[jameshart]

I am literally wearing a watch right now that was produced without any of these artisans’ specialized labor and which boasts among its features access to AI.

In a very real sense I have replaced use of the skills of watchmakers with AI.

Sorry about that. To be fair most watchmakers were already put out of work by quartz oscillators and integrated circuits in the 1980s.

[shit_game]

The reason that you bought your watch and the reason that other people buy these hand crafted mechanical watches are very, very different. Once upon a time, utility used to be what necessitated an accurate movement, and it came at great cost because of the skill, knowledge, precision, and artistic talent needed to make one; this justified further embellishing the movement with a beautiful case and band because it would be in poor taste to make something that is both expensive and ugly when your primary consumers would be aristocrats. Eventually timepieces became commodified as industrialization made their manufacture feasible at a larger scale, and later then the advent of the quartz crystal made mechanical movements functionally obsolete as a means of telling time accurately. Approaching perfect timekeeping in a mechanical movement is not meant to be utilitarian, but rather a practice in artistry. Mechanical watches are jewelry, and jewelry irrationally commands the price that any luxury does because it's a matter of taste and not utility. Nobody buying a Patek Philippe is doing so because they want millisecond accuracy via atmoic clock GPS signals - they buy Seikos for that.

[DiscourseFan]

I think the fact that you can have a compact device on your wrist that accurately keeps time all without any battery or circuitry is really remarkable as well. Moreover that the “technology superior” smart watches are kind of distracting and don’t have a great deal of use value. My watch tells the time and the date, that’s really all I need it for

[bluGill]

I long ago realized I hate how uncomfortable a watch on my wrist is. For a while I used a pocket watch until pocket sized cell phones became affordable.

[kasey_junk]

Yet most people in the watch industry will suggest that the Apple Watch was a boon for the industry because it retrained people to wear a watch, a fashion that was being abandoned.

[sethhochberg]

I’m one of those people. Wore watches regularly through my mid 20s, completely fell out of the habit as I spent more years working from home and my routine around “getting ready for the day” loosened, and the Apple Watch was the thing that got me to put something on my wrist again - until I got sick of the screen and kept wearing watches, but now analogue ones.

[soperj]

you need AI to tell the time?

[rvba]

Suprising amount of people do not know how to read time from the "classical" watches and clocks (those with hands).

Reason is very simple - they dont own clocks with hands when theh are kids.

[Cthulhu_]

Not knowing is fine, but a refusal to learn is not. I think that's the major issue with first social media / short attention span content, modern media over-explaining stuff, and nowadays with AI. Even if they get an answer from AI they won't take it in, just pass it on / read it out / apply it to whatever they're doing now and promptly forget it.

(I'm generalizing / being a cranky old man and I'm not even that old)

[netsharc]

But... this is a condition that can be changed within 1 minute? (From "do not know" to "know").

Sure it takes longer to get proficient, but learning it is quicker than learning e.g. Roman numerals or how to tie a necktie.

[jameshart]

No? And not what I said.

But an AI provider absolutely got some of the money I might otherwise have spent on a clockwork watch.

[keiferski]

Not really. No one wants a Rolex or Omega with ChatGPT in it.