I'm not familiar with SQLAlchemy, but with other ORMs, this isn't how you'd write this.

It would be more like Widgets.findOne(id) and then widget.property = bla; widget.save();

For me this is much more natural than writing SQL, especially for the update query.

There are usually also query helpers for simple queries by fields, like Table.findWhere({property: 'value', property2: 'value2'}).

To me this syntax is much less awkward than writing SQL in strings, and it saves you from repeatedly writing out the SELECT statements and where clauses.