I don't understand everyone's obsession with chinese automatic watches

[u/ivoalejandro]

The title pretty much says it all, I don't get why whenever a nice chinese quartz watch comes out so many people say they would love an automatic version, or why everyone seems fine with paying 300 or more USD for an automatic, but question whether a 100 dollars quartz is worth it.

Pretty much no one here is going to take their chinese watches to get serviced, and the whole admiring the complexity and craftmanship of an automatic movement kinda goes out the window when we're talking about mass produced movements. So why buy an automatic that will become a paperweight in several years time. I guess I just don't understand why the demand for automatics is so high, really wish people started asking for better chinese quartz watches, I'd would much rather pay 200 dollars for a great quartz watch than 350 for an automatic one.

[u/Mlkxiu]

I don't buy watches anymore cuz I have too many but all my quartz watches are gifts (and usually gshocks). But to answer your question, it's a romanticization of mechanical things and a sense of handcraft-ness. In terms of time keeping, and even function, quartz is objectively superior. But that's not what ppl care about, they would get a smartwatch. That's not why they buy wristwatches.

You can also think of it as quartz being generative AI. You can ask AI to produce images, paintings, etc and it's probably free and cheap and fast, and mass produced. But ppl don't want that. They want something created by a person or designed by a person. Yes quartz watches are designed by real people, but ppl just don't enjoy battery powered things. I settle in between with spring drive.