Mired in high unemployment, a credit downgrade and fears of a double-dip recession, the United States seems in desperate need of a break. So young Americans, normally caught up in the moment and in the new and now, are indulging in a little bit of nostalgia.

For a generation steeped in glowing LCD screens, analog is now au courant as men in their 20s and 30s are drawn to the wristwatch's retro appeal after having cast it aside for a cellphone. "Right now there is no clearer indication of cool than wearing a watch," Michael Williams, 32, who runs the blog A Continuous Lean, told The Times. These men are buying vintage Rolexes, IWCs and Omega Speedmasters.

"A cool machine that is all moving parts has got to be intrinsically interesting to someone born into this generation, because there's just nothing like that in their life," Mitch Greenblat, a founder of Watchismo, a California online retailer of watches, told The Times.

J. Crew sells traditional Timexes, and American Apparel is betting that Generation Y consumers - too young to remember when MTV played videos and V.J.s were celebrities - will covet the Casios and Seikos of that era.

Source: China Daily