(2023-06-12) On watches in 2023
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I have ordered yet another wristwatch. Will tell more about it when it
arrives (hopefully it happens this week). For now, I'll just tell that it's
a purely-analogue chronograph. When looking for some info about it, I had
found the same YouTube folks as usual ("watch review channels") boasting
about "affordable chronographs", the cheapest of which costs twice the price
of it. As if they are living on a different planet or something. And this is
why, despite having shared some watch-related thoughts here and on
chronovir.us, decided that it's finally time to share my thoughts about the
current matter of things. And when my new chrono arrives, the next post will
be solely dedicated to it.
Let's begin with the fact that if you're living in a real society and talk to
real people, you'll discover about three categories of them by their
perception of wristwatches:
1) "I don't need watches and I think no one really does, it's 2023, phones
are enough to tell the time and do everything else",
2) "For me, a watch is a purely fashion item so it doesn't matter how much it
costs or how accurate it is, only the look matters",
3) "I use all the bleeding-edge technology to my advantage, so I migrated
from G-Shocks to smartwatches and am happy with that".
I say _about_ three categories because there is indeed a fourth one, which is
now, alas, totally outnumbered by this avalanche of morons and hipsters, the
category who just uses normal watches exactly to tell the accurate time
while appreciating their true mobility and autonomy. Unfortunately, due to
us homo sapiens being outnumbered, it's becoming increasingly difficult to
find a watch that's really suitable for performing its main function well
while not looking too ugly. Because the market is aimed at the categories 2
and 3. I'm not saying that there are few watches that are good as watches -
hell no, there still are enough of them, but I'm saying that they are
saturated with a pile of garbage released just to create an illusion of
variety, making really good models harder to find. The situation is becoming
even more difficult because of sellers worldwide who simply don't know what
they are selling, while successfully (because people don't have another
choice if the brand doesn't have an official retailer in the country) making
1.5x to 3x margin, and that's the best case. Combine this with an overblown
supply of fakes and OEMs/ODMs, and you'll see how deep the needle is in this
haystack that desperately needs to be burned down.
In a nutshell, everything looks like it has been artificially arranged to
drive people off buying normal watches in favor of "smart" crap, while
leaving the "luxury market" almost intact. Some zombies even say this
directly: "either a Swiss mech or an Apple watch, it makes no sense to buy
anything else". Ridiculous. Not saying I want a war to come to their homes
like it came to mine, but I do want them to feel what it is to have no
access to civil infrastructure for a long time. I want them to have no way
to charge their gadgets at least for a month, and to have no authorized
service available when their Rolexes/Tags/Omegas finally break down. If a
disaster is the only way to make watch snobs appreciate simplicity,
reliability and interchangeability, then I want them to go through it. It's
a purification process after which no one will dare to judge people by what
they wear. In a healthy society, there shall be no "luxury market".
As of now though, something needs to be done to keep track of this needle in
the haystack. I can create a page with my personal watch recommendations
(and probably will do), but I can only talk about what I can personally find
where I am and fully test it in terms of daily usage. Not to mention that my
current capabilities of extending the collection are quite limited (not
financially but logistically), and I will mostly talk about the watches I
already have in it. Nevertheless, I hope it will give you an idea where to
look if you want a good yet really affordable watch. So, as always, stay
tuned. For now, just remember: wristwatches are not dead and have yet to
have a final laugh.
