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I often think about it too. The car seems to be much more complex than a mechanical watch. The watch can perform very well without regular maintenance but car cannot. And the latter can be very dirty, with all the oil, gasoline, dirt, smell, etc. Cars run on much much more harsh conditions with lots of exposed parts , one of whose failure can lead to the car being useless. Whereas for the watch basically everything is in an enclosure. It can go for decades without the need of opening.

Looks to me as though mechanical watches are doing better than surviving; they seem to be flourishing. Especially some of the more ridiculously expensive ones that have elaborations and complications such as tourbillions, etc.

Although the cryptocurrecny shakeout seems to have dulled the high-end watch market somewhat.

Of course they will. These threads are all so car-centric. Motorcycles are still a popular option, for the very reason you ponder. And most of them are still manual.