Judging by the press it received on the Internet this past week, apparently Jesus is delivering Apple Watches to people one at a time, along with a bit of salvation. But for all of the hoopla and my fervent devotion to Apple (I am a happy owner of an iMac, Apple TV, iPad, and an iPhone; my wife is an academic and well, they get such good discounts its hard to buy something else), the Apple Watch is just a non-starter for me. It is the exact opposite of what I want in a watch, and right now I am on a serious watch hunt.

Andrew of 555 Gear and new cohost on GGL put it best--you buy a watch so that you can get to know it and it will serve you for the rest of your life. A good mechanical watch, in a way, is not just an anachronism in the modern marketplace filled with quartz, it is also a consumer good anachronism. It is already obsolete and that, in a way, makes it impossible for a mechanical watch to fall into the mill of planned obsolescence that is the beating heart of modern consumer goods (and Apple's long term growth strategy...I am on my THIRD iPhone). You aren't buying a mechanical watch because it is the latest and greatest, you are buying it because it offers an experience that is the opposite of seeking the bleeding edge (though of course there is a lot of good tech in watches...).

At this point I want a watch I can wear and beat up and count on. I want a watch that doesn't need a firmwear update or a charging cord. I want a watch that I can glance at and see the time, and nothing else. I want at watch that keeps me on schedule, not distract me from a task at hand with Instagram, Twitter, and email notifications. I have a phone that does all that. And when I am in a situation that calls for me to look at my watch, it is the exact opposite situation of one where I can look at my phone.

This is not to say that the Apple Watch is a bad product or even something that I would never buy. If I were in the market for a FitBit or a G-Shock, I'd prefer an Apple Watch. But given what I am looking for right now--a simple, robust, mechanical watch, the Apple Watch holds no sway over me. This does:

Image courtesy of Sinn Watches

In a way, the Apple Watch has helped crystalize what I want in a watch. I don't want it to do everything, I want it to do one thing, tell time, and an automatic watch does that very well, even without (or perhaps because it is lacking) an LED screen and a Wi-Fi connection. I want something that is off the grid, something that works as well in the woods as it does in the rest of the world.

But also want something that won't appear on the wrist of every human on earth within three years. This isn't (solely) a desire to be different or a trend busting drive. It just happens to be that I don't like the look of the Apple Watch more than I do the clean clear face of something like the Sinn 556 (the watch above). I have enough sqaure, rounded over, bubble things in my daily existence. I want a bit of the real, and something that feels and looks substantial, as oppose to something that looks like a tin for breath mints.

You might be happy lining up at the Apple Store, but for me, I'm hoping the Damasko DA36 goes on sale (sure, not going to happen, I know).