IMO mostly has to do with the fact that mechanical clocks didn't see much innovation over the past century. The most talented watch makers have gone on to watches and people largely stopped buying Grandfather clocks.
Not to mention, other obvious problems of weight, material costs, and the increased size requiring more power to turn all those gears.
I don't know about you, but for myself I find the days kind of blur together (especially (during-COVID, post-COVID) WFH).
I rarely need to know day-of-month.
My favourite ever gift from friends was that people bought me (last century, long before smartphones) a 24 hour radio synchronized digital alarm clock which knew the day and full date including year. Because while often I know 0600 from 1800, not always, and on a particularly bad day maybe I'm not even sure which week this is. I didn't need the year really, but it felt appropriately completionist, just in case.
Also, Seiko's watchfinder won't let you filter based on whether or not it has a DoW complication; very annoying.
Even work from home is immediately cleared up once I look at my computer screen.
Another contender is the Vacheron Constantin 57260 [2].
Here [3] is a good demonstration of how a perpetual calendar works.
[1]: https://hausmann-co.com/en/the-patek-philippe-calibre-89-the...
[2]: https://www.prestigetime.com/blog/worlds-most-complicated-wa...
As shown, date complications are very tough to calculate and there are many levels of features.
However, the phases of the moon complication is not discussed in much depth here. Is it a simple calculation independent of the date?
In my case, a combination of having no kids, being entrepreneur (self employed) and having ADHD.
I have to ask people "is it tuesday or monday today" at least once a month. It gives strange looks. People often look at me, clearly trying to figure out if I'm bullshitting them. But I honestly forget such -for me- unnecessary details.
But I guess having children, or a regular job, or both, gives a firm anchor of weekends and weekly rhythms. I've had long periods of jobs were I too had such anchors.
Best way to explain it, is when you are on holiday (in one place), for a few weeks, you also don't know what day it is. I guess I always have holidays?
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase#Calculating_phase
I ended up settling on no-date watches, as I find setting the date to be annoying, and it’s not something I need that often. When I do need it, I have my phone. I think I’d ultimately feel the same way about a day of the week complication.
[0] https://grabcad.com/library/eta-6497-1-complete-watch-moveme...
Many watches use 29.5 days between phases for simplicity. This results in the watch's moon phase display being off by one day for every two years the watch operates.
There are a few watch manufacturers that use epicyclic gear trains to make the moon phase calculation more precise. An example: the Ochs und Junior moon phase watch will operate for 3,478.27 years before its moon phase display is off by one day (https://www.ochsundjunior.swiss/watches/moon-phase/).
My first thought was to go for a GMT, but those can’t handle time zones that aren’t on the hour, like India. Trying to find a mechanical watch that solves for this is very difficult. I was stuck in this purgatory for so long.
I don’t remember what led me to the Casio, but whatever it was made me completely reevaluate what I wanted out of the watch. The quartz movement became a feature, thanks to the 10 year battery. I can grab it and go whenever I need, and change the battery whenever I renew my passport. The low cost is a feature, as I don’t have to treat it well or worry about it, or worry that it will make me a target. If anything happens, oh well, it was $40. It has 37(?) timezones and can handle the odd ones, and handles DST independently for each timezone. Its fantastic. I don’t think any mechanical watch can do what it does, and if one can, it would cost more than my house and take the better part of a day to set.
The Casio is one of the cheapest watches I own, but whenever I put it on it makes me so happy, because it reminds me I finally solved my travel watch problem. I just finished my first trip with it and already saw the value of the independent DST function.
I’ve found some mod sites that sell nicer cases and bands to make it more durable, but I decided that defeats some of the purpose, as the cheapness is a feature. It was helpful to find out an eraser can be used to remove some of the ridiculous text on the case. That makes it look much better.
[1]: https://mroatman.wixsite.com/watches-of-the-ussr/raketa?ligh...
But most people always know exactly what day of the week it is, but rarely know the date. (The only time I'm ever unaware of the day is on vacation occasionally.)
