Why are non-hacking watches still made?

Laziness. 

There are certain features on watches that I cannot be made to care about: hacking is one.

Cost I suppose.
 

But that doesn’t explain watches like some PP’s that do not hack.

Very difficult to set a watch to an atomic clock or other time service if it doesn’t hack. So if you want your watch as accurate as possible....😎

Or you could go further and get the Sinn 1736, and omit the second hand altogether. (That watch is awfully tempting.)

I have one non-hacking Seiko and have just never been able to warm up to it. I’d rather have one with no second hand - I’ve got several of those and like them. So yes, I don’t get why they do a day/date on the Seiko, but don’t spend to get a hacking movement.  

Have you seen my watches? I feel lucky when some have enough power to make through the day. 30 seconds or a minute off doesn't bother me.

I kno, bro. Drives me up the wall! I shake my SKX007 vigorously as the seconds on my phone match and can almost get a good set. It blew my mind that my 2017 Speedmaster doesn’t hack, I had never read about that before. That one can back hack, but that’s a proper pain in the backside especially for a space tool! 🤣

Hacking is the work of the devil. It's like sticking a ...err... stick in the spokes of a bicycle to stop it. In a mechanical watch where accuracy of the second hand is hardly a primary concern (if it was you'd wear a quartz) then it's completely unnecessary.

Hand-winding is useful; hacking just isn't. 

Other opinions are available but those don't count as they aren't mine and are therefore incorrect. 😁

i think its because of the cost. modern day seiko use 4r35 or 6 as the standart but the price is a little bit more expensive. just take seiko snk and the modern srph for example. nowadays the old movement 7s26 is used by alba, the cheaper alternative to modern seiko 5. i just hate the 7s26 doesnt support hack and handwind. its better to save some more and buy the modern seiko with 4r series

I understand non-hacking and handwinding with a real tool watch (that might be your only watch) like the SKX007, as the more you play with the crown, the more you might leave it not screwed in, or put unnecessary wear on the crown gaskets.

Now though, with watches being an unnecessary item for most, it makes sense to have handwinding and hacking. Especially to those with more than one watch like us crazy watch people 🤪

Its cheaper

"I have never met a quartz watch...". All I can see in my head is you shaking hands with a watch-man 🤣

A watch that doesn’t hack makes irrelevant any merit to the movement’s accuracy, IMO, in an age when we are measuring movement accuracy by +/- XYZ seconds. What’s the point of a high accuracy watch that you can‘t set properly?

Hacking had its purpose in the days before quartz when mechanical watches were the most accurate time-telling device. I am now somewhat indifferent regarding this function, but the hand-winding feature I do appreciate. It perplexes me a bit that these two tend to be mentioned together so many times.

Why?

👍

My Swatch Irony and Vostok Amphibia don’t hack…and it is a tragic reality. The accuracy of the watch I have on my wrist is paramount. 

Actually, hacking and hand winding were a couple reasons I chose a Timex MK1 Mechanical over a Seiko SNK (although it also helped that the Timex was on sale for $85).

As many have pointed out, the only reason this annoys me is that it is indeed a hindrance to checking accuracy. If it hacks, hack it and come back in a few minutes, a few  hours, the next day and you can immediately quantify any discrepancy. With "running seconds," a term I'm glad to have learnt today, the assessment is at a loosey-goosey +/- 1 minute tolerance from the very start. You have to wait several days for this to average out into a more reliable figure. 

Of course a saner person wouldn't worry about this and just, you know, use the watch and at some point observe how long it takes to drift an appreciable amount. Or, as I do with no-date watches, set in the morning and if it's within a minute or two by day's end, don't worry about it.

In my view the lack of a hacking or handwinding feature isn't a problem at all provided the movment is reliable and keeps good time.  There is a hack for the non hack-

When setting hold gentle pressure in reverse until the seconds hand stops.  When you are ready to sycronize the time let the pressure off.  It is possilble to hack the non hacking watches with a little practice.

The Blancpain fifty-phatons are non-hacking. Am I right? Blancpain with their big cases are a turn-off for me. I am glad also that the Omega 3861 has hacking, although you could hack the 1861. But, you may damage the watch. 

Interesting post. I’m surprised that all the comments are debating the importance of a hacking movement and not the availability of hacking movements. My first thought is that it was strange to me that none of your mechanical watches have hacking movements. Which is opposite of my experience. All but one of my mechanical watches have hacking movements. I’m curious why no one else has chimed in? Perhaps you could explore brands that offer the feature, as its certainly common among modern watches. 

We all know mechanical watches arent accurate ><. So back in the day, for military purposes, hacking was a way to make sure that everyone had syncronised time telling on their wrists.

Nowadays its a little redundant for that purposes, like so many before, digital watches do the same thing but better. 

As for handwinding, its a little finicky. With the ETA 2824, even though you CAN handwind, its better not to, due to the teeth profile of the crown wheel and ratchet wheel etc, i wont go too long here about it. If you wear your seiko SKX007 all the time, technically you wont have to handwind it at all. 

No, I haven’t seen your watches. 😁 But to each their own. Performance like you mentioned would cause me to swear off mechanical watches. 

That works...but if you’re 45 seconds off....

It isn’tabout being on time or planning to the second. Accuracy, to at least COSC standards, is part of the fascination with mechanical movements. The simple fact that you can get a mechanical device to accurately tell time to within a few seconds over 24 hours is really incredible if you think about it. Perhaps one might compare a really accurate watch to a super car; no you don’t need it, you can’t drive it to 100+ mph on the open road without getting pulled (except for track days or being on the Autobahn), a Yugo will get you to your destination but it is still desirable to have that super car. Same way for a Rolex or Omega Co-Ax. No you don’t need to be that accurate, heck get super quartz or an atomic clock sink watch for that, but it really is nice that it is that accurate. Ah, the facination of mechanical devices. I’ve rambled enough. 😋

To each their own. 

Hacking second may cause higher wear on the balance wheel when the watch suddenly brake to hack the second hand. According to FP Journe.

maybe for those high horology / delicated timepieces it makes good sense not to risk any damage. 

True but one reason i dont get watches with a date window 😂