One additional burden of mechanical watch ownership is regular maintenance. This isn’t mentioned in the article, possibly because the author has not had their mechanical watch long enough to need it. But every mechanical watch eventually needs to be serviced. At least disassembled, cleaned, and re-assembled, and maybe some parts replaced.
I didn’t appreciate this until my Vostok needed it; it just stopped being reliable over time. Then I thought I should have just bought a nicer watch, but nope: even Rolexes and super expensive watches are supposed to go in every few years for servicing.
It was actually very difficult to find someone to do the Amphibia. Seiko and nicer watches have official servicing programs and networks of authorized repair shops. None of them wanted to touch an obscure cheap Russian watch.
And the watch itself only cost like $50 used… I was reluctant to spend $hundreds on a servicing. So it sits in a drawer, stopped. And I’m back to my Timex Ironman, which is on at least its 3rd battery.