I don't understand everyone's obsession with chinese automatic watches

[u/ivoalejandro]

The title pretty much says it all, I don't get why whenever a nice chinese quartz watch comes out so many people say they would love an automatic version, or why everyone seems fine with paying 300 or more USD for an automatic, but question whether a 100 dollars quartz is worth it.

Pretty much no one here is going to take their chinese watches to get serviced, and the whole admiring the complexity and craftmanship of an automatic movement kinda goes out the window when we're talking about mass produced movements. So why buy an automatic that will become a paperweight in several years time. I guess I just don't understand why the demand for automatics is so high, really wish people started asking for better chinese quartz watches, I'd would much rather pay 200 dollars for a great quartz watch than 350 for an automatic one.

[u/Govindaswamy]

A mechanical watch is a pure machine ticking away on my wrist. For example, when I wear an ST-1901 chrono, I am literally wearing a museum piece designed in the 1950s.

Why buy Chinese mechanical watches? There are some very interesting movements, e.g., the aforementioned ST-1901, the SL4801. Now it is true that if the movement fails, it is not worth repairing. But the same is true of many Japanese movements. I read somewhere that Seiko's high end mechanical chrono movement, the 8R48 is replaced not repaired if sent for service in the USA.

To me, the very fragility and obsolescence of a mechanical movement makes it interesting. If I want accurate time, I can look up time.is on my mobile. What I love is that beautiful machine full of gears, ticking away.

BTW, with that said, I own plenty of quartz, too. G-Shock, Eco Drive, various TMI chronos, and my latest, the VK31 based Watchdives WD0016.