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Comment by gpm | Hacker News Reader

I'm not surprised, it's not clear that traditional watches have a future at all. Right now they are still a fancy fashion accessory, but it wouldn't shock me to see that change in the next decade or two.

Betting your future livelyhood on an industry like that continuing to exist seems like a risky prospect for little reward, except to the extent that the skills you learn will be transferable to another industry.

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I am pretty convinced that high end watches ($5000+) will be around for a long time. In terms of functionality a smart watch is probably better but I just like mechanical watches and I know a lot of people who feel the same way.

I’m sure there’ll always be some market, but looking at the numbers it wouldn’t be unreasonable to speculate that the sector is currently in a bubble.

And it’s obviously very vulnerable to recession.

I couldn’t imagine wearing a luxury watch on my daily walks through seas of tent cities, panhandlers, and car campers. I would feel embarrassed and vulnerable. Arguably I already should, but a Rolex would definitely push it over the top. Cities are increasingly looking like this, and we are increasingly living in cities and walking and taking transit. Wealth display won’t go away, but I predict it will shift towards venues that are less obvious when you’re a soft target waking around in public.

Smartwatches had their opportunity in the 80's Casios and Timex watches.

The new trend is an attempt to survive in the already saturated mobile market.

I bet in 10 years time, most smartwatches will join Casios and Timex ones on flea markets.

Digital watches were pretty cool when they were new, too.

In 10 years, smart watches will be bougie. Something about analog-everything has more staying power.

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