Self-Winding (Automatic) Analog Watches and Me

Four years ago, I parted ways with my Rolex Explorer I, which I had used for over 20 years, and my Omega Seamaster (quartz).
Why?
Nowadays, you can check the time on your smartphone, and in winter, the strap is too cold to wear.
For those reasons, I left both of them on a shelf without wearing them.
If I wasn't going to wear them, I decided to find them a new owner. I sold them at a somewhat discounted price to a sensible person who was interested, rather than to a reseller.

With the proceeds from the sale, I bought an Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch (Professional). I used it for a month, but I didn't feel the need to wear it, so I let it go and bought a G-Shock solar-powered radio-controlled watch, putting the remaining profit into customizing my motorcycle.
This was the third G-Shock of my life, but one of them was thrown at a friend when I got angry at him during my student days; it hit a wall and the strap broke. There is a sweet memory that my friend's younger brother later repaired it and took it for himself.

Well, the solar radio-controlled watch is truly the latest technology; it runs without needing to be wound, and the time is always accurate. It quickly became my favorite watch.

Time passed, and before I knew it, I was back to the days of not wearing a watch and checking the time on my smartphone. Just then, an Omega watch advertisement caught my eye. "Omega, huh? Come to think of it, I used to have a Seamaster."

Hmm? Is the watch in the ad an automatic Speedmaster...?
It has a certain charm...
My perspective on watches had clearly changed from who I was before.

In the past, I bought a cheap Seamaster quartz with money I saved from part-time jobs as a student, purely out of a longing for Omega.
When I bought the Rolex Explorer I, it was a gift to myself for my 10th work anniversary, but the motivation was nothing more than the vanity of thinking, "A man should own a Rolex at least once."

Lately, I find it troublesome to check the time on my smartphone. You have to take it out of your pocket and either turn it on or use facial recognition just to see the time, whereas with a wristwatch, you can tell immediately by turning your arm 45 degrees toward you.
It's what you call functional beauty.

Analog watches might be truly wonderful.
It was the moment I finally realized the splendor of automatic watches.
I had studied quite a bit and thought I had a decent amount of knowledge about automatic watches, but it took me nearly 30 years to realize this...

When you pursue convenience, you tend to forget the goodness found within inconvenience.
I deeply felt that "Tokyo Love Story" was good precisely because there were no mobile phones and we had to rely on answering machines.

Let's get back to the topic.
This is personal, but I have no intention of owning a Rolex anymore.
It is precise and accurate. It is a watch that never betrays your trust, and unlike Omega, it has an unchanging quality that doesn't involve constant model changes.
It is the absolute king of the watch world.

However, I love Omega, which repeats model changes like an idiot.
That might be partly due to the nostalgic bias of the Omega Seamaster being the first luxury watch I got in my student days when I had no money.

But no, for me, Omega has its own playfulness.
The Speedmaster, developed as a racing watch (I believe its basic specs were recognized, or rather, it just happened to go to the moon after winning the competition by any means necessary).
The Railmaster, developed for people working in environments with strong magnetic fields.
The Seamaster, developed for diving.
It seems they used these three as pillars for a sales strategy around the 1950s as the Omega Trilogy...

But really, how many people in this world actually need a Railmaster?
That's fine, they make it because there are people who need it.
Resistant to 15,000 gauss—you don't really encounter that environment often, do you?
But they make it.
It seems other Omega watches currently on sale also have specs that can withstand 15,000 gauss.
No, but, but, they make it.

Also, they don't need to be the official timekeeper for the Olympics—that's Tag Heuer's job in F1!
If it were me, I wouldn't chase cheap benefits. I'd just stand tall.

And then, the collaboration with Swatch, the Omega Swatch.
It might be an entry strategy to get people to buy a Speedmaster in the future, but this has a high chance of tarnishing Omega's reputation.

But still
But still
As Kenji Ohtsuki of Kinniku Shojo Tai once shouted, "This is fine—this is fine," that playfulness is comforting.

Even with the Seamaster, because they (I assume) can't beat the Rolex Submariner, they advertise it by saying it was worn by the free-diving master Jacques Mayol!
And they keep pushing the Speedmaster by saying, "It went to the moon! It went to the moon!"

So what, Breitling went around the world in harsh environments like storms, flight conditions, and atmospheric pressure, didn't they?
Well, you can't really compare the Earth and space, though.

I've been a bit critical, but I love that about Omega.

Even though they are automatic, they only run for about 55 hours, so if you have several, there is always the ritual of winding them and setting the time and date.
When I owned the Rolex Explorer I, this became a hassle, which is why I switched to checking the time on my smartphone, but I'm in my late 40s now.
I've come to find this effort enjoyable.

I personally borrowed money from the household budget (I actually did it!), and little by little, I bought four watches: the Trilogy and the Omega Swatch.

I use the Trilogy according to my mood that day.
First of all, this is fun. (The Omega Swatch is quartz, so I wear it when I feel like it.)

Also, when I wear them, I walk with a confident stride to help them wind automatically.
This is also a ritual.

And when I take them off my wrist, I wind them to ensure they keep running until the next time I use them.
Don't stop until the next rotation!

A man in his late 40s who has finally realized the true joy and fun of analog watches, not out of vanity.

I'm so happy.
I am happiest when I'm tinkering with my watches.
I will never let you go until I die!
Isn't that nice?