Trial is stylized combat. Rather than being decided with feats of strength or marksmanship it is a contest of words and persuasion. Facts matter too. We blame the inconvenient facts when we lose and give our golden tongues the credit when we win. Next week I will be in a small rural county seated next to a man who could lose his freedom for the rest of his life. I will be in the main courtroom in an antebellum building that you can see now on various true crime series being run on streaming services. There was a big trial there earlier in the year.
Mine, or my client’s, won’t be a big trial. It may not even make the local television broadcast or the newspaper. It especially won’t if I do well. Defense victory press releases are usually ignored. Coincidentally, the surname of the victim in my case and that of the defendant in the big one are the same. I wonder who will notice. It is a sad case of drug addiction and a ligature. Humans are always one bad series of errors from being the most savage of animals.
A few days out is when I have to really concentrate on narrative and presentation. I have to study for this test. I must have facts at my fingertips. I must have a strategy for every witness. I must give them a good show. Suits are being dry cleaned. Shirts are being pressed. I need to get a haircut.
I also have to pick out my watches. Always plural. I have sartorial strategies and those include watches.
I vary my ties. Red for days when I know that I must be aggressive. Purple when I must express sadness, even if it is contrived. Green and blue are worn when I want to project serenity. Yellow is active, but not as abrasive as red. And I always wear a gold watch.
Gold is fraught with symbolism. However, it is not the success (although being associated with success is nice) or wealth that I am wishing to project. Rather, it is the unspoken respect that gold engenders that I wish to harness. It was coined in Lydia. Before that Menes declared it the most valuable metal in Egypt. It is found in grave goods in every culture in every continent. Gold, like Truth, is eternal. When I am the underdog, I want the trappings of the royalty. It is a show.
(Sometimes too much is too much)
It has been four years since I last wore this Omega in trial. I will wear it for every brown shoe day. The Hamilton is its back up. Its surfaces reflect light in a way that very few watches do. These two have been my one-two punch for almost twenty years. It was the failure of Omega in 2019 in the middle of a murder trial that led me to buy a (gasp) Stauer as a stop gap. (I was on the road, in an AirBnB and I was desperate. I later drove back to get the Hamilton for the last day of trial. Never again.)
For black shoe days the Wittnauer has been my favorite for a while. I am debating whether the Gruen’s old man expandable is too blingly. I think that rather than looking too big and shiny it gives me the “Dr. Cohen, your dentist from 1979” vibe instead.
I have other gold watches that could do in a pinch, but those would require strap changes. I have an Elgin with the proper strap, but brown is covered. The formalness of the strap in this instance is more important than the gold, or at least as important. They work in tandem. A too casual strap works against the message. Lizard or alligator is preferred. Anything too bright will call too much attention to itself. The point is to be understated.
“Surely, you are overthinking this” you say. These little things can’t be that important. Mmmm, I wish that it were so. I have talked to many jurors after trials. Brown shoes with a gray suit: lose. Ripped hem in suit jacket: lose. Mismatched shoes and belt: lose. Female attorneys who dress too informally: lose. They notice. They quietly judge.
They also notice confidence. Bolo tie and pointy snake skin boots, if you are confident, they will eat it up. This is where the gold watch is fortifying. It is an immutable metal made into an ageless timepiece. Who wouldn’t feel confident wearing that?
Addendum: The jury found my client “not guilty” after deliberating about an hour and a half. He was held in pre-trial detention for more than five years. I wore four gold watches and that made all the difference.
The Escapement Room 