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Digital Generation Rediscovers Analog Wristwatches
Hugh Pickens writes "As recently as a half-decade ago, time seemed to be running out for the wristwatch; the mechanical device was declared to be going the way of the abacus. But now the NY Times reports that the 'sundial' of the wrist is experiencing an uptick among members of the digital generation, particularly by heritage-macho types in their 20s and 30s who are drawn to the wristwatch's retro appeal, just as they have seized on straight razors, selvedge denim and vintage vinyl. 'A cool machine that is all moving parts has got to be intrinsically interesting to someone born into this generation,' says Mitch Greenblatt, an online retailer of design-forward watches who is seeing a surge in business, 'because there's just nothing like that in their life.'"
The train conductor/robber-baron look is coming back
This really isn't much of a surprise. The Steam-punk genre is quite popular with the 20-40 crowd.
I'm 37. I've had combo analog/digital watches almost continuously since I was about 10. I source them from exotic boutiques like K-Mart where they sell obscure brands like Timex.
If the NYT article wasn't behind a registration screen ... maybe something the summary didn't cover would make some sense here.
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I'm 36 and I own an analog wristwatch. I've owned several over my lifetime as well. My 5 year old son is familiar and will continue to be familiar with analog wristwatches as most everyone in his extended family wears one. How is this retro, unique or something terribly interesting because it has moving parts and is not digital? Watches have always been fashionable and (IMHO) will continue to be for all generations for the rest of my life. It's not like we're talking about 8-tracks, cassette tapes and to some extent vinyl for example. Those devices will definitely be retro to my kid as they have never (and probably never will be) a part of his life.
At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend I don't care that you're not here with me
I still think that digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
(Besides I have some difficulties to read analog watches).
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
I love tubes in my stereo amplifiers....I'd like a clock made of tubes too just to make it fun.
Makes for a nice 'glow' in the living room when I get home in the evenings.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
The term 'mechanical' would be more appropriate, though I guess mechanical is still analog. I hope TFA is about mechanical watches not watches with a digital core driving mechanical hands. Anyway a good mechanical wristwatch is a masterpiece of precision design and engineering and there's something intrinsically cool about it being able to measure time almost as precisely as you could by simply dividing down the signal from a quartz oscillator. I see nothing wrong with it, plus it doesn't need batteries, which can be a plus in a postapocalyptic scenario / finding-oneself-stranded-on-a-mountain-with-no-batteries-nearby-just-as-soon-as-they've-run-out-type situation.
Is this news? I'm a mid-twenty-something and everyone I know -- EVERYONE -- wears and has worn true analog watches. Seriously, I know people who would sooner wear tennis shoes with their work clothes than a Casio or Timex watch. Nearly a quarter of my friends wear watches that need to be wound. I would have been more surprised to read that the digital generation was moving back to retro digital LCD watches.
And here I thought the only use for Timexes was for shady guys in New York alleys to scratch the name a bit to make it kinda-sorta look right and then claim they were "Genuine Rolex".
Sorta like the "Oakey" sunglasses sold by the chinese guy with a cart down the street.
I inherited a lightly-worn 1962-ish Omega Speedmaster a few years ago and quite enjoy wearing it (though not every day, b/c it's so damn heavy). The Speedmaster is now marketed as the "moon watch" because it was worn by the Apollo astronauts. The Speedmaster was a good choice because of the plastic crystal that wouldn't shatter and cause problems in zero-G. It cost me a few hundred $ to get a new main spring and pushers, and works as well today as it did 50 years ago.
I like it because it's a good reminder of what you can accomplish without the latest and greatest technology. Sure you have to wind it every day or so, and sure your $5 Casio keeps better time, but it was good enough to help get people to the moon. Astronauts literally trusted their lives with this thing - the watch was used to sequence maneuvers, estimate oxygen levels and time spacewalks walks. And all this was done with a spring, some gears and highly-precise engineering. If anything, it's a reminder that if you are going to build something, build it right.
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
Hipsters have discovered analog wristwatches.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
And right now, I have my Dad's old analog on my wrist.
And ok, get off ... etc etc...
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
"Digital Generation Rediscovers Analog Wristwatches"
It was on my wrist this whole time!
You aren't hip, you're just old. Maybe not in years on this planet, but attitude. My grandpa was the same way: always wore a watch, shaved with a straight edge. I thought he was incredibly cool.
I used to carry a pocketwatch and use a straight edge even though it was more work. I thought it was cool. Now, I use a phone and a combination of disposables and electric razors because I am lazy. If I shave with a hair trimmer to get my week's worth of stubble down to a manageable size the disposable will deal with it OK.
Man, you really need that seminar!
I've wondered about that - because it seems checking my watch is far quicker (under a second) than reaching for my phone, hitting a button and then parsing the screen for the time.
