As a young child, sitting in church services, bored as a child at church may be, my father would often pass me whatever he had at hand that might provide some small entertainment value. I counted the coins in his coin purse (remember those?), ate his breath mints, played with his watch. His watch was nothing special, I don't think. A working man's Timex on a Twist-O-Flex band. But putting it on my wrist gave me a small thrill of manhood, like sitting behind the wheel of his truck or putting on his Hai Karate aftershave.
I would not have known or cared then, in the mid-70s, that watchmaking was undergoing a revolution, with the advent of highly accurate, highly affordable quartz watches. By the close of the 1970s one could buy for $20 a watch more accurate than those Swiss marvels still given to retirees just ten years prior as high expressions of collegial esteem.
I care very much about a second, contemporary revolution in portable timekeeping: cellphones. My father no longer wears a watch. His cellphone fills that function, as it does for so many. When I graduated from high school I purchased my first watch, both out of practical need as I entered into adult pursuits, but also because wearing a wristwatch still served for me as a symbol of manhood. For most boys today, when they cross that threshold into manhood, the wristwatch will not have for them the same utility or symbolism. They may see a watch as an item of jewelery, or maybe as just a relic, but owning one will not be the rite of passage it was for me, or even more so, for young men the world over in the 1960s and earlier.
Perhaps this is progress, a happy convergence of technologies. But in fact, contrary to expectations, watch sales remains robust and, in particular, the market for fine watches is seeing stout growth. Swiss mechanical watch manufacturing, which was almost wiped out in the 1970s by the Japanese quartz watch, has seen dramatic growth since the 1990s and can scarcely keep up with worldwide demand. It seems that wristwatches still retain much utility, and even much symbolic and stylistic force, in today's world. My father aside, most men I know still wear watches. Even Dad admits there are times when having a clock on his wrist, instead of in his pocket, would be useful.
I have started this blog as a public service. Really! I am myself a wristwatch enthusiast and am involved with several online communities and forums that serve that interest. Like all enthusiasts, I feel a kind of evangelical zeal. A passion must be shared to be fully enjoyed. And it is true that with this blog I want to promote, in some modest way, what I call watch culture. But my hope here also is to do something more basic and useful for a much broader constituency. I want to create in blog form something like a Consumers Report, or a Dummies Guide to Wristwatches. This is less another blog for enthusiasts (though it will be that too, in part) than a guide for the wristwatch perplexed.
Why buy a watch? Why buy a nice watch? Why buy an expensive watch? What is a nice watch? Are nice watches necessarily expensive? Are expensive watches worth the money? What exactly are you paying for? Where are the cheapest places to buy nice watches? What are the best brands? How does one navigate all the different watch styles? What watches are appropriate for which activities and styles of dress? What is the difference between mechanical and quartz? What is an "atomic" watch? Eco-drive? Kinetic? A tourbillon? Etc., etc., and etc.
I will try to address these and similar questions, in one form or another, in the usual blog fashion, by aggregating relevant content from other sites. But I will also author a glossary of terms, profile brands, review specific watches or lines of watches, and offer mini-primers on watch history, style, and related topics. I will, as best I can, let feedback on my posts shape content. Oh, and there will be the occasional off-topic post, just 'cause I can!
Welcome to the Wrist Watcher!
I would not have known or cared then, in the mid-70s, that watchmaking was undergoing a revolution, with the advent of highly accurate, highly affordable quartz watches. By the close of the 1970s one could buy for $20 a watch more accurate than those Swiss marvels still given to retirees just ten years prior as high expressions of collegial esteem.
I care very much about a second, contemporary revolution in portable timekeeping: cellphones. My father no longer wears a watch. His cellphone fills that function, as it does for so many. When I graduated from high school I purchased my first watch, both out of practical need as I entered into adult pursuits, but also because wearing a wristwatch still served for me as a symbol of manhood. For most boys today, when they cross that threshold into manhood, the wristwatch will not have for them the same utility or symbolism. They may see a watch as an item of jewelery, or maybe as just a relic, but owning one will not be the rite of passage it was for me, or even more so, for young men the world over in the 1960s and earlier.
Perhaps this is progress, a happy convergence of technologies. But in fact, contrary to expectations, watch sales remains robust and, in particular, the market for fine watches is seeing stout growth. Swiss mechanical watch manufacturing, which was almost wiped out in the 1970s by the Japanese quartz watch, has seen dramatic growth since the 1990s and can scarcely keep up with worldwide demand. It seems that wristwatches still retain much utility, and even much symbolic and stylistic force, in today's world. My father aside, most men I know still wear watches. Even Dad admits there are times when having a clock on his wrist, instead of in his pocket, would be useful.
I have started this blog as a public service. Really! I am myself a wristwatch enthusiast and am involved with several online communities and forums that serve that interest. Like all enthusiasts, I feel a kind of evangelical zeal. A passion must be shared to be fully enjoyed. And it is true that with this blog I want to promote, in some modest way, what I call watch culture. But my hope here also is to do something more basic and useful for a much broader constituency. I want to create in blog form something like a Consumers Report, or a Dummies Guide to Wristwatches. This is less another blog for enthusiasts (though it will be that too, in part) than a guide for the wristwatch perplexed.
Why buy a watch? Why buy a nice watch? Why buy an expensive watch? What is a nice watch? Are nice watches necessarily expensive? Are expensive watches worth the money? What exactly are you paying for? Where are the cheapest places to buy nice watches? What are the best brands? How does one navigate all the different watch styles? What watches are appropriate for which activities and styles of dress? What is the difference between mechanical and quartz? What is an "atomic" watch? Eco-drive? Kinetic? A tourbillon? Etc., etc., and etc.
I will try to address these and similar questions, in one form or another, in the usual blog fashion, by aggregating relevant content from other sites. But I will also author a glossary of terms, profile brands, review specific watches or lines of watches, and offer mini-primers on watch history, style, and related topics. I will, as best I can, let feedback on my posts shape content. Oh, and there will be the occasional off-topic post, just 'cause I can!
Welcome to the Wrist Watcher!
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