Yin and Yang - Can My Apple and Mechanical Watches Co-Exist?
09 Aug 2020
A watch has been an extension of my wrist since I was a little kid. It started with a Swatch in school, Fossil in college, IWC at work and now the utilitarian Apple Watch for everyday life.
In 2018, I started wearing the Apple Watch solely for golf so that I could use the GPS feature to tell me the distance from the ball to the hole. It was light on the wrist and served this purpose beautifully. For me, the Apple Watch became the ideal sports and fitness watch.
However, over the last year, the Apple Watch has gradually become my day watch getting 80% of my wrist time. Over the previous six months in between my surgeries and national lockdown, it’s gotten 100%. Being at home, I haven’t worn my mechanical watches, and as I open my cupboard each day, I see them frozen in time. This repeated experience got me thinking about what it means to own them, what they mean to me and can they co-exist with the Apple Watch?
The Apple Watch is an exceptional tool watch that does more than what you might need. I wear it all day to get the most value out of it - post the surgeries the Apple Watch helped me gauge how active I was during the recovery period. Besides, it helped me set timers and reminders for my meds and other post-surgery care. I seem to check-in with my phone a bit less since I can get some of the information I need right on my wrist (all notifications except reminders are off, so there are no interruptions). The Apple Watch is my companion in getting back to an active and productive lifestyle. It’s like I have a coach and we are in this together.
Mechanical watches do less. I love it that you don’t need to charge them and they are an analog reminder in my already digital life. They are timeless, and the fact that they will outlive me is comforting. By winding them, I am breathing life into them. They personify the passing of time - ticking away into the future at its own pace.
I’ll whip out one of the mechanical watches when I want to disconnect, take it slow and unwind - trips, night outs and weekends. For day-to-day hustle, work, sports and fitness it’s Apple that’s watching out for me.