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I have a $1200 Garmin smartwatch on my wrist, which will likely need to be replaced in 3 years time. With that same money, I could have purchased an entry-leve

I have a $1200 Garmin smartwatch on my wrist, which will likely need to be replaced in 3 years time. With that same money, I could have purchased an entry-level ETA Swiss-made automatic watch, that would last me a lifetime. I’m lucky enough to own both. On the weekend I wear my Swiss watch, and during the week I wear my smart watch. As someone who’s worn smart watches since the Pebble, the utility of a digital device can’t be replaced by nostalgia. Maybe there’s a place for both.

sandoooo 7y ago
I think the chance of you wearing the latter for more than three years before it's lost or you're bored of it or it's forgotten in a drawer somewhere is pretty low. Longevity is overrated. People don't want to wear the same watch for a lifetime, no matter how fancy.
- danielbarla 7y ago
  I don't know - at some point the age and history of the device itself become the dominant factor, not the fanciness. E.g. as I'm writing this, I'm wearing a relatively low-end watch (a Seiko Kinetic) that was a gift about 20 years ago, and even that tiny bit of history provides me with a fair bit of nostalgia and joy. I get the advantages of smart watches, but it _is_ a shame that they can't really be timeless in the same way.
  - ss3000 7y ago
    Personally, I'm just not a fan of having to keep charging those smart watches every other night. Especially when taking them off to charge at night means losing access to sleep tracking, which for me is the only killer feature smart watches have going for them over the smartphones that I already have.
    - maccard 7y ago
      I've got a Fitbit versa which has a 4-ish day battery life. I sleep with it on, and take it off to shower. I charge it when I shower and I've never once had it run out unexpectedly (since I started doing this)
    - ahsima1 7y ago
      My amazfit bip lasts for over a month on a single charge
- clarry 7y ago
  Meh, I tend to wear the same things -- clothes, glasses, shoes, backpacks, until they're unusable. I don't wear them for fashion. I'd love a carefully crafted mechanical watch, maybe with a compass (if such things exist). These days I don't carry a watch but I'm kinda starting to want one because I hate using the phone.
- dairylee 7y ago
  I've worn a Casio F-91W for 15 years.
- lvturner 7y ago
  I don't know, the longer I wear my Swiss watch the more I want to keep it on - but I did choose it to match both my skin tone and my wedding ring. Smart watches however, I have a small collection that didn't make it past the three month mark before they ended up in the back of a cupboard (charging them is super annoying and after every experiment I have had with them, I still find just being able to tell the time quickly is the feature I value the most)
- Arnt 7y ago
  You're presuming that because some (or even most) people grow bored easily, people who appreciate mechanical watches do.
- aspaviento 7y ago
  That's a extreme generalization. When you wear it for utility and not for fashion, you couldn't care less how your watch looks as far as it fulfills your needs.
- noir_lord 7y ago
  My partner bought me a nice but not expensive Skagen watch as the first present she ever bought me. I plan to keep that for the rest of my life
- sandoooo 7y ago
  Addendum: y'all like to list the one or two items that have sentimental value, but have you considered the vast graveyard of junk that you've left behind that has zero value to you sentimental or otherwise? Your hoard of long-term personally-significant items is probably fewer than you can count on one hand. Where's that old t-shirt you bought five years ago? How many USB-chargers have you lost track of?
jurip 7y ago
You could wear both: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/doing-the-two-wrist-tango-with-the-apple-watch-series-4#&gid=1&pid=1 https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/doing-the-two-wrist-tango-... It looks a bit unusual at first but I've gotten used to a coworker doing that.
- akiselev 7y ago
  If conspicuous consumption weren't enough, now you can wear it with with your accessible consumption too!
beagle3 7y ago
I have a $200 Skagen, which didn't last a lifetime - it's only 12-years old, but I recently had to replace the cover glass because it broke (which cost me all of $25, +$5 for a battery change which could likely wait another couple of years, but ... it was already at the watchmaker's, so ...). It is incredibly light (lighter than most e.g. Swatches) but still looks timeless, ageless and (IMO) elegant. Next time it breaks, which I expect to takes less than 10 years, I'll likely get a new $200 watch. I don't particularly like to throw away working things, but I also feel that 6 times $200 watches throughout my lifetime makes a lot more sense than one lifetime $1,200 watch. That said, the spending optimum is likely one $5-$10 watch every couple of years, perhaps even if you had to pay for externalities -- I understand that everyone has their own "sweet spot" for longevity, and your is obviously different than mine (and we are both far away from the spending optimum).
- RomanBob 7y ago
  Skagen is an overpriced faux-minimalist brand.

