I have two old but very well made mechanical micrometers, and they're very accurate - but I take the point about reading the gauges.

Here's a tip you might like to consider if you wear glasses:

Buy a watchmaker's clip-on loupe, as in:

Clip-on loupe

attach it to your specs frame and read the mechanical micrometer in high magnification! I use one of these for tinkering with mechanical watch movements.

If you don't have specs, even simpler: buy a pair of magnifying reading glasses from Boots or similar - quite cheap - and magnify the micrometer that way.