We all love watches, but why?

I remember spending moments of my days appreciating my wristwatches. The way they moved and the idea of knowing that time was being analysed precisely with that piece of art.
 

My passion grew when I bought my first automatic watch and began to appreciate every detail even more. 

Just like a friend who is always with us throughout life! 

When I was in preschool we would learn to tell time using a really cool (to me) little mechanical clock. You’d crank the handle and the hands would move. The idea of time and motion started to make sense to me at that point.

I’ve been fascinated with watches and clocks since then. 

I don't have a girlfriend. 🤷

Grew up wearing cheap Timex and Casio's..  Wanted something well made with a back story (history) that reflected my personality on my wrist as a grown up

Im a Seiko diver / Grand Seiko guy now

I like the idea of a symbiotic sort of relationship with a mechanical device, and a "friend" I can wear through life's events. 

2. Also I find watches really useful. For general time, cooking, work, etc.

3. It's a cool piece of gear I can enjoy. 

4. They remind me of space travel.

5. I feel less useless with a watch. - More manly you might say. 

6. Escapism / distraction. 

Art and engineering are wonderful. The form and function serve a purpose for the wearer. Higher end watches that are hand made deserve their praise for craftsmanship and beauty.

It's the combination of design and mechanical; the same reason for my love of road bikes. Also, I'm not a jewellery guy, so being able to wear different watches to suit my mood, clothes choice and occasion is something I really enjoy. 

Because it's functional acceptable jewellery for men, I guess. I wanna feel pretty too. 😛

I don’t, but they love me it seems. Won’t leave me alone.

They’re interesting. 

I love engineering, art, history. I love obscure details and obsessing over things. My parents are in to long case clocks and antique musical boxes - so theres a bit of that too - I grew up around a lot of ticks and tocks! Pretty interested in mid twentieth century design. Love a gadget. Love haggling for a bargain - buying and selling.

Yeah thinking about it I’ve got “watch nerd” written all over me..

Tick tock 

Tick tock 

Tick tock 

Mostly the fact that humans figured out how to make a tiny machine that can precisely measure bits or blocks of time and then turn that machine into hundreds of thousands (millions?) of unique works of art. 

The coil/recoil of a hairspring, the back & forth of the pallet fork, the cascading movement of the train of wheels, the sweep or precise 6 degrees of advancement of the seconds hand every second. 

The advancement to using an oscillating & humming rock to measure those bits & blocks of time even MORE accurately than ever before. 

It's all very man vs. the cosmos with man learning how to use the powers of the cosmos, while still being very much controlled by the cosmos that is so fascinating. 

Honestly I don't know... I need to fixate on something and it doesn't seem like the worst alternative now that I think about it 😊

These little mechanical wonders - and when the balance clock starts to run - it is like a tiny creature…

I like to geek out over science videos on YouTube. I’m definitely not the STEM type because my math skills are pathetic, but I love getting my mind blown by things like Einsteins Theory of Relativity or the absurdity of quantum mechanics. 
 

Time is mind-blowing. It bends and changes, depends on your position and velocity and scientists don’t even really know how to define it or what it is! 
 

I can wear that on my wrist?? Yes, please!

For me its the mechanical marvel part of it. Something about something being alive mechanically on your wrist that intrigues me.

I reckon it's because I associated watches as the attributes of my father and my grandfather. Grandpa and his quartz Tissot were inseparable - and they still are, but it's another Tissot, the previous one was stolen from him at a hospital. Meanwhile Dad's daily routine was to put his fountain pen and his titanium Seiko quartz on the dresser when he got back home from work. 

Later on, however, I realized that there was far more to it than just associations rooted in childhood. Watches are so many things at once. They're art, engineering, tools, style accessories... And with vintage watches, it's about an attribute of the era, a doorway to decades past. 

Why do I love watches:

They are marvels of engineering.

They have beautiful aesthetics.

Many options to choose from.

The hunt is interesting & fun.

They are functional jewelry.

They are fun to wear.

The collector community is fun to associate with.

They have great sentimental value.  

I grew up in dramatic poverty. Literally a crack house. Drugs, cigarettes, no dad, no food, water was off often... like the whole checklist.

