Apple Watch From a Mechanical Watch Guy
For people who love mechanical watches, the Apple Watch is both unimportant and important. It’s unimportant because what it offers really is totally different from the pleasure you get from a great tool watch with an amazing history, like the Sub or the Speedmaster, or the connection you get to a fusion of aesthetics, mechanics, and craftsmanship from something like a Patek or Lange. But that’s also why it’s important. And it’s also why, even for luxury watchmaking, it is a little dangerous. Apple’s actually succeeded in doing with the Apple Watch what they did with the iPhone: inventing a new experience. Whether that experience is one ultimately more compelling than the one offered by mechanical watches, nobody knows. What I don’t think the luxury watch world can afford is complacency. If it fails to realize that what the Apple Watch actually offers is not competition, but a convincing alternative experience – and if it doesn’t take the hint that luxury is ultimately about attention to detail, not marketing or price point – it could be in serious trouble.
Two weeks ago we had a tech guy raving about mechanical watches after his Watch experience. Last week, Jack Forster, a mechanical watch enthusiast was raving about the Watch and the impact that it should have on the mechanical market. Interesting article coming from a watch guy.
