Yes, smart watches seem to have almost completely taken over the task for which we once trusted out mechanical watch: telling time. The reason for this is that they do so much more, so easily (as they are computers and not mechanical master pieces) and also for far less money (being constructed by robots and not master watch makers).
That makes it that the watch has been switching over its territory: from reliable timekeeper to an expression of one’s personal taste, preferences, and yes, social standing. But that doesn’t mean that the watch has become obsolete in what it does best, telling time! The living, beating heart of mechanical Panerai fake watches, can still offer a lot of added pleasure to its owner, and makes it, in fact, a very cool tool!
The coolness is not found in novelty, but in tradition. The fact that this type of timekeepers has been made for centuries migrated from the pocket to the wrist, and can indeed easily outlive your Apple Watch by a generation of four. And I am not speaking here of generations of Apple Watches, which would be about eight years in total, but generations of humans.
How cool is it that something mechanical, will still tick and function just as well hundred years from now, as it does today? Powered by the motion of your wrist, or perhaps even better because of more personal, by your own fingers as you go through the motions of winding your watch. Why do you think that even avant-garde watchmakers like Hublot and Richard Mille are still making mechanical watches, with not a smart watch in sight? Because they know that a mechanical movement made with high-tech materials and cutting edge technology is the bridge to the future, and makes by far the coolest tools!
