I always find it funny when people call watches jewelry as if they aren’t still the most convenient way to tell time and do other things.

Sure you can reach into whatever pile of lint and pull out a phone to check the time but by then I will have already set the timer on mine. It’s faster to the draw 🤷🏽‍♂️

Then what if you work a job with long hours? Are you supposed to take your smart watch off to charge it?!

Lastly to help me better appreciate the mechanical mastery that is a good time piece, I changed the font on my Home Screen to unreadable so I have to check my watch rather than my phone. It helps me disconnect from digital and value time more.

Just my two cents. P.S I’m roasting coffee here which is extremely time sensitive and happens super fast.

  • buzzbub@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I’m a university professor. I’d argue that a non-distracting device that tells you the time is an essential tool of my profession and we all wear watches when we’re teaching. A smartwatch with notifications silenced is one option, but an analogue watch of some sort is considerably less fiddly.

    • canadaxavier@alien.topOPB
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      1 year ago

      Ever heard of racing, diving, piloting, navigating or cooking? I would use my smart watch but it’s dead….

      • Smiths_fan137@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        I have. People have come up with diving computers, smartwatches, or even just digital watches for those.

        An exception there however is racing: I still see, believe it or not, Tag Heuer watches being used in racing

  • naripan@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    It’s a beautiful watch. Glad you use it daily even when roasting coffee :) - I bet the coffee tasted good :)

    • canadaxavier@alien.topOPB
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      1 year ago

      Thank you! It’s definitely easier to have a free hand while checking the time. It was great!

  • AggravatedCelt@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I use an automatic gmt daily. I used to either google “time in san francisco” or have to open an app, but the old school watch is so much easier, I have the time at a glance

  • viva_la_blabla@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    As someone how change his Apple Watch for a machanical watch and loves his mechanical watch: Yes watches in general and mechanical watches in particular are obsolet beside the aspect of jewellery. They are as obsolet as typewriters or tube television or film photography.

    A smartphone or a smartwatch or really any other digital gear does it better. Yes you can use your fantasy and imagine some horror scenarios like nuclear blast or week long power failure but thats not reality: in reality these devices work properly and for the most part you have them in your pocket and use them everyday - so you take all real risks (like hacking or fishing or…) already.

    So if you look from a logical point of view there is no place for watches - and don´t argument with the speed or convenienvce: How often do you NEED to know the exact time a day? These 2 or 3 minutes a day make your work not less stressful. And convenience is just an other word for habit.

    The emotional point is different…if you want a mechanical watch then by all means buy and use one. But don´t try to justify it with pseudological arguments like it could be a heirloom, the reason “I want to have it” should be enough. You heirs will be much happier if you had the smartwatch and -phone of your dreams than inheriting a 50 something years old watch that they can´t use because the last watchmaker who could service it retiered years ago.

  • Neptune502@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Question OP: What can your Longines do beside telling the Time and looking good? Can you check the Weather? Or Navigate with it? Or make calls? Can you listen to Music with it? I could make a List what my Ultra can do which would be so long i would most likely run out of Characters before i’m finishing it. Yes, Mechanical Watches are great but what you’re doing is comparing the first Landline Phone to a iPhone 15 Pro Max and claiming the first Landline Phone is superior to the iPhone because you didn’t need to charge the Landline Phone…

  • orangebikini@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Sure you can reach into whatever pile of lint and pull out a phone to check the time but by then I will have already set the timer on mine. It’s faster to the draw 🤷🏽‍♂️

    What’s the hurry though? The argument for wristwatches being that it’s faster, I never really understood that. You save like a second per day. Wow. Amazing.

    • canadaxavier@alien.topOPB
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      1 year ago

      Well that wasn’t really an argument per se just a statement of facts. Quicker to the draw was more of a joke.

      Telling time is a simple concept and in that moment digital or mechanical doesn’t matter.

  • ThisIsREM@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Tool vs jewelry depends on the cost ratio between the cost of the tool and the jewelry value.

    A $40 casio will show time more accurately and is more legible than pretty much any automatic Swiss watch. So if you buy say a $400 watch, at most 10% of the cost is the “tool” element and the rest of the 90% you pay for the jewelry / looks element, hence it is more of a apparel item than a tool. For a 4k watch, 99% of the value is jewelry and so on.

    Same goes for anything really. You need a T-shirt so it is a tool, but a branded nice Ralph Lauren shirt costs 50x what a cotton china made shirt is going for, hence it is more for looks rather than a warmth tool.

    • canadaxavier@alien.topOPB
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      1 year ago

      I think I get where you’re going and I agree. What I’m saying is watches have been around for a hundred plus years. If I need to know the time in that moment it doesn’t matter whether it’s mechanical or digital.

      We haven’t even begun the conversation on navigation either. Just saying.

      • Brownimus@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        Hey buddy, don’t kink-shame me - I’m not the one measuring the passage of time with miniature decorative sex toys. We all have our delights.

        • canadaxavier@alien.topOPB
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          1 year ago

          Haha you seem to have an affinity for talking to men about sexual acts. Wasn’t what I planned to see in my replies either but guess what. Were here. Might as well make the best of it four eyes.

  • Nix_Nivis@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    IMHO yes, any watch is obsolete in almost all professions. Where do you need to know the exact time on a regular basis? In any office job, the exact time is only relevant for meetings. For those you usually have an alert anyway (and the clock on your desktop).

    In law enforcement/rescue precise time is important (for the report), but you have actual tools (badge cam, defibrillator) that keep and document time for you.

    In many cases, it maybe beneficial to know the (rough) amount of time something took, but not the precise time (“it took me 10min to do xy” vs. “I completed this task at 14:26”).

    So, all in all, I can see limited value in some edge cases, but in general watches have become obsolete.

  • Full_Ratchet@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I dive with my sea master. It’s a nice backup to have but I’m going to us a dive computer as my primary “tool” 10 times out of 10

  • Palimpsest0@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Short answer: yes, they’re obsolete.

    Longer answer: yes, they’re obsolete, but for some applications obsolete technology can still be useful.

    • canadaxavier@alien.topOPB
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      1 year ago

      That’s debatable. I’d take a well built Swiss watch over a plastic battery holder over a 100 year period any day of the week. In 20 years when I pass these on to my kid they won’t have to source some outdated charger.

      That is well said though just missing the point that a smart watch will be obsolete before a mechanical watch during our lifetime.