WATCHES - Its a guy thing

Watches, without doubt are a guy thing, you know what I'm talking about, chunky bezels and cool coloured detailing, not to mention thick bracelet straps that could easily fracture your wrist just waving goodbye to your aunt.

The big problem I have with watches are that they are a very personable item to wear, I use the word 'problem' merely to underline the ability of owing more than one but only being able to really wear one at a time. I only have two wrists and the thought of wearing two watches just to show off more than one is just plain odd. I mean Bernie Madoff owns 17 Rolexes and seven Cartiers for a start but why?

Its a frustrating problem because I wear the same watch every day, I own four but 99% of the time I wear the one bought for me by my parents for my 18th, ( I'm 44 now)  a Rolex Oysterdate.
My stepfather has amassed a huge collection of watches, probably more than 60, some are genuine and some are 'copies' (we don't like the word "fake").

Let me put it to you this way, ever heard of Jorg Gray?, nope, me neither but this relatively unknown watch brand has seen its sales of its Jorg Gray 6500 Chronometer rise in the millions throughout the United States.  It hasn't done it through marketing, it hasn't invested in a massive social media campaign, doesn't do TV or radio on a regular basis but one thing made millions of Americans go out and buy one - it's President Obama's watch.

Originally the Jorg Gray 6500 was designed for the Secret Service but was presented to Obama by one of his Secret Service team as a Birthday gift, now this watch enjoys the best personal accolade it could possibly get, sitting on the left wrist of one of the most powerful men in the free world.

Watches are aspirational, what you wear as a timepiece speaks volumes about the sort of activities and interests you're into, guys don't like to drive wimpy looking cars as much as they don't like to wear a cheap nasty and flimsy looking watch on their wrist if they are out to impress. Watches are a social barometer, the alpha male will have a watch which in weight alone could kill a mountain lion or in thickness could stop a snipers bullet. ( don't try that at home), its the wolf pack mentality and creates a heirachy  much akin to the comparing of business card fonts and paper thicknesses by Patrick Bateman in Brett Easton Ellis' brilliant novel American Psycho. Incidentally Bateman's choice of watch was a Rolex Datejust and for the film Rolex agreed that anyone in the film could wear their watches except Bateman (hence the famous line from the book "Don't touch the Rolex" had to be changed to "Don't touch the watch"). 

Brands are and remain the quintessential social acceptance benchmark , everything from an Audemars Piguet to a Swatch, Rolex to a Fossil or the dressy but functional Armani and Gucci affairs. – some designs reveal an element of extravagance but which in this day and age is deemed perfectly acceptable. Gold rope chains and sovereign rings are male jewellry we'd all rather ignore but its the watch on your wrist which attracts the most attention to your status.

Men are nerds, we all like a bit of tech, especially when we know we can wear it everyday, take the Brietling Emergency watch for example, when this was introduced to explorers and the jet set daredevils in the 1990's it boasted a built in emergency transmitter with a 121.5 MHz signal that could be detected by rescue craft within 100 miles of the watch. It's latest version the Emergency II also transmits at 406.04 MHz, a frequency that is now monitored by orbiting satellite. When you buy a Brietling Emergency watch you also buy into an agreement, namely if you yanked on the transmitter activator and the emergency situation goes away, the beacon signal can be terminated. Under the terms of the agreement for use the beacon needs to be rearmed at the factory after one use. Another reason not to set it off lightly is the $100,000 fine assessed by the Federal Aviation Administration, plus search-and-rescue costs, that go with a full-scale false rescue. 

Watches suffer the same counterfeit problems as any other functional and desirable item in fashion, its no secret that the fake watch industry is a multi-million dollar cash cow for the companies flaunting replicas and unlicensed copies onto the black market in destinations like China, Malaysia Morocco, and Turkey. Copies can be extremely hard to spot such are the incredible likenesses and finishes available, and, while its tempting to buy a replica Rolex to fit in with the city crowd it doesn't give you the same satisfaction as wearing a genuine one.
Rolex USA is starting to crackdown on counterfeiters blatantly imitating and selling its products for huge profits on the internet. It has won nearly $160,000 in court after taking the owner of two websites selling fake Rolex watches to court in New York. 

Gabriel Alvarez had been running deviousdesires.net and deviousdesires.com that sold fake Rolex watches for about $100 as well as other counterfeit goods masquerading as products from brands including Breitling, Armani, Bulgari and Chanel. The site openly advertised that the goods it sold were fakes.


Rolex USA first filed a lawsuit against Alvarez and won a financial settlement of nearly £100,000 in damages and fees. It also secured an injunction against the sites which a judge ruled must now be cancelled or transferred to Rolex, and that any remaining counterfeit products bearing Rolex branding must be destroyed.

Watch companies are much like car companies, they update and refresh model lines yearly and always spend big on advertising, in fact pick up any copy of GQ magazine and I guarantee you'll see a page with Leonardo DiCaprio holding his Tag in a most unusual way (wrapped around his fist).

The industry's big watch brands will invest anywhere between 10 and 25% of their revenue in advertising including examples like the one above in a bid to gain market share and target their core audience, males aged 18-35. In Tags case having Leonardo promote your watch makes it instantly desirable and aspirational for this exact market.

Take G-Shock too for example, The first G-Shock was the 1983 Casio DW-5000C designed by an engineer working for Casio named Kikuo Ibe " around the triple ten concept: the concept for a watch that has a 10 year battery life, is water resistant to 10 bar, and can survive a 10m fall onto a hard surface. 200 prototypes were tested by dropping them from rooftops, or third story windows. The G-Shock series is a brand particularly favored by US military personnel for its robust features and design.

Nothing says Alpha male watch aficiondo than James Bond, the tuxedo wearing super spy with a licence to kill. In Ian Flemming's novels James Bond wore a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner (with phosphorus dials OHMSS). The model used in the movie was the Rolex Submariner 6538A. The Rolex Submariner is the watch that Sean Connery wore as the dashing secret agent. In the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, James Bond (George Lazenby) wears a Rolex Submariner as well. When Connery returned to the role of Bond in Diamonds are Forever, he was once again seen wearing the Rolex Sub. 

Army guys, Spy guys how about Space guys?, NASA's choice of watch for its Apollo space program to put man on the moon was the Omega Speedmaster.A specially created velcro fastening strap allowed it to be worn over the cumbersome looking sleeves of an insulated Space suit.(below)

Whatever you're desired look and choice you simply can't beat a solid bit of mental on your wrist and thankfully men's watches are as popular now as they ever been.