That "someone" is the Chinese. Seagull has an Automatic Chrono movement ( I don't like it though) and they have already figured out how to make a Tourbillion, even. I own a watch brand in the under $1,000 price range and I get emails all day from customers (in their 20s and 30s mainly) asking about Automatics. As a result, we just launched our first Automatic watch, using a nice Miyota 821A movement. I think there is a major interest in the younger watch buyer for mechanical movements just at a moment when the options are being drastically curtailed due to battles being fought far up the economic ladder. No one in my price category wants to use Chinese mechanical chronographs, but the lack of Japanese options -much better quality and reputation- puts many of us in a bit of a bind now that the Swiss have taken their ball and gone home.

: If there is a demand for lower priced mechanical chronographs
: someone....somewhere will start making movements and will make
: them available. I think the bigger question is whether there
: will be a demand. I think it is more than possible that there
: is/will be a dwindling market for mechanical time keeping
: devices. It may not be the .05% of income earners but lesser
: percentage of the entire population who appreciate old fashioned
: mechanical devices enough to shell out the money for one. I
: can't be sad or glad about this really. There will always be
: enough mechanical watches out there for me.....and if my son
: likes his cell phone better....far be it from me to impose my
: values.

: JohnCote