Greg:
The topic is this: we are always told to dress for the job that we want. What is the watch equivalent to that proposition? There is always a bit of projection and dress-up with watches, but what watch would project what we wanted?
Chris:
Does this one step into that “fetishisation” category? The number of gentlemen who think they’re Bond because they wear an Omega, or Hilary as they’ve got an Explorer on their wrist. Just because I have a diver it doesn’t mean I’m Cousteau all of a sudden. I worry about projection, it’s quite sad in some cases. Perhaps I’m being unfair… I know I would probably go around with a b.s.d. if I had a vintage Panerai on a leather strap, you cannot deny the magnificent flex that is essentially a marriage watch the size of a landmine tied around your wrist. Then again, I feel the same with my 28mm vintage Vertex from 1936, or 30mm Enicar ATP, sporting a small vintage field is essentially punk in this period of 36mm-to-40mm-adverse emasculation.
I have schizophrenic tastes when it comes to watches: I will go all in on a particular theme (diver, vintage dress, vintage chronograph, Neo-vintage racing…) so I don’t think I project anything specific. I am currently on a diver/adventure/field kick (I write this wearing a JDM Casio Timber Cruiser on a simple black NATO), so perhaps it’s a yearning to step away from my desk and go off grid again for a few weeks. I know my vintage Talis Skin Diver evokes huge feelings of wanderlust when I see it. Even my god-awful nuclear green Luminox has me pining for the bleary-eyed graveyard shifts on the Costa Rican beaches, waist-deep in sand and shit. I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…
Rather than project, I think it is more reflect – be it the romantic in me for a strong, functional vintage field piece with a story, or the traveler in me. I refuse to use the word adventurer. I think whatever watch I wear usually falls into the category of hardy, functional, a bit battered, can take a beating, but altogether dependable… Functional? Definitely not (a) tool, but functional.
Greg:
“Chris, the hopeless romantic” is not how I envisioned this going.
Well, I am less enamored with the “toolish traveler” vibe. I want something that is not going to be just like every other watch that you see, if you see anything but smartwatches. A large portion of what I have are non-round cases. I have many tonneau, rectangular, and square cases. I see very few on wrists. We are now in our eighth decade of the dominance of the round watch (even though smartwatches are oddly squared). A tank wears differently. I can dress them up or down. I even have them on old expandible bracelets just like my father would have done.
If I wanted to take this idiom to the next level, I would have to be on the search for a non-round watch that would spark the interest of both non-watch people and watch enthusiasts. What is the only watch brand that half the people have ever heard of? What makes enthusiasts roll their eyes and feign disgust? The Coronet, of course. To really project my idiosyncratic sense of style I would have to track down a vintage Rolex Prince. The JLC Reverso is a beautiful watch, but the Prince is a rarity (the original, not the Cellini reissue). The truth of the matter is that vintage models are no better constructed than a similar Hamilton or Gruen, and those can be had for much less. (The original shared an Aegler movement with Gruen.) But, a Prince, I would have to pay for the name.
And that would be the show and tell of it: “What, this old thing? Well yes, it is a Rolex, but they stopped making these decades ago.” And then I would read the time after carefully placing my monocle in my left eye.
Chris:
I used to do that, inadvertently, with my VC housing the k102. It was surprisingly affordable and contains enough of a moustache-twiddling movement to get people who know excited. “Ergh, what’s that” – “a VC” – and boom, equal anger, frustration, and jealousy in one swift blow.
I had an old boss who was “into” watches, although I did not pay much attention as they looked like racing watches a lot of the time (think Red Bull Edifices and the like)… anyway, someone was humble-bragging watches, usual multiple inputs from randoms, and then the young engineer with a Tag goes: “oh, Chris is a watch guy”, grabs my wrist. “What’s that!?”
“1950s Vacheron Constantin”
Boss man storms off, muttering equivalent to “for f*ck sake” under his breath. A few google searches from others within the conversation, and then it’s just question, after question… stopped wearing nice watches to the office for a long while.
It also happened at an awards do. Another young engineer massively into watches (Cartier, Rolex, Tudor, CWC… he knows) clocks what I was wearing: “ooh Gold! I’ve got the Cartier on” “Yeah, nice one; here you go”, takes it off and hands VC to him… “I hate you”, hands it back, walks off to the bar.
It’s just a watch ffs… he didn’t talk to me for two weeks. Couple of folks were quite puzzled.
