Mostel
4291
Why would we take this watch seriously?
Sep 23, 2014,00:17 AM
First of all, thanks for a thought provoking piece of writing....
But I have to say, although you are very articulate, I was not thought-provoked myself....
For myself, who cares what level of battery operated features this watch has?
Who cares how well finished it is?
It's a glorified battery operated thing, like all the battery operated things that come before it, which, generally, we all don't feel much love for.
There is something very, crucially different about this watch, compared to the watches we share our passion for here.
Apple will ask you to replace it, every few years, to never stop replacing it, like everything they make.
It is disposable, designed to be disposed of! It is the cold and total opposite of what we love about watches.
It therefore can never represent, poetically, the Eternal, the Timeless. It arrives ticking down to its own replacement.
It represents the nagging moment. The fixated nervous dial. Lost, manic time.
The design would be totally dismissed if it weren't Apple. Historically almost no one likes that shape, as measured by popularity anyway.
For myself, it doesn't matter what the battery operated watch can do--it's made in China, by factory workers who are woefully exploited.
What could be more opposite of what we admire, generally. The individual watchmaker. Not the faceless factory drone.
How can this be overlooked? Yes, we accept all these realities as we embrace our iPhones, and many will embrace the apple watch without worrying too much about how and where it was made.
And I have an iphone and want the new iphone... But the iphone somehow was never compared to the previous phone much.... There wasn't a passionate community of Bell Phone collectors who loved Bell phones....
The iphone came to us almost a pure invention, outside of anything we'd ever known,
The apple watch may be similar in that respect, but other than the fact that you wear it on your wrist-- what exactly makes it comparable in any way shape or form to a mechanical, hand made watch?
I find it bizarre that you can take this watch seriously in any way, except as a financial threat to the under 1k models out there... But anyone who would actually choose an apple watch over a mechanical Tag Heuer... Never loved mechanical watches anyway...
It may become a social phenomenon. It may do all kinds of things. And of course we can't help but notice it exists, and feel its impact as a product. But other than that... So what?
I find it kind of silly to compare a picture of cloisonné enameling to actual cloisonné enameling .
Perhaps you are just being devils advocate.
Finally, the comments about 'exposing the overcharging ' for Swiss watches, etc.... Is laughable.
Again, these things will mound up in landfills.... They are future junk.
They are not to be handed down, through time. They are, poetically, about throwing things away.
People may buy them for a million conveniences.... The heart monitor etc... How ironic to measure your heart with these things.... That contribute to the increasing nervous impatience of every moment....
This message has been edited by Mostel on 2014-09-23 00:49:11