Why Mechanical?
People often ask why, in a world of smartwatches and instant notifications, I choose to wear a mechanical watch every day. The answer has very little to do with telling time.
I’ve worn a mechanical watch exclusively since 2015. My first one wasn’t the result of months of research or a carefully planned purchase. I bought it on a whim while my now-wife and I were on vacation in St. Lucia. At the time, I had no idea that simple decision would become part of my daily routine for the next six years.
(Above) my first mechanical watch Tag Heuer Aquaracer
Every morning, I’d wind it or fasten it to my wrist before heading out the door. Over time, it became more than something that told the hour. It marked milestones, celebrated victories, traveled with me, and quietly reminded me where I’d been. The scratches it collected weren’t flaws—they were memories.
So… why mechanical?
The story of the mechanical watch stretches back centuries, but the watch as we know it today was shaped largely by necessity.
For generations, a man’s watch lived in his pocket. Wristwatches existed by the late 1800s, but were largely considered jewelry and worn by women.
(Above) Early ladies dress watch
That began to change as the world became faster. In 1904, aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont needed a way to check the time without taking his hands from the controls of his aircraft. Louis Cartier’s solution was simple: put the watch on his wrist.
(Above) Early example of Cartier Santos wristwatch
A decade later, World War I turned that convenience into necessity. Soldiers couldn’t afford to dig through a pocket to coordinate movements or check the time under fire. The wristwatch became a tool, and by the end of the 1920s it was outselling the pocket watch.
Excerpt In 1920, wrist watches comprised 48% of Elgin's output (compared with 4% for Hamilton and 28% for Waltham). The company produced more than half the watches made in America (both wrist and pocket) from 1920 through 1928. An Elgin advertisement in 1928 claimed there were more than 14,418 retail jewelers in the United States, and all but 12 of them carried Elgins.
The movement inside continued to evolve as well. Watchmakers had experimented with self-winding mechanisms as far back as the 1700s, but the automatic wristwatch came into its own during the early 20th century. By the 1930s, rotating weights—or rotors—were being used to capture the movement of the wearer’s wrist and transfer that energy back into the mainspring. The basic idea remains at the heart of the automatic watch today.
At its core, a mechanical watch is beautifully simple. Instead of relying on a battery and an electronic circuit, it’s powered by a tightly wound mainspring. As that spring slowly releases its stored energy, a series of gears and an escapement meter out tiny, precise pulses that keep the hands moving. An automatic movement simply rewinds that spring with the natural motion of your wrist, allowing the watch to keep running as long as it’s worn regularly.
Then, in 1969, everything changed.
The introduction of the quartz wristwatch offered something traditional mechanical movements couldn’t match: dramatically greater accuracy. As quartz technology became inexpensive and widely available, there was suddenly little practical reason for a watch to contain a mainspring, balance wheel, escapement, gears, jewels and dozens of tiny mechanical components just to tell you the time.
(Above) example of the original Seiko Quartz watch
And yet, more than half a century later, we’re still building them.
Mechanical watchmaking didn’t disappear. It continued to evolve. Modern movements benefit from better materials, tighter manufacturing tolerances, improved shock resistance, more efficient automatic winding systems and longer power reserves. Sapphire crystals and modern seals protect the machinery inside in ways early watchmakers could have only imagined.
(Above) modern day movement, like the ones found in Iron Coast Timepieces
But underneath all of those advancements is an idea that would still be familiar to a watchmaker centuries ago:
Store energy in a spring. Control its release. Use it to measure the passage of time.
No screen. No software. No charging cable.
Just mechanics.
The remarkable part is that this technology has been refined—not replaced—for centuries. While nearly every piece of modern technology is designed to become obsolete, a well-built mechanical watch is designed to be serviced, maintained and handed down. It isn’t disposable; it’s enduring.
That may sound old-fashioned in a digital world, but I think that’s exactly the point.
Our phones compete for our attention. Our watches quietly keep us grounded. One is filled with notifications, software updates and batteries that eventually fail. The other is powered by nothing more than springs, gears, craftsmanship and the simple act of wearing it.
I’ve often said that a smartwatch can connect to your heart. A mechanical watch connects to your soul.
That belief is one of the reasons Iron Coast Timepieces exists. Every watch we assemble is built with the hope that years from now, it won’t just tell the time—it will tell part of your story.
-Brandt Bourque