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Comment by robthebrew | Hacker News Reader

"a few seconds a day" why is that accuracy even needed? Sure, if you work with computers (that can tell time too), or are a mariner without GPS. But otherwise, just live with it.

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Over a week or two that will accumulate enough error to make me miss a tram. Of course, you could just re-set the time every week, but there's your downside.

Of course, that inaccuracy isn't a problem for most uses.

But for me, having an accurate watch reduces cognitive overhead and mental noise: I never worry whether the watch is wrong, and I never wonder about the last time I set the watch. Combine good accurary with a 10 year battery or solar and we're in full zen mode.

It's a watch. It's an item that literally has one single job: tell the time accurately. It goes without saying that it should do a pretty good job at this and be accurate.

Watches are jewelry. Telling time isn't even their main purpose, nevermind telling it accurately. Of course, maintaining accuracy is part of what makes them cool to the people who like them, but even if they lost several minutes a day, I suspect my watch wearing brethren would continue to wear them.

That’s only the case for expensive watches. I use my cheap watch to tell the time.

Define "accuracy".

What, if anything, in your life needs to be done with-in ±5 minutes? If the analog minute hand "should" be on 2, but it's closer to 1 or 3, how many things will fall apart in your life?

Catching a train.

Frankly it's a total non-issue because you now have your train ticket on a mobile app on a mobile device with synchronized internet time anyway. Most people are wearing mechanical watches today as jewellery and a physical piece of craftsmanship that's nice to keep time that's directionally correct, but if it's out by 30seconds it's no big deal and you just reset it against the time on your phone and get on with your day.

I still use paper tickets and many others do too! At any rate though, I agree. It doesn't matter to me that my mechanical watch is often out by 30 seconds. I don't mind checking and adjusting it every now and then so it's never off by ±5 minutes where it would cause problems for me.

Any meeting? I wouldn’t want to be the guy that is always 5 minutes late

few seconds a day is literally a minute per month or 12 minutes per year, that's a lot, even cheap Casio clone from skmei I bought for daughter has much higher accuracy like 15 seconds per 2-3 months which seems fine considering I set time twice a year anyway

if you tolerate minutes inaccuracy from watch, then there is no point in wearing them at all

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