I have thought about this subject often, The retainability, the servicing and maintenance cost of mechanical watches - are they really worth it.
Watches have no intrinsic value as with any other personal property. They are worth only what someone will pay you for them. My son who is a Millennial values experiences over things. I have never seen him or his friends wear a mechanical watch. That high speed cell phone they keep in their back pockets along with the occasional Smart or Apple watch does it all. You will always have your exceptions, but I can’t see the masses of the next generation paying thousands of dollars, plus the insurance and maintenance cost for a mechanical watch.
With this latest trend of extremely high priced designer luxury watches where readability is not a factor or non-existence, and the also extremely high priced luxury stainless steel sport watches, it seems that luxury mechanical watches are becoming jewelry, or the price of entry, saying you belong.
I truly enjoy mechanical watches, but I have sold all my mechanical watches except for one, my Rolex GMT Master II BLNR. Great daily wear watch, I don’t worry about insurance, and I won’t have to worry about servicing the watch until it hits the ten year mark, around year 2028. I know from experiences that mechanical watches are the worst investment a person can make. Except for just a very small percentage of watches that the average person will never see, but is shown endlessly on watch websites selling for millions of dollars at auctions.
I currently wear my Rolex on one wrist, and my Fitbit Charge 3 on the other wrist. Slowly the Fitbit Charge 3 is getting more wrist time than the Rolex, it just does so much more.