine for watch power is gods gift. I have a minor-brand Seiko mechanical with a self-winding mechanism, love it to death but it loses time like a grandfather clock from the victorian era.

[ubermonkey]

You left out fountain pens, which is something that often goes hand in hand with these other things.

If this had not yet occurred to you, well, let me be the first to welcome you to that particular club. ;) A Lamy Safari is a great place to start.

[opmac]

Analog vs digital! I feel similar to you. There's a certain feeling with analog/mechanical instruments that is hard to replicate.

That being said, I think there is something fascinating about eco-drive movements, or just plain quartz movements in general. In the eco-drive case, you're harnessing the raw energy of the sun! Right there on your wrist! And they're using piezoelectricity to accurately keep time!

It's so simple nowadays that we all take it for granted, but centuries of scientific improvements have gone into making that relatively inexpensive and accurate wristwatch accessible to everybody.