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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Chloe Mac Donnell

Tick-tock: the return of the non-smart watch

Close up of a Swatch wristwatch
Gen Z watch hunters look for Swiss-made timepieces, recognised brand names and sustainability attributes. Photograph: Pascal Lauener/Reuters

First he ditched the grey hoodie. Then he grew out his curls. Now Mark Zuckerberg is shifting the styling focus to his left wrist. Announcing changes on Tuesday to Facebook and Instagram’s factchecking programmes , the Meta boss wore a $900k (£740k) watch from the Swiss brand Greubel Forsey. Hand-made using white gold, only three are created each year. It joins Zuckerberg’s growing horological collection including a $1.2m rose gold timepiece from Patek Philippe and the thinnest watch ever made.

But while an accessory with upwards of a six-figure price tag may be something only tech billionaires can afford, Zuckerberg is tapping in to a growing trend: the return of the mechanical wristwatch and old school digital timepiece. The trend is being fuelled by gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012), many of whom have never worn a wristwatch before, typically using their smartphone to keep track of the time.

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