Five Days, Five Reasons To Buy A Mechanical Watch

Hi everyone,

I've been thinking about this for a while and I've decided it would be salutary to re-examine some of the preconceptions underlying our collective enthusiasm. Comments welcome and indeed hoped for .

REASON NO 1. MAN DOES NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE

The mechanical watch is not a practical object and can't be defended on those grounds (mostly.) At the same time, however, much or even most of what we think of as helping to make life worthwhile can't really be defended on the grounds of pure practicality. Our museums, libraries, and much of our social discourse is positively replete with the celebration of things that are impractical: beauty, craftsmanship, art, the whole fabric of the hierarchy of society which encourages the production of the rare but desirable and beautiful is wholly bound up with values that are, are some level, grossly impractical but at the same time, an essential part of what makes us really human.

So let's look at the mechanical watch not as a luxury object, but as an expression of craft, history, and a unique kind of human ingenuity.


Vacheron Constantin Deck Chronometer, image from SteveG's Watch Launchpad which has launched many an enthusiast's interest in watchmaking.)

The elaborate finish, much of which is unecessary, of this Vacheron Constantin deck chronometer's movement is a perfect expression of what, potentially, makes watches and watchmaking not only special but worthwhile. Watchmakers since time immemorial have decorated their movements not only for functional reasons, but as an expression of pride in their work, with fine finishing often representing a significant part of the overall labor value of a top quality watch or clock. (George Daniels once wrote that when watchmakers can't make important technical advances they distract themselves by applying a jewel-like finish to their watches, but of course, much of his own work expressed exactly the crossover between technical and aesthetic that characterizes watchmaking at its best.) A watch of this quality says something about the orientation of a craftsperson towards his or her work --that something of themselves has passed into the object they've created, via the pride they take in their work and the pains they've gone to to ensure that it's as functionally irreproachable as possible. There are almost no other craft objects in the world that still express both a high degree of precision in their design and manufacture, and also a high degree of commitment to aesthetic sophistication and the expression of decorative manual crafts (jewelry is static; an iPhone is probably untouched by human hands --and the better for it --for its entire manufacturing process.)

Is such an object costly today? Yes --and more so than in the past, although truly fine watches have always been expensive, especially in the pocket watch era when even more handwork went into a watch than today. But regarded as both objects of design ingenuity, as well as objects of very high level technical sophistication, fine mechanical watches have to be evaluated not by utilitarian standards, but by a theory of value that incorporates a realization that at their best, such objects are forms of communication between the owner and the craftspeople who have made them. Such objects have never and will never be affordable to most people, but there is an argument to be made that their creation and appreciation enriches a culture as a whole --someone from Switzerland may not be a watchmaker but may take a justifiable pride in how fine watchmaking and its history reflect on Swiss culture, and someone half a world away may not be able to own a grande complication, but may feel an entirely justifiable fascination with the means and ways by which it's come into existence --and a kinship with those who made it as well.

Jack

I think we usually dont need a "reason" for buying an exclusive watch,except when when we are trying to convince people who are not in to nice watches that a watch is worth to pay for.