Watch trend today

[szbalogh]

First, sorry for the many post recently but we went on a wedding of my brother-in-law for the weekend and killing time on the forum instead in my workshop drilling or turning something :/

To the topic, relatives (including the new ones) 2of 10 were wearing those, i dont know, bluetooth bracelets.... and a quartz watch on the other arm.... on a wedding... even the groom... crazy i think. Only i had a mechanical watch.

One can say that i am also crazy looking for watches on a wedding party but where is this world going? I am not old, at least with 36 i think i am not I like technical inventions and use them... no like mine boss who has no mobile phone but those bracelets... completely useless....

[oldhippy]

Being an old boy I don't like any modern watch or clock they all have to be mechanical. I can remember when I was an apprentice and I watch the T V showing a film or whatever I would look out for the clocks and see if they where working, if not I didn't go much on the program knowing the props where not even right.

[Alienfox]

I can remember buying my first digital watch, it was in Tottenham Court Road in 1972, it was the red faced type with I think wire type numbers?  Anyway you had to push the button to see the time, I had an old Timex at the time that had been fantastic, after 10 years it needed a service because I wore it 24/7 and it had accumulated a lot of dust, anyway the digital watch lasted about 6 months before it stopped working so I threw it away and went back to my Timex.

As an older gentlemen (wrong side of 60) I have a collection of over 45 watches, most are mechanical ones that I have fixed, my favourite being my Junghans from 1961, it keeps perfect time, I do have digital watches, but there is something about my Seiko and Orient automatics that I find fascinating.  The watch I wear everyday is my Blandford SA, I have had it for over 25 years and it digital, it's never lost a beat.

[bobm12]

Yes, the world is going crazy with all those "dumb" phone-watches or whatever they are called! The real watch is not being recognized anymore and traded for a false sense of technology....Ahhhh! too wordy! All I want to say is: "Why the *%$& are people wearing those?! But we know better!

BTW, you can post all you want, szbalogh. No apologies needed, as a matter of fact we are happy you do!

Cheers,

Bob

[frenchie]

Agreed, people are just going crazy. And nobody thinks about the environmental impact of those pieces of "technology". People just don't care anymore for things that can be fixed. It's true not only for watches, but appliance too. People look at me like I'm a crazy man if I change the pump on my dishwasher. They'll say "why don't you just get a new one?"
 Watches are throw away items now.... sad

[digginstony]

Last time read an article on watch sales it stated that quartz watches accounted for 85% Mechanical 15%
But retailers were reporting Smart watches were "Hot"
Quartz sales Tepid.
With advancing technologies and extended battery life, the smart watch seems to be the future.
God help us !!!

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[JohnstonZoe]

What makes you think that? I agree that your ordinary mechanical watch is a timeless classic, but technology doesn't stand still.

[Tudor]

I imagine a similar conversation when the wristwatch was invented, displacing the “huge” pocket watch. 
 

I have both wrist and pocket watches but no desire for a “smart” watch. 
 

But I still listen to cassettes too so obviously I have issues. 

[AndyHull]

On 9/7/2020 at 1:36 PM, JohnstonZoe said:

What makes you think that? I agree that your ordinary mechanical watch is a timeless classic, but technology doesn't stand still.

Maybe I just don't "get" smart watches. OK maybe some of them look kinda cool, but what are they for?

I'm not exactly a Luddite, since I've worked in IT most of my life, and "change management" is part of my daily workload, but the "advantages" that a SmartWatch gives me are not actually particularly useful in my estimation.

I don't find the utility of a SmartWatch outweighs the hassle of actually having to pay for, own, and baby the thing all the time.

They need charged all the time. I already have a smart phone that is just as demanding.

They tell the time. Big deal, everything tells the time.

They alert me when my smart phone needs my attention.. Big deal, so does my smart phone, so why strap a clumsy lump of plastic and glass to my wrist  just to tell me my other clumsy lump of glass and plastic needs my attention?

They tell me what my pluse is, how many steps I've taken today, what the weather is going to be...

Big deal, I've got enough things badgering me about problems that aren't really problems without adding even more sources of random data to my already befuddled brain.

Leave me alone.

If I need to know my pulse, I'll take it.

If I can't take my pulse, I'm probably already dead, and if I need to know what the weather is, I can look out of the window (assuming the unable to take my pulse situation doesn't apply).

Obsessing about how many paces I've taken sounds more than a little bit... obsessive to me. I already know I should take more exercise, and an OLED screen and lithium battery strapped to my wrist isn't going to make me fitter.   

Sell it to me.. Someone. Why do I need a smart watch? Why does ANYBODY need a smart watch?

[spectre6000]

Yeah... Wrong crowd.

My wife would probably disagree, but I don't consider myself a luddite either... Though I do know what an actual Luddite is, so that may color my interpretation of the word. I write code all day for brand new tech. I've owned and been involved in multiple tech startups. Meanwhile, I wear mechanical watches (and not the blingy look-at-me-I-have-money variety), listen to vinyl all day every day, I'm trying to figure out how to build an all tube/valve phono preamp as another of my evening projects, I work wood with century old hand tools... I think I'm attracted to things with staying power. Permanence. All of these things have a principle to them that makes them objectively superior in some critical, end result way that what replaced them can't really match.

I've had a few conversations lately with @SparkyLB about woodworking with hand tools. Power tools existed initially for mass production. If you're making lots of something, then they're great. Just about any other time, hand tools produce a superior result, faster, quieter, and cleaner. People like gadgets though, and advertisers need to eat, so there exist power tools.

With smart watches, I think the problem being solved equation, like many things in the tech world, came after the solution was found. It's very common for a software engineer to figure out some cool widget, then try to figure out how to market it. @AndyHull hit the nail on the head. It does nothing of value, it's just a neat gadget and advertisers need to eat. It's all the rage now, but eventually it'll fade... unless it begins to solve an actual problem.