sandoooo 7y ago

I think the chance of you wearing the latter for more than three years before it's lost or you're bored of it or it's forgotten in a drawer somewhere is pretty low. Longevity is overrated. People don't want to wear the same watch for a lifetime, no matter how fancy.

danielbarla 7y ago
I don't know - at some point the age and history of the device itself become the dominant factor, not the fanciness. E.g. as I'm writing this, I'm wearing a relatively low-end watch (a Seiko Kinetic) that was a gift about 20 years ago, and even that tiny bit of history provides me with a fair bit of nostalgia and joy. I get the advantages of smart watches, but it _is_ a shame that they can't really be timeless in the same way.
- ss3000 7y ago
  Personally, I'm just not a fan of having to keep charging those smart watches every other night. Especially when taking them off to charge at night means losing access to sleep tracking, which for me is the only killer feature smart watches have going for them over the smartphones that I already have.
  - maccard 7y ago
    I've got a Fitbit versa which has a 4-ish day battery life. I sleep with it on, and take it off to shower. I charge it when I shower and I've never once had it run out unexpectedly (since I started doing this)
  - ahsima1 7y ago
    My amazfit bip lasts for over a month on a single charge
clarry 7y ago
Meh, I tend to wear the same things -- clothes, glasses, shoes, backpacks, until they're unusable. I don't wear them for fashion. I'd love a carefully crafted mechanical watch, maybe with a compass (if such things exist). These days I don't carry a watch but I'm kinda starting to want one because I hate using the phone.
dairylee 7y ago
I've worn a Casio F-91W for 15 years.
lvturner 7y ago
I don't know, the longer I wear my Swiss watch the more I want to keep it on - but I did choose it to match both my skin tone and my wedding ring. Smart watches however, I have a small collection that didn't make it past the three month mark before they ended up in the back of a cupboard (charging them is super annoying and after every experiment I have had with them, I still find just being able to tell the time quickly is the feature I value the most)
Arnt 7y ago
You're presuming that because some (or even most) people grow bored easily, people who appreciate mechanical watches do.
aspaviento 7y ago
That's a extreme generalization. When you wear it for utility and not for fashion, you couldn't care less how your watch looks as far as it fulfills your needs.
noir_lord 7y ago
My partner bought me a nice but not expensive Skagen watch as the first present she ever bought me. I plan to keep that for the rest of my life
sandoooo 7y ago
Addendum: y'all like to list the one or two items that have sentimental value, but have you considered the vast graveyard of junk that you've left behind that has zero value to you sentimental or otherwise? Your hoard of long-term personally-significant items is probably fewer than you can count on one hand. Where's that old t-shirt you bought five years ago? How many USB-chargers have you lost track of?

jurip 7y ago

You could wear both: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/doing-the-two-wrist-tango-with-the-apple-watch-series-4#&gid=1&pid=1 https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/doing-the-two-wrist-tango-... It looks a bit unusual at first but I've gotten used to a coworker doing that.

akiselev 7y ago
If conspicuous consumption weren't enough, now you can wear it with with your accessible consumption too!

beagle3 7y ago

I have a $200 Skagen, which didn't last a lifetime - it's only 12-years old, but I recently had to replace the cover glass because it broke (which cost me all of $25, +$5 for a battery change which could likely wait another couple of years, but ... it was already at the watchmaker's, so ...). It is incredibly light (lighter than most e.g. Swatches) but still looks timeless, ageless and (IMO) elegant. Next time it breaks, which I expect to takes less than 10 years, I'll likely get a new $200 watch. I don't particularly like to throw away working things, but I also feel that 6 times $200 watches throughout my lifetime makes a lot more sense than one lifetime $1,200 watch. That said, the spending optimum is likely one $5-$10 watch every couple of years, perhaps even if you had to pay for externalities -- I understand that everyone has their own "sweet spot" for longevity, and your is obviously different than mine (and we are both far away from the spending optimum).

RomanBob 7y ago
Skagen is an overpriced faux-minimalist brand.