I find watches an interestingly weird status symbol. I’ve had more watches than I can remember, most of them a Timex, or thereabouts. Not exactly status symbols, IOW. Wind up watches and then heavy self-winding watches (the pendulum in those early ones was almost like wearing a grandfather clock on your wrist). That size (but not the self-winder) came back into style a decade or two ago. Watches got too slim, I guess.
Lots of battery powered watches, which required batteries and a jeweler’s tools once a year. My mother had a solar powered watch in her last years. I bought it for her trying to save myself trouble of dealing with her watch battery (I had a lot to deal with in those years). Problem was, she never went outside, so unless she left it in the window, it ran down. I guess most of us stayed inside too much, and didn’t want to wear a dress watch for manual labor outdoors. I haven’t seen too many solar powered watches since (I haven’t been looking, either; so, there’s that).
My grandfather wore a watch on a grosgrain watch band, and worked construction all his life. I have an old LL Bean field watch with a watch band like my grandfather’s. I hardly wear it anymore, but it always reminds me of him.
When I turned 21, my parents sent my brother and I on a three week tour of Europe. My mother gave me the money to buy my father a Rolex there. It’s a stainless steel case, the first year they released it (or the second; my memory is fuzzy). It was still a Rolex, but more affordable than a President in a gold case. I have it, now. Technologically, it’s a throwback. To change the date, you have to run it forward 24 hours. Basically, you never want it to run down, unless you want to leave it in a drawer forever. I keep it because I remember buying it, and I remember my father wearing it. And I wear it from time to time, although you’d have to look closely to know it’s a Rolex.
It is an exceptionally fine timepiece, so the reputation isn’t all hype. I’ve had it worked on once, though I’ll never send it to Rolex to be refurbished. They’d replace the dial and the hands, and then it wouldn’t be my father’s watch anymore.
Watches as status items still perplexes me. I don’t mean I didn’t ever think of them that way. I certainly thought of a Rolex as a status item when I was 21. I once longed for a Cartier “tank” watch because I admired the design and the story (Cartier was supposedly inspired by the silhouette of the American tanks liberating France). But I could never wear one with blue jeans; much less afford it. I know Pateks are highly regarded; for the life of me, I can’t figure out why (I find all but the simplest Rolexes too ostentatious, to be fair.) Pateks just look…unremarkable. That’s not a critique; it’s just a statement. They simply don’t interest me.
Maybe it’s because I don’t associate them with famous people. The Rolex Presidential is so named because LBJ wore one. (Rolex is still good at connecting its watches to celebrity.) I remember when Sean Connery wore the then new “digital” watch, a Hamilton Pulsar (yes, I had to look that up. I remembered the watch, not the name.). It had a blank reddish screen that lit up with LED numerals when you pushed the crown (which made it about as practical as a pocket watch with a cover). It wasn’t really very 007, but by then his critique of the Beatles in “Goldfinger” (their music shouldn’t be listened to without earmuffs) was buried because, as the series aged, it wouldn’t alienate the younger audience addicted to it.
Anyway, that made it the “hot” watch even though, as I say, you needed a free hand to tell the time. Its status was pretty much tied to that movie. I don’t think Bond ever wore it again, or, if he did, not for long. I knew a guy in college who got one because of that movie (whichever one it was). I’m sure Hamilton sold a lot of those on the strength of that placement. And then technology passed it by. Eventually Apple Watches and their copycats replaced the very concept of a digital watch, although ironically you can program them with any number of analog dials. I’m still expecting virtual rotary dial cell phones to show up at some point.
Funny thing: my father’s Rolex is from 1976; the Pulsar debuted in 1972. The Rolex is worth about six times what the Pulsar goes for now. Status, I guess.
Another funny thing about Bond and watches: I have a watch band marketed as a NATO style, but this color combination is identified as. “Bond” watch and. It’s black with a light grey band through the middle, which suited the black Apple Watch I bought it for. It’s “Bond” because Connery wears it in “Thunderball.” It took me a while to figure that one out.
It’s status and watches that I don’t understand anymore. I did when I was young. But now? Eh. I now wear a watch from a maker in Austin. It was one of his first, and he only made 10 (as if anyone in the world will ever know that). He gave it a brown dial with concentric lighter rings, to resemble an LP. He names all his watches for something related to Austin, so this one is “City Limits.” Hence the LP reference. It’s brown as an homage to old Rolexes that turned brown in the “tropical” sun (“tropical” being anywhere south of Europe. Check a globe and see how much further south most of America is from the boot heel of Italy.). Such watches are also called “tropical” (Rolex solved that problem long ago). Rolex also introduced the GMT hand, so you can set a third hand to the hour when you leave, and by a dial on the watch case, keep track of the hour “back home.” Originally for pilots, it’s quite a handy feature if you fly. Or know someone living in a different time zone, because I don’t fly, if I can help it.
It also has the date, like my father’s Rolex. All this to explain why I bought it when I could afford to. It’s an homage to Rolex, and somewhat, then, to my father’s watch. And it’s more legible than the Rolex, which has thin hands and slim markings, without numbers. The City Limits has large, legible numbers, especially the 12, 3, 6, and 9. These things matter more than they used to. I can glance at that one. I tend to study the Rolex.
It’s not a very fashion conscious watch, either. In my experience, it’s either fashion (or complete lack thereof, but defined by that, or status, with watches. Big watches were all the rage; plastic Swatches in colorful designs; “chronometers” with at least 3 dials on them. I think these are “fashion” items in the sense whatever group you are in is wearing them, and maybe “status” items because you want to keep up with your “group.” Hell, I wear blue jeans as a mark of my status in the group I’m in: old people who grew up wearing blue jeans and never quit. I wore chinos for a long time to be more “dressed up,” but I finally relapsed (or relaxed) back to status quo ante.
Now I’m sentimental in my old age (and more relaxed) because I can afford to be; and I need to be. I’m outliving the family I grew up with (immediate and extended), and I find that a rather dreary prospect. Much worse than I thought it would be. But then, reality usually is. The sad parts, I mean. The good parts are always better than I could have imagined.
Maybe it’s only that; I’m too old to give a shit about status anymore. I wear blue jeans and button down shirts and cowboy boots for comfort, not to be impressive (I dressed for that, once. But I never did, really, impress, I mean, because I wasn’t wearing tailored suits and Patek watches. I was kind of trying to impress. I’m certainly not, anymore.)
I mean, I still don’t want a watch that looks like shit (I had a transparent green Swatch once, back when they were all the rage. Status! Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. When I think about it, I almost miss it. But I could never wear that plastic wrist band again.). Then again, I should probably dig out that field watch, and try to remember my grandfather again.
Besides telling the time, what else is a watch for?
