4 ms·
Generally I do wear it every day. I bought it because, after many many years of finding all mechanical watches ugly and tacky, I found one specific model that I
by sneak 3y ago
Generally I do wear it every day. I bought it because, after many many years of finding all mechanical watches ugly and tacky, I found one specific model that I find to be absolutely gorgeous and I adore the way it looks; a $300 Apple Watch keeps better time and has more functionality. A $20 Casio has equivalent functionality and way, way better timekeeping. It's jewelry and I wear it daily just as I wear an EDT and deodorant and clean clothes. I actually subscribe to the jwz theory of "if you need you to know what time it is that often, your life has gone dangerously wrong", and I have a radar filed because there are no Apple Watch faces without a time display.
It also has the added benefit whilst traveling of signaling to customer service staff (I fly commercial and not always in first) that I am a revenue opportunity (ie don't ignore me), as I am quite utilitarian and my 'fits are almost always sub-$200 (not counting shoes and scarf). My daily driver tshirt is plain black and costs $25, for example, and I loathe brands and visible labels. It's not immediately obvious to retail staff that it's profitable to provide me with good service.
Expensive watches aren't about timekeeping. They are jewelry and status signifiers.
Also, my daily driver watch is under $10k; theft no more enters my mind about it than it does for carrying my laptop; a maxxed out Macbook Pro ($6k) is approximately the same value as my watch and I never think about whether or not I should bring my laptop somewhere.
I also collect sunglasses and luggage; I'm not much of a clothes horse but I do adore stylish accessories.
Edit: I have friends who are "expensive watch guys" and one such new money friend, despite growing up poor, now personally grosses low double digit millions of USD annually. He recently told a story to our group about being in a 10 person business meeting where his $40k Rolex was the cheapest watch anyone had on, as a way of communicating how impressed he was and the gravitas of how many corporate heavy hitters were involved in his deal. Perhaps this sheds some light on their purpose and utility. (My $7k stainless steel daily driver doesn't even rank among these sorts of guys.)
- EdwardCoffin 3y agoI've tried googling this JWZ theory but can't find anything. I suspect I would like to read whatever he embedded this in though. Could you give a citation or hint on where to find it?
- sneak 3y ago2000: https://www.jwz.org/gruntle/cell.html https://www.jwz.org/gruntle/cell.html > I don't wear a wrist watch for a similar reason: if you wear a watch, it means that your life is structured such that you frequently need to know what time it is. And that means that your life has taken a wrong turn somewhere.
- mhb 3y ago1. What is an EDT? 2. What does "I have a radar filed" mean? Thanks for clarifications.
- sneak 3y agoEau de Toilette - perfume/cologne. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eau_de_toilette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eau_de_toilette Radar is Apple's internal bug tracker - "a radar" is an Apple(tm) bug report. https://openradar.appspot.com/page/1 https://openradar.appspot.com/page/1
- ycombinete 3y agoI was in a meeting recently with two guys who both had Rolex’s on, and all it told me is that they probably take bribes.
- dghlsakjg 3y agoI used to work on yachts. Expensive watches were a pretty good asshole signal. Plenty of fabulously wealthy people out there wearing timex, Ironman, or Apple Watches. If you’re judging someone’s business acumen based on their watch, you also seem to think that telling us how much your buddy grosses is supposed to tell us anything at all.
- ycombinete 3y agoI think you might’ve intended to respond to my parent.
- temp0826 3y agoI don't know why this comment makes me wretch. Money people and their lines of thinking are so bizarre and foreign to my reality.
- sneak 3y agoIt's not so much "money people" as it is utility - someone who can provide you with a $1mm or $10mm business opportunity wears the same quality suit as someone who can provide you with a $100mm or $1B business opportunity. It's a practical method of signaling status within a group where everyone is wealthy. Humans as well as many other mammals become anxious in groups where their position in the social status hierarchy is unclear. It's a tool for signaling information to strangers, same as a wedding ring.
- ngcc_hk 3y agoI have to use 2 Apple Watch as they does not have enough battery to keep going for long. I just switch it for charge whenever I have time. I suspect all these hybrid watch is a compromise of energy.
- rsynnott 3y agoEveryone could be saved a lot of trouble in the above scenario if it were socially acceptable to simply wear a yellow sticky note stating your annual income on your forehead.
- sneak 3y agoYou could lie and write a bigger number. It's harder to lie about having six figures strapped to your wrist for anyone to see. It needs to be a signal that can't easily be faked to be useful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stotting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stotting
- rsynnott 3y agoFake high-end watches are fairly readily available, aren’t they?
- sneak 3y agoA signal doesn't have to be perfect to be useful. Breast implants and hair implants are also a thing. The fakes are for fooling people who don't know the difference between a $20k and a $200k watch and just see "Rolex". Many of the "expensive watch guys" I know used to own pawn or jewelry stores and know specific model years intimately. Fakes would be hard to pass off in those crowds, though I am sure they exist. The rise of fake handbags (the modern female equivalent) and their explicit popularity (as fakes) is interesting and instructing, too. I've come to learn that most normal people just want to be oriented about where they stand in the status hierarchy. It's not that being low or high status is the goal (although for many it is), but knowing the relative status of those around you makes people less anxious as they then understand how to behave to minimize their own distress. It's the uncertainty that causes people anxiety. I agree with your basic premise that clear displays of metrics would save a lot of time and trouble, but we have decided as a society that that is both dangerous and tacky, so we use more coded signals instead.
- rsynnott 3y ago