Did quartz ruin watches?

[East Bay Rider]

I remember being a kid and noticing that everyone around me took care of their watches. Watches were a valuable item and never mistreated. In my family circle, they were not necessarily an expensive item, but valuable to their owner just the same. Men would take off their watch to wash their hands. Better be careful, it's not waterproof.
If someone's watch broke he/she went on a shopping trip to buy a new one. And they were more careful with it next time. They went to a department store for a wind up Timex or a nicer department store that had a jewelry department for something "dressy". Watches weren't available at the drugstore back then. Folks had to try them on and compare them with other models, often asking other's opinions. Men didn't send their wife to the department store to pick up a new watch to knock around with.
I remember being a real little kid and having a toy watch because I was still too young for a real watch. Watches (even cheap ones) were not toys. When I got my first Timex, I remember watching the second hand turn and ACTUALLY seeing the minute hand move to the next mark on the face. I remember over winding a watch. I remember being warned not to over-wind my watch.
I think that today watches have lost the magic. Today's cheap quartz digital watches are easily replaceable and unimaginative. I suspect that for future generations who have no memories of any mechanical timepiece, Rolex and others will be coveted for the name and prestige and not for the machine inside.