Why antique watches will always trump the Apple Watch


The Apple watch was unveiled to great fanfare this week, but there are plenty of reasons why it will never be as good as an antique watch.

There are plenty of obvious reasons to invest in antique watches for sale over an Apple watch.

An antique watch is a timeless statement of cool and sophistication, which isn’t going to become obsolete or outdated in the next few years – antique watches aren’t a fad.

pieces of time antique pocket watches

They’re also simple and effective and perform the function for which they’re intended – telling the time.

Antique watches are also an investment and money spent on one is money you can see back one day, if you decide to sell your watch, rather than money spent on an item which immediately depreciates significantly.

But these obvious reasons aren’t the main ones we’re not fans of the Apple watch. The main reason is that it’s ultimately pointless.

The Apple Watch may be a fantastic piece of tech which performs plenty of useful and impressive functions, but it only does things which the Apple iPhone can do. There are no features which will work on the watch but not on an iPhone. You may think that means the watch is a replacement for an iPhone, but it’s not.

That’s because the Apple Watch requires an iPhone to be within a few feet in order for it to work at all.

Essentially, buying an Apple Watch means you’ll be able to do a lot of the things you can do on your phone, but on your wrist. That seems like a nice idea but it doesn’t really provide justification for spending hundreds of pounds for a device which does the same things as one you already own – and have to carry around anyway.

So the watch is effectively useless, unless Apple is prepared to admit its real purpose – it lets people stop looking at their phones.

Having a watch will allow the wearer to stop fishing their phone from their pocket every few minutes to check for incoming messages, which effectively means the new Apple Watch is Apple admitting their iPhones are a burden.

All of which is why we think you’re best of letting your phone be a phone and your watch be a watch.

And if your watch is a watch then it may as well be a luxurious and stylish antique piece.

Image: Jeffrey Smith under creative commons.