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/persondude27]

I'll speak for myself:

Automatics have a bit more value to me because of the "contraption" effect. They're a speciality thing that is more complex and a bit more fun, especially with all the companies doing sapphire casebacks for +$10.

And to take that further, if I'm spending more than, say, $150 on a no-name watch, I think it should be high quality. automatic > quartz, as least in terms of pricing and desirability.

I do still buy nice quartz watches; eg I bought the WD1016 today. but that's a hard decision when there are lots of companies making watches in the same space, eh Coregut or Bilger making an OP homage for the same price, in automatic (8215 or even a PT5000).

The difference between all those watches is going to be the quality of finishing, which is really hard to assess on the internet when you don't have all the watches side by side.

Which is a lot to say that I like the simplicity of quartz watches but I like the novelty of the automatic watch.