The Disposable Culture

Not long ago, a good friend of mine commented on my long-standing habit of wearing automatic watches – not digital, not battery powered, and certainly not smart – but a traditional, clock-faced watch. The answer could have been a simple as habit, or personal preference, and that would have been the end of the conversation, but it wouldn’t have been the whole truth. My reply, instead, came in the form of a question, regarding the smart watch he was wearing: “Tell me, how long will that Apple Watch last?” He answered that it would have to be replaced in a few years, either because of wear and tear, or because the support would end.

That was his introduction to the concept of today’s ‘disposable culture’.

His smart watch – Apple Watches ranging from $400 to $900 – was cheaper than my automatic watch. And it does a ton more, for sure, it tracks heart rate, lets him read text messages, make phone calls (if you’re okay looking like Maxwell Smart), and more. But it also has to be charged daily, and most importantly, has a lifespan of approximately three to four years. The watch I was wearing, a well-cared-for, and fairly rare, Oris BC3, had cost me $1,200. The difference is that the Oris will last a lifetime.

Let’s say, for a moment, that my friend doesn’t get the very cheapest Apple Watch – I know his is cellular enabled, for example – and costs $600, and let’s say that it lasts on the longer side of the lifespan, four years. So when he gets his second Apple Watch, when the first has reached the end of its lifespan, he’ll have spent as much on them as I did on my Oris. The difference is, he has to spend money on electricity to charge it every day, potentially replacing charging accessories, and more. Oh, and he will have to buy another new watch a few years later. Over the course of 20 years, my Oris will cost me $1,200, plus maybe $100 for routine services – if needed. He will have spent $3,000 on Apple Watches in the same time period, plus electricity, plus accessories, with no end in sight to the ongoing expenses.

This mentality, that everything we purchase should, essentially, be disposable, has become pervasive in our day-to-day lives. People buy cheaper clothes with the expectation that they’ll throw them away in a year or two and buy more cheap clothes. Buy cheaper shoes, with the expectation that they’ll wear out, and just be thrown in the trash. Replaced again with the same thing. Over, and over, and over again. Never realizing that repeating expenses add up over time, annihilating the savings you see in the moment. It’s a question of cost vs value, two very distinct ideas.

Ironically, as well, is that this concept of buying things ‘on the cheap’ and then simply throwing them away and replacing them, comes during a veritable explosion in the global push toward sustainability and recycling. The funny thing is, the best way to avoid waste isn’t recycling, it’s to not have to trash something in the first place. Disposable watches, disposable razors, disposable combs, disposable this, disposable that. No matter how good recycling may be, components of my friend’s Apple Watches will be in a landfill somewhere, while my Oris will still be on my wrist, ticking away.

Another good example is sunglasses. Many people love their $5 sunglasses, because despite the fact that they break easily – of course they do, they’re $5, which means they probably cost less than a dollar to manufacture – they can just buy another $5 pair. They also, funnily enough, tend to scoff at people who wear expensive sunglasses, for spending ‘so much’ money on them. But like with the watches, the recurring expenses come into play. Buying a $5 pair of sunglasses four times a year adds up, compared to someone who buys an expensive pair once, and wears them for ten or twenty years… or more. Also, many of those ‘cheapies’ don’t provide anywhere near the protection that their more expensive counterparts do. Some don’t even provide UV protection, they’re simply tinted lenses. Think for a moment how much your eyes are worth? What’s the value?

Obviously, there is so much variability to this, and it is in some ways subjective, that it is incredibly nuanced. A higher-priced luxury car is far more likely to last a long time than an economy car, but the repair costs will be higher as a consequence. And higher price, in and unto itself, is not necessarily indicative of quality. There are tons of designer brands today that charge exorbitant prices for goods of mediocre quality. So no matter what, a consumer has to be discerning, lest they be separated from their money with little to show for it.

Still, the disposable culture is a concept to both understand, and avoid. Well Sewn will have plenty of articles and reviews delving into this topic, reviewing high quality, long-lasting goods we recommend, and sometimes contrasting them with their lower quality/disposable counterparts. If you wear a watch, consider the benefits of something like a high quality automatic, which will last a lifetime… and also make much more of an upscale statement than the sea of digital and smartwatches out there. For dress shoes, consider a fine – not fashion – shoemaker, with options that can be resolved and refinished, lasting you decades while looking as good or better than the fashion brands that, ironically, often times cost as much or more.

Shop with the discerning eye and honed mind of a well sewn connoisseur. Ask questions, consider the work that goes into the things you buy, and, by contrast, what is missing in those things you can buy so cheaply…. you never know where the lesson may be applied. Even in tools, for example: you can buy hammers and screwdrivers today cheaply, and I’ve tried those… they break. Quickly. By contrast, I’m willing to bet that either you, or someone you know, still has their parent’s or grandparent’s tools, which work great. And they do so because they weren’t cheaply made. Whether they had cheap options at the time, I can’t say, but they bought for quality, and longevity, in the past.

Quality and longevity. That’s a lesson we need to re-learn in the era of the disposable culture.