The Anti-Apple Watches: Silicon Valley’s Other Status Timepieces Are Beautifully Analog
Tired of “another digital distraction,” some tech leaders swap smartwatches for expensive collectible wristwear.
Matt Kixmoeller is a watch guy. He’s owned dozens of timepieces, including Rolexes and Longines. But don’t ask him about smartwatches. “I bought each of the first three or four generations of Apple Watch, wore them for a few weeks and then returned them each time,” he said. “Another digital distraction to steal my mindfulness and focus.”
Kixmoeller is lead of product marketing, strategy, and design at Ghost Autonomy, a Mountain View, Calif., startup making self-driving cars. His office is about 5 miles from Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, yet he’s far from the only founder turning his nose up at tech’s most popular wearable. Indeed, when the Apple Watch arrived in 2015, some thought it might be the end of traditional watches. But instead, the value of premium, fully mechanical watches has only climbed.