Why Men Are Wearing Watches That Don’t Tell Time - WSJ

With smartphones practically glued to our palms at all times and smartwatches muscling in, traditional timepieces are just no longer as vital as they once were in any practical sense. Fears among watch execs that the Apple Watch, introduced in 2015, would snatch up wrist real estate were confirmed in the fourth quarter of 2017 when industry researcher Canalys and IDC reported that Apple sold more watches than the entire Swiss watch industry combined. Ramsey Hidmi, 28, who works in asset management in Boston, said that few people he knows wear a watch at all, “and if they do, it’s an Apple Watch.” An outlier among them, Mr. Hidmi straps on a 12-year-old Rolex that he inherited from his father. Not that he ever bothers to set the time. “It’s an heirloom piece,” said Mr. Hidmi.

I totally get that for some people watches are just a fashion piece and not something used for any practical purpose. As someone who likes to have the time on their wrist, it seems a little crazy to me, but I appreciate it even if I don’t personally empathize with it.

I never found a watch that I thought really looked good on me, and I hated how increasingly impractical watches tended to get as they got more and more expensive. Finding a watch that looked great when I was dressed up was different from the watch I would wear day-to-day, which was different from the watch I would wear while working out. The Apple Watch’s ability to look good in all those situations is a major selling feature for me, and one that I don’t think about that often. It’s water resistant and light so I can wear it when I work out, it’s practical and well made enough to wear through a normal day, and it can be dressed up nicely to look good in my best suit as well. No, it’s not the most stylish watch ever made, but I think it looks good and earns bonus points for working well in many levels of dress and activity.

Maybe one day I’ll convert to wearing a fancy watch (which doesn’t even need to tell the time, apparently) but I really don’t see that happening anytime soon.