The Mechanical Watch
The ultimate wearable.
In the modern age, mechanical watches are pointless. Since the advent and proliferation of the smartphone, we've been carrying devices in our pockets that tell perfect time and do a whole lot more. And the equally accurate Apple Watch has been a blockbuster that has outsold the entire Swiss watch industry over the past two years by more than two to one.
But I love my mechanical watches. They don’t send me alerts. They don’t play music. One doesn't even tell me the date. It just tells the time, slightly less accurately than my iPhone. And it's my favorite thing to wear.
At this point on our technology timeline, a mechanical, analog watch is just jewelry. It's quite superfluous and unnecessary, but it can be so undeniably beautiful. There's just something fantastic about wearing a piece of extremely intricate and advanced mechanical engineering that performs a single task (or a few tasks, in the case of a two-time zone GMT or multi-functional chronograph) contained in an exquisitely designed case of steel, gold, titanium, silver, ceramic, or bronze.
The thing about a mechanical watch, especially one with an automatic self-winding movement, is the human ingenuity involved. Whenever I watch videos of watches being disassembled for cleaning or repair (a very soothing video sub-genre I highly recommend), I marvel at the miracle of engineering that goes into a watch. Wearing one is a celebration of the rigorous pursuit of precision, excellence, and accuracy — all in the interest of creating a handsome, durable, and reliable wrist-worn accessory that tells time without being connected to a power source or a network.
Unlike digital smart variants, the mechanical watch possesses and exudes a charm that cannot be replicated. And don't get me wrong: I love digital technology. My iPhone and my AirPods are basically prosthetics at this point. I record my podcasts and edit photos on my trusty MacBook Pro. I typed this very essay on my beloved iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard. But I'm a Gen-Xer who was raised in a house with a rotary phone, a record player, a cassette deck, and a daily delivered newspaper. I have one foot grounded in today and pointed toward tomorrow, and another foot luxuriating in some of the more refined aesthetics of yesterday. With so much digital technology in and around my life, I like to enjoy some analog pleasures, like a coffee brewed with a Chemex, a good book in hardcover, a beautifully produced print magazine, and, of course, a handsome mechanical wristwatch.
Recently, I was walking in the West Village with a friend whose phone battery had just died. In a panic about being late for our dinner reservation, he asked me what time it was. I showed him my watch.
Exactly. And to appreciate the skill and craftmanship of the watchmakers with every wearing. There's a reason magazines have beautifully photographed ads for watches -- they are as wonderful to view and admire as fine jewelry.
Exactly this…magazines and books, watches and clocks, record player, and the NYT at our doorstep every morning (I also have an iPad, Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch)