I first got into watches around 2021. Maybe 2022. I didn’t exactly mark the month. But it’s around that time. I got into it in a big way with an Omega Seamaster Professional 300M. I bought it relatively cheap. I decided–I don’t know how or why–that I was at that point in my life that I’m allowed to wear a big boy watch and this watch seemed right at the time.
I didn’t know anything about watches then. I had to learn quickly. Some information were more useful than others. So, before 2021 I knew about watches as much as a cat knew about Antarctica.
I did, however, had some experience with watches prior to 2021. They just weren’t my world and I’ve never bought one. Waste of money.
In 2013, about 8 years before the Omega SMP, someone gifted me a Patek Philippe Calatrava. They said it was a fake. A good fake. But a fake nonetheless. I was going to spend two years in France and I didn’t have a single watch to my name, hence, the Calatrava gift. It seemed apropos, they said. I didn’t get it. I also didn’t get what owning a fake watch meant. I didn’t understand why owning such a sacrilegious object could earn the ire of an entire community of seemingly intelligent people. I didn’t know there a community to anger back then. I didn’t get why the name Patek Philippe could be such a big deal. I didn’t understand lack of water resistance. Here’s how “below-average” I was with watches. The Calatrava was a manual wind. I thought it was inferior to a battery-powered one. Who wants to keep winding a watch? I didn’t get the prestige of a non-quartz. I didn’t even know what a quartz was. I thought quartz was a literal rock your auntie displays by the bedside to give you good dreams. I just didn’t get it.
Here’s what I did get: I got a gift and I wore it everyday for that entire two-year period. I wore it so hard that by the end of my stay in France, the leather strap got so worn out I had to replace it with a new strap. And because I didn’t know what I had, I bought a 5 dollar strap.
I won’t tell anyone how to feel or think about fakes. I honestly don’t care one way or the other about the ethos of counterfeits. On the one hand, counterfeiting stole from people’s livelihoods, generally speaking. On the other hand, who exactly were those people or rather organizations that built these watches? On one side, I think theft is bad. On the other side, I’ve gotten to appreciate piracy in other spaces like movies and shows. I’m all in on the whole if buying doesn’t mean ownership, then piracy isn’t stealing. There’s no real analogy here to fake watches. But a line drawn in the sand is easy to erase.
No, I can’t condone buying fake. But a part of me can’t blame people who do buy fake. You can take fakery or leave it. Me? I’m agnostic, but leaning towards buying fakes is not an immoral act.
I would be in the minority on this. This is fine. The gatekeeping in the watch community is very strong. And that’s fine too. Collectors feel entitled to tell you how to spend your money, which is the real watch, which is not. This is better than that. I do that sometimes. Ever heard my opinions on Seiko? That is also fine fine fine.
What’s not fine is the vitriol against buyers of fake.
I wouldn’t call myself pro-fake but, yeah, you’re not a more moral creature for taking a strong stance against fakes. The high and mighty holier-than-thou toxicity of fandom means taking a swing at innocent bystanders who just so happened to make a mistake in their watch purchase, even, yes, buying fake, whether intentional or not.
Only fake people buy fake watches. This is the dogma of the watch gods whose altars we worship at. I am almost convinced. Except. Except that I don’t know what circumstances would lead a person to buy a fake watch.
I have, in the past, talked about falling out of love for the brand Patek Philippe for being, seemingly, the watch of choice of corrupt politicians in the Philippines. I will tell you this free: a politician who wears a fake watch is less abhorrent to me than a politician with a genuine Daytona/222/whatever using public funds to purchase said watches. The degree of the rightness or wrongness of a person’s actions should be determined by other actions taken by said person. Point is, I won’t judge a person as fake or bad by what watch they wear. That judgment should come from what else is going on in one’s life. I contain multitudes. I can’t be the person who thinks one’s taste in watches is the end-all and be-all of his entire humanity. Fandom is the thing that kills joy. I can’t be the one who forgives a person for sexually harassing women because at least he doesn’t wear fake. Or flip that around: would you hate on a person for just living their life as decently as they can because they wear fake? Nuance is imporant. Context is important.
Going back to the 2013 me: who can judge me–someone who’s never even heard of Patek Philippe prior, who’s never bought a watch before–who would call me a fake for wearing a fake watch–which was a goodwill, well-intentioned gift–around Europe for two years?
I’m not even telling you I’m a good person. What I am saying is, judge me all you like. But I refused to be judged for rocking a fake Patek 8 years before I “knew better”. Heck, I still refuse to be judged by what I know now.
I’ll tell you another one for free: those two years were the most stress-free, enjoyable period of watch ownership I ever had. I don’t have a single photo of the Calatrava, no wrist shots except when someone took a picture of me at an English pub. But even that I can’t find. Why is that? Because back in 2013, a watch was just that, a watch. I wore it and forgot about it. Sometimes I wore it because it looked good with a suit. Sometimes I even forgot to wear it when I was in a rush. It did not live rent free in my head. It was only when I turned into a fan did the complications arise. Should I get this or that, can I afford this or that, should a homage be in my collection, how many seconds am I losing or gaining, yadda-yadda. It’s a watch. That’s it. No more significant than a toothbrush. So much sound and fury signifying nothing. Ignorance, as they say, is bliss. I miss bliss.
The Escapement Room 