While writing the review of the Charles-Hubert automic the other day -- and today while editing my Zeno Explorer review -- it dawned on me that there are few people who desire mechanical watches.
This first really struck me when I was going into work one day and the security guy stopped me for setting off the metal detector. "Sorry," I said. "Must be my automatic." He breathed a sigh of relief when I began to unclasp my stainless steel automatic dive watch for inspection -- No doubt his first impression was that I meant an automatic pistol!
It was then I really realized how small is the segment of the population familiar with mechanical watches, either autos or handwounds.
For me this was a new realization; though I realized my interest in watches was probably more than average, I never really thought of it as odd or strange. Everyone appreciates a fine car, even if they can't afford one -- why shouldn't everyone appreciate a fine watch, especially when most everyone could afford one? Yet, few do. They fit a few classes; those who simply buy what's expensive, and it happens to be mechanical; those with an interest in watches or watch mechanism who enjoy tinkering with them; and those who are simply fans of watches.
To the average citizen, a watch is simply a means of telling the time; beyond that it holds little signifigance and is given even littler thought. But to those who know watches or take an interest in them, there is something special about mechanical watches, either handwound or automatic, that battery-powered specimens cannot match. This raised the question in my mind: What's so special about mechanical watches? Why should anyone want one?
It is hand to give a clear, single answer to that question, but if anyone has ever seen the swinging weight of an automatic watch, seen the spinning palance wheel and throbbing heart of a mainstring, or watched the sweep of a second hand on a watch powered by gears and not quartz convulsions, they know there is a difference between what they have seen, and your average battery-operated wristwatch.
First, mechanical watches have more moving parts, requiring more skill in assembly and construction. It is a piece of functioning machinery, like any other engine, and has the same fascination for watch fanatics as the engine of a hot rod has for car geeks.
Second, there is the link to the past; mechanical watches were once all there was, before battery watches, and for some that provides a retro feeling of nastolgia. Others respect the workmanship of mechnical watches, touches you don't see in battery operated models, such as engraved rotors, display backs that show the workings, and even skeletonized faces that show the works from the front.
There is something more REAL about a watch driven by gears; the gears are spinning and the hands are moving, unlike the chemists' experiment of a quartz watch which seems almost inhuman in its quality of function.
An automatic or handwound watch need not be expensive, but for many they seem so. Most people associate the mechanical watch with the likes of Rolex and Omega -- and while these are admirable names, this does not mean a mechanical watch is only for the "rich". Unfortunately, this is how it seems, and so many watch stores do not carry mechanical watches -- or if they do, few fall below the 500 [usd] price point. So the general public turns to Timex.
This is sad, because there are plenty of affordable mechanical watches, from the Charles-Hubert with its Jap movement to Seiko dive watches to Hamiltons, that are well below that half a grand mark. Zeno, to name just one maker, puts out plenty of mechanical and automatic watches which demonstrate excellent quality, especially for the money.
Yet the interest in such watches remains an almost underground hobby. Most people don't care.
In the process, we lose something all too real. The mechanical wristwatch came into being during the heyday of America [and the world's] modernization. The 1920s, '30s and '40s were a time we won't see again -- the greatest strides in industry and civilization were made. A mechanical watch was good enough then. Yet, somehow it is not good enough now.
Revive the mechanical watches before it is too late!
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