I'm surprised that the article even said "but you don’t always have the luxury of sitting down to set the time and get the watch ready for the day".

I wear an automatic all the time, in fact I collect them, and most automatic watches will happily keep ticking for 36-48 hours. If you take it off to sleep it won't need adjusting the next morning.

Even if you did need to fiddle with a watch in the morning (which I do, as I switch watches every few days) it takes seconds to whirl the hands to the correct time. Certainly not a significant timesink.