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    I have my grandfathers Rolex. He wore it while trimming 
    hedges and doing all sorts of yard work. Why not, it was 
    his only watch and he needed to tell the time!

    [...]

    These days you see the exact opposite behavior. Everyone 
    has just become so precious about their goods.

Well... Rolexes were a lot more affordable in previous decades!

https://www.bobswatches.com/rolex-blog/history-of-time/rolex...

In the 1950s a Rolex Submariner cost about $1,500 in inflation-adjusted dollars and were some of the most rugged watches you could buy because they were designed for actual diving use. Today Rolexes start closer to $10,000 and there are obviously far more rugged and functional choices, such a $50 Casio G-Shock.

So, I don't know. I see people wearing their pricey smartwatches for all kinds of adventure stuff. I'm not sure that people are babying their watches these days.

> and the thing has had to go in for service every 2-3 years for weeks at a time to get it to keep time properly.

You can stretch this out to 5 years and get away with it. Also, most mechanical watches need some kind of servicing (usually relubrication) along that time frame. Hence why before the quartz revolution, local watchmakers were both a staple of any community and a necessary service.

You should really see to it that the Rolex is serviced by a reputable watchmaker. 20 years is a long time, even for a Rolex. Rolexes can last decades upon decades if properly cared for.

The current recommended Rolex service interval is 10 years. I suspect most people simply ignore servicing until it doesn’t keep accurate time anymore.

No I can't, my wifes stupid Longines mechanical literally stops keeping time every 2-3 years. Either stops or starts running very very fast.

That’s definitely abnormal behavior. And your local watchmaker just tells you this is how it is?

> Old "tools" like vintage watches, cameras, etc are pretty cool.

Yes definitely. I just purchased a Tektronix 2232 to mess around with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYqE_F2USAM

My plan is to try making oscilloscope music (https://g.co/kgs/SmYmBL) and from what I read the old analog scopes make much better XY plots compared with new digital ones

>These days you see the exact opposite behavior. Everyone has just become so precious about their goods. "It's really expensive so I need to protect it / use it sparingly / use great caution". Look at the entire ecosystem of protective cases for iPhones/Apple Watches/etc. On upscale cars you have the obsession with paint protection films, ceramic coatings, etc.

what the wha??? i see people give their toddlers their mobile devices who then gleefully whack it on whatever surface is convenient. i see people just toss their devices around. case or no case. so many people don't even think of it as an expensive device since it's just a part of their monthly fees. seemingly, only the people that buy the phone outright are familiar with the actual costs. with insurance plans and cheap replacements, people care less about the fragility of the thing and just think of it as a kitchen utensil. so i guess the circles you and i run in are quite drastically different in this regard.

I think you said it yourself - case or no case. Look at all the people who use cases on their phones, theres an entire ecosystem for it that never existed for startacs. I think its evolved over time but it seems like the majority of people have some sort of case on their phones.

Same for portable game systems like the Gameboy brick we all used naked vs all the cases on the switch, etc.

I only have a case so that the iPhone cameras don't stick out and I can lay it flat on the table without wobble.

I know other people who have it because they want better grip or they just want to customize the looks of their phone. Protection is not always the #1 reason.

Also apple seemingly keeps making the factory case worse. I use to never use anything on my phone with the old iphones that had the all metal cases. Would drop it all the time and never had an issue.

Now i drop my phone once and the back is shattered. Honestly getting pretty sick of the direction apple has gone with the iphone. I just want the iphone 7 with better battery life and some hardware upgrades.

Many manufacturers are headed that way. Why are we building things that are held, dropped, put into pockets, tossed, etc out of glass again? Even on the surfaces that don't need to be.

I agree with the disadvantages of glass, but there's also a huge design advantage in terms of radio reception, right?

They probably looked at the numbers and realized 98% of people put cases on their phones anyway so the disadvantages of glass weren't too bad.

No facts to back this up so would be interesting to hear from someone at apple but i feel they just do it because it’s pretty

I seem to recall Apple owns part of the company that manufactures the glass. It would be kind of dumb to not use it everywhere and anywhere at that point.

Yeah, I find the surface texture of my 2nd gen SE to be hard to hold without a case. Also the camera thing you mentioned.

On the other hand, I routinely keep phones 5 years, and putting the case omit greatly increases the odds of it making it that long.

On the third(?) hand, cases themselves are kind of a crapshoot for durability. I cracked the corners of an Otterbox case, glued them, cracked them again, and finally switched to an aluminum Ghostek case that's holding up ok.

Also became a fashion statement

> there were seemingly a lot more tolerances built into the designs.

Tolerances for good(!) watches are in the range of 0.01mm to 0.001mm for some components. With polishing and a lot of testing this can be achieved on manual machines.

I do urge you to get it serviced. Even though its sealed, long service intervals wear down the teeth of the tiny gears and hurt the watch in the long term.

The bigger issue with a watch that old (esp if it has been in a safe for 20 years) is that the lubricants have broken down and/or the gaskets have dried out and the watch is no longer waterproof.