The watch industry is fried, I fear. I work professionally with watches, so I need to keep a keen eye on the market: checking in on how popular watches sell at a premium, the quarterly sales reports of the key brands in the industry, and general consumer behavior. While it seems like watches are becoming a bigger part of the general menswear cinematic universe, they've steadily decreased over the last 3 years.

Watches peaked around 2022 when digital assets like NFTs & Crypto reached fever pitch. People's confidence in traditional asset classes like the stock market waned, and people making loads of money through new, high-tech routes were looking to stash their newfound wealth in alternative asset classes. Guys were buying up all the Rolex watches they could get their hands on and storing them in safes. Some people became flippers, quickly selling all of the watches they purchased. Back then, the getting was good. Watches, Rolex, Audemars Piguet, and Patek Philippe specifically were selling at a hefty premium above their retail price. Before you knew it, you couldn't find a Rolex at MSRP anywhere. Dealers didn't want to sell them to anyone out of fear that the watch would be flipped immediately for a big profit. The demand was through the roof. Everyone with the means was pouring their money into watches.

As someone who had already been collecting watches for years, it was fun seeing one of my bigger hobbies step into the spotlight. Bloggers, YouTubers, and TikTokers were talking about the best watches past and present. No amount of content was too much content. It was a brief golden age.

Once people realized NFTs were for the birds and Crypto scams were as common as eating a hot dog on the 4th of July, the watch market began to cool down. The idea of buying them as an alternative asset diminished when many watches started to lose their value. Now, three years on from the peak of "watchmania," we're seeing almost every brand sell under what they were selling at during peak times. Couple that with inflation, tariffs, poor stock market performance, and general economic anxiety,y and it feels like the watch industry is headed for tough times.

Automatic watches are beautiful, marvels of engineering. I have too many to count, but uncertain times call for a return to practicality. Sure, mechanical watches are reliable, but the cost to maintain them is exponentially higher than a quartz watch; the maintenance cost is contained in a simple battery replacement. I just had a vintage Omega that I inherited from my grandfather serviced, and it cost $500. Rolexes cost well into the 4 figures to maintain, and it gets worse the more complicated the watch is. Quartz batteries can usually be replaced for less than $20.

While mechanical watches are powered by the movement in your arms, quartz watches are a simple battery. At the heart of a quartz watch lies a small quartz crystal, a silicon dioxide mineral that vibrates at a precise frequency when an electric current is applied. This effect provides a stable timekeeping mechanism, which is more precise than mechanical movements. A typical quartz watch gains or loses only a few seconds per month, while mechanical movements typically lose a few seconds per day (unless you invest in high-accuracy "master chronometer" watches from brands like Tudor or Omega). The inherent accuracy makes quartz watches ideal for an everyday watch.

I can sit here and list all the reasons that every collection needs a couple of quartz watches/why you need a quartz watch. Well, actually I'll do that right now: Quartz watches are very durable. Mechanical watches can be magnetized and lose their precision if they take too much shock from activities like tennis or golf. Quartz watches can be set and forgotten. You don't ned to wind it every time you pick it up. Quartz watches, like mechanical watches, can be found in all shapes and sizes, and styles from casual to dressy. At the end of the day, quartz pieces are not stuffy.

We're most likely headed for a recession and I'm putting away the flashy shit for the time being. I'm going to be all about underrated elegance, vintage clothing, and workwear. I find being too ostentatious during tough times tasteless, and I'm cleaning it up. Levi's jeans, Oxford shirts, Dr. Marten loafers, Carhartt jackets, vintage t-shirts, the works. It's similar to how logomania went away during the pandemic because so many people had it hard, and it wasn't a good look to be flaunting ostentatious displays of wealth.

There's a levity to wearing quartz watches. I feel weightless when I'm wearing a cheeky Casio or a playful Swatch. I love a Snoopy Timex, a ticking PRX. You can have fun without the added weight of a four-figure timepiece on your wrist. There's a time and place and them. I'll never sell my luxury watches, but I think quartz watches don't get enough love in the modern landscape. At this point in my watch collecting journey, I need value and reliability, so quartz is right for me.

There's a ton of models you can grab, but let me recommend a few:

Timex Men's Expedition North Field Post Solar 36mm - $169

This is a trusty solar-powered watch that's built like a tank. It has all the charm of a Hamilton Khaki but is about a fifth of the price. As long as it's "charged" by the sun, it'll never run out of battery.

Casio Illuminator F108WH - $16

I bought this watch in 2020, and I'm still as in love with it as I was the day I opened it. It's slimmer than a G-Shock, but it comes with many of the same features. It's the king of casual.

Grand Seiko SBGX261 Heritage Quartz - $2,300

If you want something a little luxurious, but still under the radar, look no further than this Grand Seiko. It has one of the best movements in the world, accurate to a couple of seconds a year. You can wear this watch every day for the rest of your life, and it'll never look outdated. It's timeless.

Peace and Love