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Comment by rauhl | Hacker News Reader

A couple of years ago I really wanted to get a smart watch. After reading and reading and reading about them, I realised: buying a smart watch is actually pretty dumb. For the same amount of money, I could buy an automatic watch which will never need a battery replaced, never spy on me, never require patches, never fall out of software support — and will be with me for years to come.

So I went out and bought a few nice automatic watches, and I’ve been incredibly happy since. Each of my watches tells time, each looks good, and each will still be running years after every smart watch sold in 2016 is powered off.

This particular Apple watch is IMHO too big, and mesh bracelets look very 1980s to me.

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Years ago I wanted to buy a computer but then I realized that I could also buy a bike which is much better because a bike doesn't use electricity /s

Any operation you can do on a computer I can do on my abacus. It never needs to be charged and I enjoy the mechanical nature of its computations. Saved a bunch of money too!

Spoken like someone who has not yet paid to service an automatic watch. :P

Although automatic watches in the price range of an Apple Watch - $300-500 - can be pretty durable, their service costs are high enough to justify replacing the damn thing with a new watch once that time rolls around in 5-10 years.

Do you really have to actually service them at 5 year intervals? I have Seiko SKX with a 7S26 movement that still people routinely say it goes 10+ years without a service. When you do, it's about $100 since the movement is so common and cheap. Seiko and Casio both make fine quartz watches that are solar powered and have much lower maint cost than an automatic watch (though typically not seen as a nice or luxurious watch). The swatch thin-line watches are quite nice and replacing the batteries is cheap.

Probably not. But if you own a Rolex Daytona, you would, just for peace of mind.

Rolex used to replace all worn parts in their movements as part of their servicing at no extra charge. Do they still do this? If so, then I would push off the service as long as possible. If you wear out a bunch of parts after 20 years they'll be replaced in a single service. I think the average service interval for them is 10 years (not that they recommend that but what people usually do) and the servicing is like $750 last I remember.

Well, you don’t have to, but the watch is basically a total loss once it requires a service. You could service it preserve the sentimental value, but if OP wanted a hearty watch they would’ve bought a G-Shock or quartz.

(Tangent: folks in the watch community are “particular” about the watches they purchase. In 2018 quartz is out of style, even though they run longer and resist shock more than automatic watches. In my mind, OP traded one trendy watch - the Apple Watch - for another watch trend.)

And that's great for you. I was totally against smart watches when they first appeared and didn't see any great use for the Apple Watch.

I eventually bought one and I wear it every single day. Things I do with it:

1. Most important feature is notifications from iMessage, WhatsApp, SMS and a small number of apps that I want notifications from (e.g. British Airways app telling me which gate to go to). On occasion I reply using the watch.

2. Meeting reminders. I go to a lot of meetings. Knowing when they are coming up and where they are is super useful.

3. Activity. I like the gentle push to make me walk a bit more.

4. Timers. Use these often when cooking or making tea.

I have an original Apple Watch. Not sure the Series 4 is compelling for me, but the health features are what will drive me to buy a new watch at some point.

You’re not part of the target customer base just as someone who loves walking is not a target customer for any car maker. It’s as simple as that.

If you do use a smartphone, then a smart watch is quite close to the tracking part (except for some additional data collection about heart rate that you may consider invasive).

Size is an opinion so I won't argue there. It's not especially big or heavy as watches go though. However...

>and mesh bracelets look very 1980s to me.

You know you can get different bands. I have a leather band--admittedly way too expensive--but it's very nice leather and is very comfortable.

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