I too am a watch enthusiast and thought I'd give my take in case count doesn't respond with his. There are a few reasons for me. First, check out this video. P

I too am a watch enthusiast and thought I'd give my take in case count doesn't respond with his. There are a few reasons for me. First, check out this video. Personally I think the watch is ugly as hell, but if anything shows you some of the craftsmanship that goes into a watch, this would be it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIXPplShtg0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIXPplShtg0 Another reason is that I'm a programmer and clockwork is a form of programming. I don't know much about watchmaking (I'm hoping to eventually go to watchmaking school - not for many years though I imagine) but I read quite a bit about it and it fascinates me. It's similar to how the idea of programming on an incredibly old computer with practically no resources fascinates me. Complaining about only having 2K of memory? At least you've got electricity! There's a hell of a lot of invention and, well, hacking that goes into watchmaking too. Take the perpetual calendar, for example - a type of watch that only needs to be adjusted once every 100 years because it tracks leap years. Moon phases that are accurate for 5400 years[1]. Planetariums on your wrist, all powered by clockwork[2]. Dials that take a century to complete a rotation. I also love the human aspect of watchmaking. The level of craftsmanship in a high end watch, such as the Patek Philippe you saw in the video, is incredible. I love the attention to detail and the care that goes into every single component: even components that are buried deep inside the watch are still polished and decorated by hand. Pointless? Yes! But I can't help but love it. You mention supply chain sophistication and you might be right - but don't think that the supply chains for watches aren't sophisticated. If you're interested, Hodinkee.com recently published an article about their tour around the Rolex manufacture. You might be interested in the level of complexity: http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/inside-rolex http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/inside-rolex It's a long article but if you search for "Parachrom Hairspring", that section will give you a bit of insight into the kind of invention that goes into modern watchmaking. However, after all of that justification, I'll fully admit that it's pointless. A $100 quartz watch is typically more accurate than a $10,000 mechanical. It's pretty much all about emotion, similar to how some people can become attached to paintings where all others see is paint on canvas. [1] http://monochrome-watches.com/a-worlds-first-christiaan-van-der-klaauw-real-moon-tides-indicates-the-sea-level-tides/ http://monochrome-watches.com/a-worlds-first-christiaan-van-... [2] http://www.vancleefarpels.com/us/en/article/10935/midnight-planetarium-timepiece http://www.vancleefarpels.com/us/en/article/10935/midnight-p... (Hm, I wrote quite a bit more than I intended to and must have given you at least an hours worth of reading/watching material! Perhaps I should write this up as a blog post sometime.)