A friend of mine got a watch for his birthday (or Christmas I don't remember), he showed it to me and I told him: "Oh nice, it has a transparent

A friend of mine got a watch for his birthday (or Christmas I don't remember), he showed it to me and I told him: "Oh nice, it has a transparent back to display the 'automatic' mechanism, just like my $60 swatch from the 80s" Your $60 Swatch had a battery-powered quartz movement which was a lot simpler than whatever he was showing you. That's not to say one's better than the other. Most of my watches are quartz. Quartz powered watches are something of a modern miracle and are more accurate than any mechanical watch. But, why did you feel the need to rain on your friend's parade? Mechanical watches are really fascinating little machines.