Yeah, I have the time in a million places, but it just seems more convenient and faster to check my watch than to check it on my computer (whose screen is right in front of me, too!), nevermind my cellphone or ipod or other thing.
...reading an analog clock is a lost art with many of our young people. I often find my high-school students asking me "Mister, what time is it?" while staring directly at the analog clock in my room. It took me a while to figure out that they do not know how to read time on a clock with hands. So now, at the start of the year, we have a clock-reading activity that I stole from a 3rd-grade workbook.
Seriously.
I've always worn a watch, never saw the point of lugging a cell phone around just to know the time,
Cell phones are known for having other functionality as well as being able to tell the time. I've never seen the point of strapping a somewhat functional piece of jewelry to my arm when I have a small device in my pocket that tells the time, as well as doing a hundred or more other things that I find useful.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Shaving is for losers who are ashamed of their neck beards. Go Unix or go home. This is slashdot. You goddamned kids better get off my lawn, or I'm going to seize control of your botnets by exploiting a hole I wrote into the IRC protocol before you were born.
This story feels a bit like one of those "suits are making a comeback!" stories.
How in the hell are you suppose to load Linux on one?
In fact, maybe an iWatch wouldn't be a bad idea.
Oh god, no. You wouldn't be able to share the time with anyone else, and you'd have to use Apple's proprietary software to set it. Not to mention that it would be twice as expensive as any other comparable digital watch, and I'm pretty sure that they would pay a license fee to the RIAA for some weird reason for each one sold, which would then mean that the RIAA would now have enough money to start suing other digital watch manufacturers for infringement because apparently the "beep! beep! beep!" of their alarms is copyrighted.
Don't get me started on how you can't replace your iWatch's battery when it runs out...
I'm an old guy - 46 - and I prefer dial/analog watches - although most are quartz.. I can read them faster. With just a glance, I know the time. And, I can't find it, there was a study that showed most people can read the analog time faces faster. IIRC, it has to do with seeing the digital numbers, interpreting them, and it requires extra thought. Try it. Compare the digital readout with the analog readout on your computers clock.
This really isn't much of a surprise. The Steam-punk genre is quite popular with the 20-40 crowd.
Nah, steampunk is a faux-Victorian genre loved almost exclusively by the irredeemably nerdy. This, like the straight-razor comeback, is more "Mad Men" '60s (or even '40s) nostalgia; it's people borrowing symbols from a time when "men were men" -- a way for men to assert their masculinity in a way that they see as intelligent and sophisticated, rather than uncultured or brutish. Since, for a while in the 90s, the latter seemed to be the only conception of masculinity being promulgated, I appreciate the trend, albeit with reservations.
You can check the time on a wristwatch without being obvious about it. The same can't be said for a phone. How do you explain to the person you are talking to that checking the time is seemingly more important than what they are saying?
When I look at a timepiece it's rare that I want to know what time it is. Much more often I want to know "how long since" or "how long until" something. An analog display gives me this info much more quickly than digital.
It's not so much that these "heritage-macho" types are using straight razors so much as they don't really have a lot to shave.
They might own a straight razor, and have it placed just so on their dresser next to a bone-handled shaving brush, but they are certainly not using them.
Wristwatches never went out of style. It's much easier to tell time with a device on your wrist than with a device in your pocket or on your belt.
I'll bet that wristwatches were much less popular in the 60's than they have been since 2000.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Just by coincidence I am wearing my "Flintstone" watch instead of one of my analogs. Well actually this one *is* truly analog:
A Fossil sundial watch.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
why do you dipshits keep posting stories that are behind a pay wall, what is the NY Times stroking your junk?
This is stupid. There's never been a time when the wristwatch wasn't a loved, fashionable item. That goes for kids to adults and everywhere in between (see: rappers). It has always been this way and it isn't going to end.
It isn't a masculinity thing. It isn't a Mad Men thing. It's just a decent timepiece thing that everyone has appreciated since forever.
There are at least two demographics at work here: the hipsters you describe, and another group sometimes referred to as "young fogeys." The latter group tends to be interested in things of yore because they were better, and not just because they are old, e.g. writing calligraphy with a good fountain pen on nice paper, mowing the lawn with a reel mower because it leaves nicer edges, and yes, shaving with a straight razor because it gives a better shave.
In addition to the superior performance (at the admitted cost of vastly increased hassle) there is a sense of pride in learning to do something inherently difficult and potentially dangerous. For more information check out my tutorial videos on youtube, username = jockeys41
I'll also add that it's easy to spot a strait razor poser as he/she will only have one razor, whereas someone who actually shaves with them every day (as I do) will have at least half a dozen in rotation to reduce the honing burden.
In Soviet Russia jokes are formulaic and decidedly non-humorous.
