What is a mechanical watch and why you should buy one
Updated: Jun 8, 2021
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A mechanical watch is mainly split into 2 categories: manual wind and automatic. What is different about them is that how they get their power. Automatic get's its power from a rotor that rotates inside the watch using the motion of your arm and winds the watch.
On the other hand, the manual wind uses the power you give it by rotating the crown without unlocking it, clockwise, until you feel a stop.
Both are great and have their own pros and cons. But, they fall into the same major category of mechanical watches at the end of the day. In my opinion, mechanical watches, despite being inferior technology to quartz, are still superior to them. The reason being, quartz is more accurate but may not last as long as a mechanical watch! The batteries may be discontinued, or in the future, no support may remain for them, so why not buy a watch as reliable as a mechanical watch that may never require a visit to the watchmaker?
A mechanical watch may outlive you, your son, your grandson, and all your future generations, and they would see this as an object that represents you even after you are gone. A quartz watch may do the same thing, but honestly, it may not last as long, as parts may not be available, no batteries available in the future, etc.
This watch was designed by Patek Phillipe with the sole motive to last for an eternity, looking as if it hasn't aged a day:
This is the Patek 2526, known to house probably the world's finest and best time-only movement. This watch was made with an enamel dial, and in the gold model, even the hands and indices were made of solid gold! (Indicated by sigma swiss sigma at the bottom of the dial) But as many would think about the general Calatrava watch, it does not have a manual wind movement, but an automatic one!
Of course, there are now options like the spring drive movement or Seiko kinetic movement. Still, they cannot replicate the charm of mechanical watches in them. A technology refined over for more than 400 years, from a fat pocket watch to the slimmest mechanical wristwatch in the world, we can see that mechanicals are here to stay despite quartz, not because of the accuracy or the prestige, but for the charm they have.