WATCHES, BUT FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT WATCHES - APPRENTICE GEAR & EDC
What's going on, everybody? This is Stephen over at The Apprentice Corner with another EDC and Gear post. Today I want to talk a little bit about watches… If you're a gear enthusiast, and honestly even if you’re not, you probably already know that watches are practically their own hobby within a hobby. Whether you're a watch collector, an EDC nerd, or just someone looking for a reliable way to tell time, there's a lot to watches, and I want to talk about them without diving too far into the deep end.
The entire watch community could easily be a blog series all by itself—but I do want to talk about the three main categories of watches, at least in my eyes:
Analog watches
Digital watches
Smart watches
I thought it would be interesting to discuss what makes each of them useful and why you might choose one over another depending on your needs.
Analog Watches: The Classic Choice
I've always been a fan of analog watches. In fact, if someone told me I could only own one watch for the rest of my life, it would probably be an analog watch.
A good analog watch from a reputable brand is incredibly reliable. It's one of those pieces of gear you put on and don't really have to think about. It just works.
There are no charging cables, software updates, or apps to manage. Most quartz models only need a battery change every few years, and that's about it.
One watch I'll always give a shoutout to is my Citizen Eco-Drive Promaster Dive Watch. A few years ago, I bought matching watches for myself and my grandfather, and it's still one of my favorite watches to wear, especially when I'm dressed up.
It's a stainless steel dive watch with a classic look and a solar-powered Eco-Drive movement. Once you get it set correctly and wear it regularly, it pretty much takes care of itself. The watch charges from light (natural or otherwise) so you rarely have to think about it.
The analog watch world also contains some incredible premium watches. I'd love to own a Breitling or a Tudor someday. Those are the types of watches that can become family heirlooms—something you pass down to your kids or grandkids.
I love my Citizen, but it's more of a practical watch. It's meant to be worn, used, and enjoyed every day rather than sitting in a safe. When I bought them, I think they were around $250 each (looks like theyre north of $300 today), and they've been worth every penny.
Quick nod to Timex here. I have bought some of their Chronographs on Prime Day sales for next to nothing, and they’re fantastic to learn on, and if you’re going to practice on watches in terms of modifying and working on them, they’re a great way to get into Analog at a much more reasonable price.
Digital Watches: The Workhorse
While I've always liked analog watches, I didn't really appreciate digital watches until I bought my first Casio G-Shock.
Oddly enough, that started because of the movie Extraction with Chris Hemsworth. I noticed he was wearing a rugged green G-Shock and thought it looked pretty awesome.
I didn't go out and buy a high-end Mudmaster or anything like that. Instead, I picked up one of the more affordable OD green G-Shock models for around $80 (looks like they’re closer to the $100 mark today).
That watch has been absolutely bombproof.
I honestly don't remember ever changing the battery, and it just keeps going. It's been dropped, bumped, knocked around, in the ocean, and generally treated like a tool, and it doesn't care.
When I know I'm going to be working with my hands, getting dirty, or doing something hard on gear, the G-Shock is usually what I reach for.
To me, that's the biggest strength of a digital watch. It's dependable, durable, easy to read, and relatively inexpensive.
Smart Watches: Modern Modularity
The newest addition to my watch collection is an Apple Watch.
To be completely honest, I never thought I would wear a smartwatch again.
Years ago, I owned a Samsung Galaxy Watch (3rd gen I think, but could be wrong), and I just never clicked with it. Some of that was probably due to the specific model I had, my inexperience, maybe just the state of smartwatches at the time. Whatever the reason, it turned me off to smartwatches for a long time.
Recently, though, I got an Apple Watch as a hand-me-down from my girlfriend. I believe it's a Series 9, and I've been surprised by how much I've enjoyed it.
The functionality is fantastic.
What really stands out to me is the adaptability. Being able to change watch faces, config, and widgets on the fly from your phone is incredibly useful.
I have another post coming soon about a recent trip to New York City and some lessons I learned while traveling there. One of the main reasons I wanted the Apple Watch in the first place was so my girlfriend and I could keep track of each other if we got separated, which we did few times.
Having access to transit schedules, maps, compass functions, and navigation widgets directly on my wrist was incredibly helpful while walking around the city.
Then when I got back home, I could switch to a completely different watch face focused on weather, tide information, and other things that are useful for living right off a river.
That flexibility is something traditional watches simply can't match.
And honestly, they're just fun to tinker with.
Watches are a hobby I came to later in life. When I was younger, I really didn't care much about them. As I've gotten older, though, I've developed an appreciation for a good analog watch, and the gear-nerd side of me has definitely fallen in love with smartwatches.
I'd love to try a Garmin at some point. They seem to be among the most capable outdoor-focused smartwatches available, and I think they'd fit my interests pretty well.
At the end of the day, though, I'm curious what you all wear on your wrist—if anything.
I don't like telling people what they should buy, but I will say this: your phone is NOT a watch.
If you're relying on your phone to be your watch, flashlight, GPS, and everything else throughout the day, you're going to drain the battery pretty quickly. I think it's worth having some dedicated way to tell time that isn't your phone.
Whether that's an analog watch, a digital watch, or a smartwatch really comes down to your personal use case(es).
I've been enjoying the Apple Watch lately, but there are a million different ways to solve the same problem, and many of them cost a lot less.
So let me know what you think. What's on your wrist these days?
Until next time, I'll see you all again—in, or out of The Maze, right here in the Apprentice Corner.
Later on…