And the date is needed basically every time I sign anything on paper, as you almost always put a date next to any signature -- whether you're writing a check, filling out forms at the doctor's office, signing consent forms for an activity, and so forth.
Last time I was in a mall in Mexico City, I asked a guy behind the counter of some store if they had any watches that had either the months or days of week in Spanish... surprisingly, the answer was no. English only.
I know a retiree that got this as a (sort-of, sort-of-not joke) gift because she mentioned that she sometimes forgets the day:
* https://www.lacrossetechnology.com/products/513-1419v4
(Works best near a window where the radio signal from Colorado can be heard.)
1: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/introducing-vacheron-const...
How about in the US$ 9000 range? Frederique Constant Manufacture Slimline Perpetual Calendar:
* https://www.chrono24.com/frederiqueconstant/manufacture-slim...
(Perhaps as a gift to yourself for a major milestone: 50th birthday, retirement, etc.)
Have a look at Fleiger-style ("pilot watches") watches:
* https://timeandtidewatches.com/best-flieger-watches/
* https://www.gearpatrol.com/watches/a97397/flieger-watches/
* https://teddybaldassarre.com/blogs/watches/flieger-watches
Models available ranging from US$150 to $15000.
I think it's not having the "regular job". I have a kid whom I daily bring to day care and I regularly don't know what weekday it is.
Reminds me of the Downton Abbey joke(not really a joke) about "what is a weekend?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onUkNsXks54
Secondly, your argument is fairly analogous to having to tune a Violin when perfectly good Violin virtual instruments and samples exist, indistinguishable for the use-case in question. By framing the question like that you're kind of missing the point about Horology and owning mechanical trinkets for the sake of marvelling at their construction and innovation.
https://www.citizenwatch.com/us/en/collection/mens-atomic-ti...
For instance: https://thewatchguy.de/watch/18039-day-date-the-german-tropi...
It's a matter of replacing a dial: https://jmpwatches.com/products/rolex-datum-tages-scheiben-d...
People used to wear gold as jewelry thousands of years ago. And some people still do just that. That behavior predates a great many currencies. For example I'm pretty confident people shall still wear gold as jewelry long after the EUR currency shall be dead.
Enter any jewelry store in the west now and they'll tell you: men buy jewelry too now. But it didn't use to be that way: typically a watch was the only jewelry a man was allowed to wear.
I've got a very nice japanese mechanical watch which shows day of the week, day of the month and power reserve in addition of the time. Got it for 300 EUR brand new at a "family sale".
When I'm wearing that watch there's some device responsible for the zombification of the west I can do without: my smartphone. Adjusting it manually once in a while doesn't seem that bad of a deal.
I don’t think they have anything that solves the non-standard time zone problem.
At $500, it’s moving into a market segment where I’m going to care if something happens to it. I want to be carefree on vacation.
In this particular case, the Casio is unapologetically quartz. I don’t think I’m settling here, and it’s not a cheap watch pretending to be a more expensive watch. It’s a cheap beater watch that also happens to have a world time function. With an analog watch, I’d feel like I was settling for quartz… unless it’s a Spring Drive or F.P. Journe.
At home I have some nice automatics that I general wear. For these, I prefer a very simple aesthetic, a no-date dial is ideal. Citizen tends to have very busy designs.
I have a very cheap (~$10) mechanical pocket watch, and it's not all that accurate in keeping time. But to me, winding the watch and adjusting the time is part of the fun. Even more fun is watching the gears and listening to the ticks, and pulling out my pocket watch when my friends started looking at their smartwatches.
My other three watches (Hamilton, Tudor, Rolex) are simple three-handers with no other complications.
Historically speaking, this was only true in recent times (the last few hundred years). Visit a history museum and you'll find all sorts of jewellery and ornaments worn by men over time.
However, at that time scale, I have to wonder whether the mechanism can, or should, run for over a century without stopping, which would seem to imply running without being cleaned or serviced beyond a certain point.