[zuzatm]

I don't know why, but I find watch mechanics super fascinating.

Few favorites for people with spare time (and lots of money if one wants to buy these):

Tourbillon: a watch complication where the main mechanism is mounted on a rotating wheel so that gravity doesn't affect the watch in a single direction.

Spring drive: A very recent mechanism that produces a perfect sweeping motion of the seconds hand. It combines both mechanical power (no battery) with a quartz crystal in a super cool way.

Minute repeater: a mechanical way for a blind person to tell the time.

[yboris]

I hope you've seen this then: https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/

[zuzatm]

I did. It a beautiful and very educational website! :)

[JohnBooty]

And for about $100, you can still buy a mechanical Seiko with a see-through caseback so you can watch everything in motion. A gateway drug for many... but also a fine stopping point because Seikos are wonderful machines in their own right.

(Although, Seiko is doing away with their most affordable mechanical models, all the newer ones are $200+)

[bitexploder]

They are generally some of the finest machining and metal work you can buy, really cool stuff to see as a hobby machinist.