I keep seeing stories about how the kids are “going analog.” They’re doing digital detoxes, buying vinyl records and CDs instead of cloud-based music subscriptions, shooting with film cameras and taking up “grandma hobbies.” I welcome them to the club. I’ve been moving this direction for some time myself, but being Gen X, nobody in the mass media, per usual, pays us much mind. But I digress.
There’s a reason for this. Reducing screen time is a way to lower stress and improve sleep, there’s a desire to actually own things, not just access to things temporarily. Physical hobbies offer a sensory experience and “presence,” not to mention a break from the algorithms.
Which is why I’d like to tell you about my watch.
Yeah, my watch.
It’s not a “smartwatch.” It’s very much the antithesis of that.
It doesn’t even have a battery. It’s got a spring inside it that slowly unwinds, sending its energy through a series of cogs that turn the hands telling me the time. When I move my arm throughout the day, that activity sends a rotor inside it spinning, which winds that spring and keeps it wound as long as I wear the watch and move my arm now and then. It’s the sort of technology that’s been around since the 1700s.
My watch isn’t the only anachronistic thing about me that the kids are now into. I’ve got a camera that I like to take snaps with when I’m feeling artsy. I enjoy thrifting for clothes much more than being online (although I’m guilty of having at least four thrifting apps on my phone and I do look at them frequently). And I can be found prowling a local store where they sell record players and backpacking gear. It’s not a pawn shop; it’s a shop for people who like backpacking and records. It’s like catnip for me just to walk in. I haven’t purchased a damned thing yet, I just feel better knowing it exists and that I can go there.
And I love it. Just like I love having an old-fashioned watch.
I know how to tell the time, but there’s a perceptible difference between looking at a digital display that says, “10:23,” and looking at hands pointing more or less to a “10” and somewhere between two hashmarks on the lower-right side of the dial. That difference is enough to cause me to slow down and figure out what time it is.
Sometimes I look at the dial and I get mesmerized by the second hand (which is the one that visibly moves around the dial pointing at each second as it transpires).
My watch was not cheap, but it wasn’t insanely expensive. It was just a lot of money for something that nobody really needs.
It’s true. Nobody “needs” a watch. We all have phones and computer screens everywhere telling us what time it is. Watches don’t provide any function that can’t be obtained more easily, often for less money, in many other places in our lives. Some people refer to watches as nothing but jewelry.
But it gives me a sense of the actual passage of time, it slows me down and it helps me be more mindful. I find it a calming addition to my daily life.
Having an old-fashioned mechanical watch helps me be mindful in a way that no “smartwatch” can. I mean, sure I could put an analog “face” on a smartwatch. But that’s just not the same thing.
My watch is not from a brand you’ve ever heard of. It’s not “fancy,” although it says it’s “Swiss made” on the dial, so that conjures images of some farmer at a bench looking through a loupe and assembling fiddly bits while we see his herd of Braunvieh in a pasture through his window. Pretty sure that didn’t happen.
Anyway, it’s a genre of watches called a “field watch” because it resembles the sort of watches men wore during the world wars. It’s fairly small and unobtrusive. It’s got a plain black dial and Arabic numbers with material that glows in the dark. That seconds hand that sweeps around the dial is a bright orange that sets it off from the hour and minute hands and I just love watching it glide around the dial.
That dial and movement are nestled into a circular stainless steel case, and sandwiched between sapphire on both sides so I can see that movement through a scratch-free crystal and flip it over to look at that movement if I want. Seeing the balance spring oscillating back and forth as the energy from the spring surges through it is almost as hypnotic as the seconds hand.
Yes, this obsolete technology draws me in to the point that I often flip the watch over to look at the side that doesn’t even tell me the time.
So when I see that the kids are “going analog,” I don’t think it’s mere nostalgia or a fear of paying for things they never actually own. I think they just want something to slow them down and feel real for a little bit.
I could have told them where to start. It’s this “useless” piece of steel on my wrist.
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Some watch-related content if you’d like to explore further:
Teddy Baldassarre, a long-time “creator” who turned his passion into a job and even a watch store in Cleveland.
Worn and Wound, a site about new watches
Hodinkee, a site catering to reviews and news about more luxury type watches.
A Blog to Watch, a blog about watches (there’s also a YT channel)
This Watch That Watch, probably my favorite YT channel covering the industry.
Wristwatch Revival. The “Bob Ross” of watch repair does great storytelling while repairing old watches. Actually, this is my favorite YT channel. Marshall Sutcliffe is a Seattle guy into fixing watches, and I enjoy the calmness and satisfaction of watching him tear down and rebuild old movements.
This is not an exhaustive list, but it’s plenty to get you started.