What Watches mean to me

Wrist watches are a complicated and weird thing to grasp for a non-watch person. Questions I’ve heard include: Why would anyone own a bunch of watches? Why would anyone spend more than 50 bucks on a watch? Why would I even want to own a watch when I can just check the time on my phone?

These are very valid points, and for most of them there is an objective answer. No one needs more than one wrist watch. No one should spend more than 50 bucks on a watch. The only point I would disagree on is: everyone should own a watch. A watch is a simple instrument that solves a single purpose—it tells you the time. You have no notifications, no distractions. You always know what time it is, and it helps you be mindful of how you spend your time.

So what exactly is my relationship with watches?

For this we have to take a step back. I previously wrote two articles covering my digital minimalism journey. I work in tech and I love my job. For me, technology is a tool—a power to create something that ultimately benefits us as human beings and makes our lives easier. Technology has a lot of benefits, but there are certain aspects in life where “old school” is just better in my opinion.

Some of my favorite examples: I prefer driving a car without a screen in the middle of the dash. I don’t want to have to look at a screen to regulate the AC. I don’t want a car that constantly yells at me because I’m not perfectly centered in the lane. Having a car with physical buttons means I can blindly adjust things to do what I want them to do. Another example is a kitchen stove. I live in a rather old apartment that has physical dials to regulate the stove. I don’t want to deal with capacitive buttons that get unresponsive once wet. I want a reliable solution that I can trust.

How does this tie in with watches?

I like having a watch I can rely on—a watch that does one thing and does it well. I used to own an Apple Watch. Don’t get me wrong, an Apple Watch or any smartwatch is a great piece of technology. It serves a lot of uses, but just not for me. I don’t want another source of distraction, another thing trying to waste my time. For me, this is kind of like the Linux philosophy: have a tool that does one thing and does it well.

Why I prefer mechanical watches

Just a quick introduction: a mechanical watch is a watch that uses purely mechanical components to serve its functions. It does not have a battery or any sort of electronics to power it. Mechanical-powered timepieces have been around for hundreds of years and have slowly been phased out by battery-powered watches.

A battery-powered watch is superior in basically every way: it’s cheaper and it tells better time. An average cheap battery-powered watch is accurate to about 1 second a day, while mechanical watches costing tens of thousands of dollars are barely accurate to 5 seconds a day. But what a mechanical watch offers over a battery-powered watch is a heart. A mechanical watch has a charm that cannot be accomplished by a circuit board and a battery. I find it extremely fascinating how an assortment of gears and springs can be as precise as to tell me the time.

This is what got me into watches. Watches are an engineering masterpiece combined with fashion and art. Every time I look at my watch, I get a little bit of a smile. A well-made mechanical watch is something that can last a lifetime and beyond when taken care of.

More than just telling time

A watch can also be a lot more than just something that tells the time. I recently moved into my first own apartment and celebrated this life accomplishment with a new watch. This watch will forever remind me of the beginning of my independence. Every watch that I own has a story attached to it. I went through important steps of my life wearing my watches, and wearing a certain watch always reminds me of these moments. Every scratch has a meaning and is a testament of my life and how I live it.