Mechanical watches are certainly becoming more popular. Counterculture movement to the Apple Watch phenomenon.

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.

For everyday use (e.g work), I use Huawei smartwatch, or something affordable like Seiko 5 when in the mood for mechanical watch.

Yep, using one doesn't automatically preclude the other.

"at all other times"

Psh, get with the program. Everyone knows you gotta have three. One mechanical, one smartwatch, one fitness tracker. Don't you want to be stylish?