What's wrong with scratches? Even gold watches are not using soft gold... they are very durable. Stainless steel watches are pretty much bombproof. Also everything is typically replaceable/repairable (e.g. surface can be polished). After a service, it comes back looking like new.

I just don't want to baby it. My uncle has a Rolex, he wears it only on special occasions and sends it in for service every few years. Which is fine, he loves his watch, it's a point of pride for him to treat it with care, but that's not what I want from a watch. That's all. No disrespect to expensive watches, it's just not for me :-)

I want a watch that I can wear everywhere and anytime, bump against walls and stuff, and if it breaks, I don't feel bad.

I'd say that's how you're supposed to wear a watch, even a luxury watch. Babying it defeats the point completely. I wear my Rolex or Omega every day :). Scratches add character and history! I'll be giving my watches to my kids when I die, scratches and all.

Agreed entirely. My grandfather’s 5513 desk diver was passed down to me. It had scuffs and scratches and the lume had long since stopped glowing and turned to a mustard color.

And while I never planned to have any of that changed because I thought it added to the cool factor, the appraisal guaranteed that decision. I was recommended a local watchmaker who could service the movement only and ensure the seals were all intact. Or I could send it back to Rolex for servicing where they’d polish the case, relume the numbers, and swap the acrylic dome for sapphire - and by doing so chop ~50% off the value of the watch.

It turns out collectors love patinas and scratches and for a 60 year old watch to look its age.

Plenty of folks don’t want a scratched watch and I imagine it would devalue one on the secondary market.

It doesn't devalue much at all. In fact most Rolex bought 20 years ago are now worth 200-300% their purchase price, scratches and all. After a service, they look practically new as almost everything can be replaced/brought back to like-new quality (and gets replaced in a service).

This isn't like your expensive Apple item that becomes disposable/worthless after 4 years :).

The gold used in luxury watches is usually a lower-gold alloy than jewelry, 14 or 18 carat (example [1]) and thus have a hardness of anywhere from 85-165, or up to 230 if annealed [2], which is comparable, or harder than common stainless steels at 140-180[3].

[1]:https://www.rolex.com/watches/new-watches/sky-dweller [2]:https://24carat.co.uk/frame.php?url=hardnessofgoldalloys.htm... [3]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_hardness_test