Can confirm. I wore an Apple every day since 5 months before it was on sale (as a developer at Apple). I wore it (every single year model) for 10 years.

This year, I hit a significant integer change in age and decided to start dressing better. I went a bit nuts buying Japanese and Swiss watches and learning all about them as engineering and art pieces. It's basically like learning about cars all over again. Super fun.

I even repaired a broken Rolex with a set of Swiss watchmaking tools from Amazon and instructions from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Youtube.

I also still bought the Apple Watch Ultra 3 because while mech is fantastic and fun, I can't deny that SMS via Satellite in the backcountry on a hike is an amazing feature.

There's correlation all right, but is there causation?

A lot of folks I know regard mechanical watches as a type of jewelry, a high value item that's not intended for the everyday.

I concur that that popularity of mechanical watches is on the rise, but having a cool mechanical piece on in the evening does not preclude having a digital watch at all other times.

Don't be surprised, it's ads all the way down.