[rauhl]

> Also knowing that the thing will last forever, take care of it and it will probably outlive you. Can't say that about an Apple Watch.

I don’t know how many mechanical watches really will last a lifetime, but they will easily last longer than a so-called ‘smart’ watch.

Six years ago I seriously considered purchasing a ‘smart’ watch. Eventually I realised that they were just another money sink and attention leash, and put the money into a couple of automatic watches instead. I still have them, and wear them regularly. Had I bought an Apple or Android watch, I would have replaced it multiple times by now.

That’s the plus side. The minus side is that I don’t wear one of those two every single day because … I gotten bitten by the watch bug, and now I have a pile of other watches, and I wear those too! I still think that I am ahead of the game, though.

BTW, I write ‘smart’ watch because I don’t think they are really that smart; if anything, they should be called unwise watches, because they are an unwise expenditure of resources, money and attention. Also they just don’t look good. I predict that in thirty years we’ll look back on them much as we do digital watches: as a fad.

[JohnBooty]

    The minus side is that I don’t wear one of those two 
    every single day because … I gotten bitten by the watch 
    bug, and now I have a pile of other watches, and I wear 
    those too!

This was a big part of the fun for me. Different watches for different days. It's ridiculous, even embarrassing to admit this but -- I feel like the richest, luckiest man in the world when I look at a drawer full of watches from which I can choose each day. As a child I would never have dreamed of it.

In reality they are all very modest watches, most under $100. The entire collection is not worth more than a nice laptop. But whatever.

As a bonus mechanical watches, unless I'm mistaken, will last longer if not running 24/7/365.