I looked at all the recent smartwatches for a while -- I hadn't worn a watch in 20 years. TL;DR, I didn't buy one -- instead I discovered the world of real mechanical watches which I had totally ignored for years and bought some of these instead...
I really wonder how many people went thru this same process... I mean, 'disposable income' can buy a smartwatch that will be landfill in 3 years, OR it can buy something that'll still run in 30 years with a bit of luck... as far as the 'nerdy factor' (and 'new toy' factor) is concerned, a mechanical watch does hit quite a few sweet spots too...
So that Swatch doesn't 'do' it for me here -- you can already buy automatic watches with chinese movements for a LOT less than $150 -- in fact, you can get one for $15 (check aliexpress); with movements that are actually quite nice and fairly precise (most of them). Oh and they are not sealed, so can be serviced.
Mechanical watches of reasonable quality need to be services at <=5 years intervals; so one can assume that Swatch useful lifetime without a way to service it will be in fact rather similar to an Apple Watch in the end.
The Seiko 5 is a great mechanical watch at the same price point and has been around for many years. This Salon article is half ad for Swatch and clickbait for Apple fans.
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[ 404 ms ] story [ 828 ms ] threadSo that Swatch doesn't 'do' it for me here -- you can already buy automatic watches with chinese movements for a LOT less than $150 -- in fact, you can get one for $15 (check aliexpress); with movements that are actually quite nice and fairly precise (most of them). Oh and they are not sealed, so can be serviced.
Mechanical watches of reasonable quality need to be services at <=5 years intervals; so one can assume that Swatch useful lifetime without a way to service it will be in fact rather similar to an Apple Watch in the end.