I moved out when I was 15 and got a job after being expelled from school. The owner of the Chinese restaurant I got a job as a dishwasher had a ridiculous work ethic that showed me what it took to become successful. After leaving there I got another boss that taught me a lot more and then another when I wanted to move out of working with food.

One thing all these men did was wear a watch. This was the 90s before smartphones and to me this was an indication that these people had responsibilities. They needed to be somewhere at a certain time.  In my friendship background, this was new. As most of us grew up we just went wherever whenever, there was no real need for time telling. Even at 12-13 there were times I stayed at friend's house for days and my mom never asked where I was. We went home when we wanted and out when we wanted. 

So for me, wearing watches is a sign of being responsible, that your time is important.  I guess you could say it is a status symbol for me but not in a show-off way, more of a "being an adult" kind of way. 
 

When I grew up having a watch was a matter of necessity and having a nice one was a sign you were doing well. I didn't care about the second reason then but the first one was due to the fact that we didn't have the multitude of timers and clocks that surrounds us now and you had to have a reliable watch if you wanted to manage your day and be on time. Therefore I could not imagine being without a watch.

Several decades later I find that I don't need a watch anymore and I still don't care much about appearances but I still can't imagine myself without a watch and that I don't need to wait until one breaks down to justify buying another. Collecting watches provides me with the rare opportunity to wear and use my collection and even go out with it in public. 

1.  I need a watch to do my job. I go places that I can't carry a phone, and I'm not at a computer. A watch is a tool for me. 
2.  Watches are a way to accessorize in a practical way. I can choose the watch style, colour, and strap to suit my needs, while still adding some of my own personal fashion taste. 
3.  I didn't carry a phone regularly until I was in my late 20s... in the before times we used our watches for the time/date. Now it's a habit to check my wrist for time/date, despite having two phones on me much of the time. 
4.  Wearing a watch conveys a professional image. As much as people these days like to pretend image doesn't matter, it does. The only people who don't have to care about image are the very wealthy, and the very poor. Some people pretend they don't care, but pretending to not care is the image they are going for. 

It is a useful gadget, in special when I need to check the time but it may be rude (or not allowed) to take a phone out. And the only accessory I put on, so I try to have one that matches the occasion, not being too hard on that though.

I have an obsession with time telling, quartz or mechanical I don't mind, I just love to measure how much time I'm spending with things and how time passes. It gives me a weird peace of mind which I can't really explain.

Man I hope wherever you are, you are doing well now.

as someone who previously collect action figure, it is fun too to have a collection of wristwatch. also i think wristwatch can tell much of the owner character

For some unknown reason to me, I perceive that watches become our companions as we journey through life, and they retain something of our experience.  They become symbols of where we’ve been, and what we’ve done, and who we are.  So, they need not be expensive, or “luxury,” but they need to be robust and worthy of repair.  I remember being notified of my first military deployment for combat, and among all my mixed emotions was the strong desire to purchase a quality watch that would accompany me.  

Thanks! All is great now… loving wife, 5 kids, golden retriever and living in Hawaii for free lol

I think cause there is lots of layers to uncover in a watch.. From the artistry of the dial, the sweeping second hand, the timeliness and discipline of the minute and hour hands, the reliability and stability of the case, the design of the brand logo, the contrast of the indices, to the workmanship and finishing of the movement, the technology and creativity of the watchmaker and the reflection of our personality all enscapulated in a tiny, wearable timepiece placed on our wrist where our life is pulsating through our veins.. To know that material timepiece is reminding us of the mystical, intangible and precious time.. 

Also, that timepiece doesnt whine, bite or scratch us nor wake us up in the middle of the night for change of diapers and milk 😅

It remains as a neutral and silent companion throughout our lives' ups and downs.. which makes it quite lovable(and addictive) imo.. 

I love little machines - I have a number of old rangefinder cameras from back in the days of film. Loved shooting with them, now they hold great memories. I’ve lead a busy life that’s too often been driven by schedules; my watches helped me feel in control. I wore Timex’s as a child in the ‘60’s, they’d usually last about a year.  From the ‘revolution‘ in the ’70’s through the ‘00’s I mostly had quartz for accuracy. The past 20 years its been back to mechanical movements. Agree with above posts, enjoying the marriage of engineering and art.