(They never did explain how the wartch was used as a timer though. Like was it only this mass produced watch that could be used or can any watch be used?)
I think it’s because how simple and ubiquitous it is. Just open the backplate and stick it to your detonator to use the speaker terminal as a source signal.
Jewelry is also fucking retarded. Once upon a time some guy was like ‘you see this rock? awfully shiny. you want that rock?’ and some dumbfuck was like ‘yes, I do’ and the guy with the rock replied ‘$$$’ and thus, jewelery was invented.
It’s a damn shiny rock. It serves no purpose. And people pay thousands of dollars for tiny rocks. Buy vibrators, not rocks. Cheaper 10 fold, actually useful, great gifts.
Sure, if you want to get super Vulcan about it. But people have emotions, can appreciate craft, can appreciate nature, and like to express themselves.
Granted, the person that buys a $100k watch is usually trying to express “I have money.” So fuck that person. But on the flip side, you have things like the necklace my wife wears, which contains a coin that reminds her of her mom, and was made by a local skilled craftsperson that makes really interesting stuff.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with rocking something that is sentimental and expresses that you value good craft.
I hope we can find a solution for that, but as of now living without producing e-waste is literally impossible, so I don’t really bother my mind with the exact quantity.
If I keep buying smart watches at this rate, in 30 years I will have produced around a single smartphone’s worth of e-waste from them, and that’s if literally none of it gets recycled.
( My phone (iPhone 13 mini) is approximately 6x the size of my watch (Watch series 4) ; and I’ve had that one for 6 years. I’m only replacing it if it doesn’t get the next watchOS, which I won’t know until WWDC, so I made a pessimistic guess that it won’t for the calculation. )
Value is a false system - just because you ‘value’ something doesn’t mean it is actually logically worth anywhere near that amount. Plus, ones personal decision of ‘value’ doesn’t mean shit if 1) they aren’t selling it and 2) others don’t share the ‘value’. I can go to Walmart, stand in the doorway, and tell people that they owe me money for being in my presence. But if they don’t also share the sentiment, I’m not going to make any money.
Have you looked at the second hand market of used Rolex Watches vs First Generations of Smart Watches?
I’m not trying to put anyone down jut fact remains,you can flip the Rolex you buy on the second hand market and get money back after 10+ years.ä without any problems.
But even if I replace my watch every time it stops getting updates, I can do that for multiple lifetimes before it costs me anywhere close to what a Rolex would have 😅
This is super dependent on the watch itself, watch batteries aren’t inherently unreplaceable.
If your problem is e-waste, disposable vapes are by far a larger contributor than a single watch that someone will use for years before buying a new one.
My problem isn’t with either. I am just stating that your average Smart Watch isn’t going to be worth anything in 10 years. There is the battery itself, then the fact that software at best is supported for 3 maybe 4 years, hardware support may or may not exist.
They are inherently disposable while a Rolex, and most watches actually are capable, if not intended, to be heritage pieces capable of surviving decades.
If you are buying expensive jewelry to hold value that’s fine, but that’s not what everyone is doing or wants. If you don’t care about e-waste then frankly I’m not sure why you care what other people spend their money on.
Last time I checked replacing the battery cost $60
Also, I can buy new smart watches every time the battery gets used up, or updates stop coming ; and at the end of my life I won’t even be halfway to a Rolex’s price tag.
CSB: Just before the collapse of the USSR I was part of a youth sailing exchange program. They sent some kids here to compete in some races and we went there to compete. The whole thing was set up as a sort of goodwill ambassador thing. Back then rainbows were streaming out of all our asses because we thought that the end of the cold war would meant peace on earth and a new era of prosperity (oops). My dad gave me a G-Shock before I left.
The official exchange rate sucked. 2 USD per Ruble. Fortunately we stood out like sore thumbs as soon as we showed up and some local “entrepreneurs” kindly offered us much better exchange rates (the best I managed was 20 Rubles per USD). Of course, these totally legitimate businessmen didn’t limit themselves to currency exchange. They also dealt in direct barter. They often tried to hawk one of their “military” Komandirskie watches for my G-shock. We’re talking craptacular mechanical POSes where numbers would fall off the face if you looked at them too aggressively. I told them that I’d trade but not for a watch. I wanted a sable hat.
To show them how much better my watch was I took it off my wrist. Grabbed it by one strap and whipped it against the concrete floor as hard as I could. One strap popped off. I popped it back on while they laughed at me, showed them it still worked fine and I told them it was their turn. They didn’t take me up on that or give me a sable hat.
But they gave up on trying to convince me that they had anything that could compete with my G-Shock. I’ve changed the battery on that thing twice since then. The light sucks and it looks basic AF but that thing will definitely outlive me and my whole family.
Good point for some reason I was only thinking of the “you’re getting bullied at a road stop by third world police in a country you’ll never go back to” types of situations.
It happened to me once and cost me about 70€ if I remember well, basically the fine magically was exactly the amount I had in there which they saw during the search…
My phone tells me the time and can communicate with people, lets me access the Internet, and has games. And it doesn’t evenb irritate the shit out of me when I need to type on a keyboard.
Which unfortunately means every time you pull it out you can get on lemmy, if you have a new email you can read and reply to it, you can play a quick bullet game of chess… Etc etc. Phones are great, but they are also finely tuned distraction boxes.
There is something special about a watch (especially a mechanical one) that a phone can’t fulfill. It’s a tiny machine operated by gears and that’s just so amazing. When you get a watch where you can see the movement it just ticks the right boxes. And there are some really beautiful, amazing watches which don’t require selling your house.
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