If I was to go all in for projection, it would probably do a vintage Panerai, or a lefty Luminor (the 1950 is currently my crush). I grew up in and around water and boats, so it’s probably everything I want or feel encapsulated into one piece, and it’s also slightly controversial because Panerai is essentially Marmite depending on who you ask. Perfectly fine to travel with as well. I think that if I want one, I need to be good, and I need to save up and inject some extreme discipline. Maybe for my 50th?
Sherwin:
I’ve always maintained that aspiration is not pretense. Just because one is not earning a 200k salary annually does not mean they can’t wear something fancy. Rolex is and will always be aspiration fodder. It does not matter anyone’s station in life or their economic background, a Rolex on the wrist means they are no longer that person, they are entirely different.
That’s going to sound like I’m encouraging and maybe even applauding faking it til you make it and that the watch doth maketh the man. It does not and a slob wearing an Omega is still a slob, not the next James Bond no matter how hard they try. But aspiration is not pretense. What is wrong with trying to be something other than yourself? People coming from poor stock are as deserving to feel elegant and look sharp as anyone else. Rolex kinda paints a different picture of the individual whether we like it or not, whether for the good or for the bad.
To me anyway, it’s very clear what Rolex projects. Yes, watch collectors are troublesome people who insist that you must love what you wear and should stop worrying about what others will think. But, let’s be adult here and address the real world. In the real world, people might not care about watches, but the right people will care about Rolex. Think of that band manager wanting to impress their bosses. Or that salesperson who’s trying to sell affluence that comes with four tires and heated leather seats. Think about the suitor who’s trying to convince a date that he can provide for her without saying he can provide for her. Projections happen in the real world. Rolex is king of all that. It says all in one go: Listen, I’m well-off, I’m successful, I’ve got connections, I’ve got comfort and my watch costs more than your car — Glengarry Glen Ross. Even if none of this is true, who cares? It’s aspirational. Ambition is not a dirty word.
Greg:
You are getting at it. Don’t let my humor make you feel like I am denigrating that sentiment. I aspire to be a person of taste and refinement. I am really just a crude bore filling my maw with Christmas sweets. I like rectangular vintage watches, and I like the Rolex Prince. No pretense about it.
And the great thing about being willing to sacrifice modern materials and modern reliability is that a vintage piece puts many a luxury brand withing reach of the not overly wealthy. Chris’ VC is a lovely old watch, but it doesn’t have many miles left on the tread. It was used and loved. And now it is an occasional piece for when a certain mood strikes. Aspirational watches aren’t for every day.
Chris:
I might trade it in for a Panerai…
Ryan:
Next year, I am beginning my studying of Actuarial Science. After that is done, I’m going to work in an office and crunch numbers, which means dress watches. I like dress watches. Now what do I want to be? Successful office-man who tells people the cost and risk of everything is only half of the story. I want to be to someone what my watchmaker was to me. I want to inspire and help people without ever asking anything in return.
So, by wearing my gold-plated Omega, I’m about a quarter of the way there. I love that watch. No one wanted it: it was quartz and had a coat of arms on the dial, but hey, it said Omega on the front, and it reminded me of my grandfather and my watchmaker, so I bought it. It has now been close to a year, and I really feel like someone when wearing it. Sure, no one pulls me aside and compliments it and gawks at my wrist, but at least my Maths teacher was impressed by it. I feel more grown-up when wearing it. Knowing where this obsession started roughly two years ago, owning that Omega, even if it is of the least desirable and valuable models out there, makes me feel like I made it.
My watchmaker wears solid gold Omegas and Zeniths. With him being my life role model, the hypothetical perfect watch for the hypothetical perfect me would naturally be a solid gold Zenith Stellina. When I think of kindness, I think of him and a gold Zenith. I think this gels well with the other dominant part of me: the guy who likes learning stuff. I love reading and art. I enjoy looking at classic paintings and the like. Now that I’m almost out of my parents’ house, I have a bit more freedom to do this. For some or other odd reason, my father and brother seem to think that anyone who thinks a painting is even remotely interesting is ‘gay.’ My love for poetry, art and Shakespeare is coming back from repression, and I think a gold Zenith goes well with that idea. Warm tones. Big words. Lots of adenoidal ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs.’
A gold Zenith would very much be the watch I’d wear to project the man I want to be: kind, and sophisticated, but not so sophisticated that he becomes an arse.
With that in mind and a little bit of money saved up in my bank account, what do you think I’m planning to buy?
A Universal Genève.
I shit you not.
The Escapement Room 