It's not so much that these "heritage-macho" types are using straight razors so much as they don't really have a lot to shave.
They might own a straight razor, and have it placed just so on their dresser next to a bone-handled shaving brush, but they are certainly not using them.
Check out the shaving forums (yes, there are such things!) Plenty of guys actually use straight razors on a daily basis. Many more have gone the Double Edge route though.
"Liechtenstein is the world's largest producer of sausage casings, potassium storage units, and false teeth."
True; all sound is analog. All audio amplifiers are analog. I can see the kids now, "dude, I've got analog speakers!"
Free Martian Whores!
Cell phones are known for having other functionality as well as being able to tell the time. I've never seen the point of strapping a somewhat functional piece of jewelry to my arm when I have a small device in my pocket that tells the time, as well as doing a hundred or more other things that I find useful.
My analog display watch enables hands free operation and is water resistant to 100m. Its a far better choice in the rain or when scuba diving. When hiking/backpacking/camping my cellphone is generally powered down and in a dry bag, reserved for emergencies. "Never seen the point" is taking an otherwise reasonable argument too far.
Analog watches will always succeed as time pieces because the picture conveys the "meaning" of time(keeping).
Analog watches convey information more efficiently than digital watches, just as a picture of, say, the bison in Yellowstone, conveys more meaning than a descriptive paragraph of the scene.
If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law;
I guess the thing is my life doesn't revolve around the office... when you go out to lunch (restaurants rarely have clocks), or dinner; when I take my son to his martial arts class and sit in the car reading - there's no display when the key's not in and turned. I could do that, I suppose. I go for walks a lot; hiking, biking... I find many situations where a watch is a lot better than having to pull out a phone. Even just walking while carrying things, I can usually contort enough to see my watch.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Even with practice you still need to have darn near absolute concentration. Just last week I cut myself something fierce because my mind was somewhere else. How many people buzz over their face with an electric while going over other things in their mind?
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Am I the only one here that wears a beard, you sissies? ROFLMAO!!!!
I do, but I shave the neck and the little wispy bits on my cheek so as to avoid the RMS look ;p
And yeah, "straight razor culture" cracks me up. I mean, I don't have a problem with it, and I guess for _everything_ there is gonna be a group of people who take it very seriously (see also: every day carry), but the fact that there are entire forums (very active ones) dedicated to proper care, maintenance, and application of _razors_ has always made me chuckle a little.
Carefully trimmed stubble is "masculine" in the same way as pre-stressed jeans, clothing with a Harley-Davidson logo, or a Tap-Out sticker in the back window of a pickup truck. It's for chronologically adult little boys who think they can buy manhood instead of just, you know, being men.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
"I'll also add that it's easy to spot a strait razor poser as he/she will only have one razor, whereas someone who actually shaves with them every day (as I do) will have at least half a dozen in rotation to reduce the honing burden."
You should be touching up the razor before each use (and during use as necessary) so having multiple razors doesn't reduce the "honing burden". If you can't tell a freshly honed and stropped blade from one a few shaves old I dare say you shouldn't accuse anyone of being a straight razor poser.
You should be STROPPING the razor every time you use it. If you have to hone it every time, you are doing something wrong. A properly honed razor will not need to be honed again until it has given months of shaves. If the blade does not maintain it's edge with only stropping to freshen it, across multiple shaves, the blade is inferior steel. You should not need to strop during use either, having to do so indicates an improper blade/skin angle or a blade with inferior steel.
:)
I have 8 razors I cycle through and although whichever blade I shave with must be stropped each morning, collectively I only have to hone them (with japanese water stones, barber hones, and finally paddle strops pasted with chromium oxide) about twice a year. When I was first starting out I only used one razor and it had to be re-honed after three dozen shaves or so, a little over a month. Even then, the honing is more of a minor blade refresh (start out on a 15000 grit stone and move up) than a proper honing. Once the razor is sharp it is inclined to stay that way unless misused.
Stropping, strictly speaking, isn't honing at all (unless a pasted strop is used, and that's still more akin to deburring than actual honing) it's more a straightening of the edge; the steel along the edge can become wavy after use, this is amplified by poor shaving technique. Myself and several of the others on Straight Razor Place have undertaken many studies of razor's edges via microscopy and there is a general consensus as to what makes a razor sharp and what makes it dull. I'd invite you to head on over to the website and learn and ask questions. From the sound of your experience it sounds as if you've been given one of the metallurgically deficient blades from China, perhaps a Double Arrow or similar, and have erroneously concluded that razors have to be honed every time they are used, which is very much not the case with a correctly tempered and hardened blade (over 60 rockwell) that will hold it's edge.
If you have any further questions or misconceptions please ask, I'm happy to evangelize on the subject
In Soviet Russia jokes are formulaic and decidedly non-humorous.