Save the date!

Three years ago, @TimexBadger made an offhand comment that he was going to try to wear the same watch for a month to see if he could. Like most of us he had once been someone who could wear a watch for months or even years at a time without any thought or indecision. At some point your interest in watches becomes such that it becomes unthinkable to wear one for more than a short time, sometimes even wearing multiple watches a day. We wonder if we can ever go back to being that happy mono-watch person. So, the One Watch Challenge was born.

There had to be a minimum threshold of watches owned to participate. A person with only two or three is someone who is not tempted to rotate on a daily basis. I picked seven because that seemed, especially with luxury pieces, to be a number where real temptation would weigh on your mind. What I failed to understand is that many people who essentially are one watch wearers can over time acquire seven watches that are only rarely worn. I should have known this because this would have described me twenty years ago. (I never assume anyone is like me.)  As you know the number is now twelve and some minimal proof must be shown of a full watch box before the start.

I am not going to participate this year. The longest that I have withstood this grind is fourteen days. Really it is unfair since I can’t trick or fool myself and besides, I don’t want to be watched to be an example to anyone. As I write this, I am on my fourth day of wearing the same watch. This is the longest streak that I have had since the 1WC last year. Getting off the carousel of wearing a different watch everyday for the dopamine hits of likes and comments seems to be healthy. So, as a cruel twist I am enticing you to put on a similar display for the same unhealthy rewards. You don’t have to play.

Every year I get comments along the line of “I don’t know what the big deal is, I have been wearing the same watch since last year…”  We may be of different tribes. This may not be for you. The One Watch Challenge is not really about wearing one watch. On its surface it is that but to be interesting, to me at least, it had to evolve to be more of a game and test of wills. This pits me against each of you individually. Unlike the Scavenger Hunt as @DeeperBlue envisioned it, this is not a group activity. I actively work against each of you helping each other. At some point this will be a burden and as I have always said, I want each of you to lose. The Scavenger Hunt and the Photography contest were both part of the first 1WC. As weird as the 1WC gets some good comes of it.  Someday I want a plaque with the profile of a Third Century Roman Emperor on the wall of the world headquarters of WatchCrunch.

What do you get if you are a winner? I don’t know, maybe a smug sense of satisfaction (or is that just @Porthole?) Last year WC gave finalists and winners badges. The first year there was WC merch. I don’t make any promises because WC has made none to me. They have encouraged this contest because they think that it has been fun and has driven community involvement. Some of the most viewed, commented on, and saved posts in the WC history have been 1WC related. The rest are @Mr.Dee.Bater explaining why watches make great investments or a @Porthole describing getting a tattoo of Georges Frederic Roskopf on his back. The first year there were five winners. Last year there were two. I would expect five or fewer this year. Former champs can play, but why?

If you haven’t been paying attention, here are some basics:

1. I set the rules and I determine any violations. There are no appeals, no higher authority. I will try to make the language of the rules, if not the rules themselves, straightforward.

2. I may change or supplement the rules at any time. I usually add them in order to cull the herd.  I will always put them in a post with the hashtag #1wc . This year some rules may be written in disappearing ink.

3. Last year we started on May 21 to commemorate the bankruptcy of the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus in 2017. This year we will start on the day that they were founded in 1884. (That is May 19, a Sunday.) May 19 is day zero. Every other day counted from day zero so 1wc +7 would be the next Sunday. I am in the Eastern Time Zone of the United States. It may get inconvenient the farther you are from that Time Zone. It can’t be helped. I am not going to be posting any other posts to remind you of the start. You are adults (you must be over the legal age of consent in your locality to play). None of these rules (except the minimum number of watches prequel) are operative until the start date.

4. I reserve the right to make fun of your watch or any struggles that you may have in the contest. This is an exception to the niceness that we normally expect on WC. If you insist on wearing a watch that looks like the insides of a pitaya (a perfectly nice Zelos) or a sebaceous cyst (some oil filled thing) I will notice and comment.

5. Please don’t message me with questions about rules. I won’t answer them. To answer any player would be to give that player an advantage. If a rule is poorly worded or unnecessarily ambiguous, I will correct it for the group.

6. You may only wear one watch during the duration of your time in the 1WC. No changing into an evening watch or something more suitable for the pool. If you choose an orange G-Shock, you may be wearing it to your cousin’s wedding. I hope that you are not in the wedding.

7. You are limited to the strap or bracelet that you start with. No strap changes.

8. You must post a picture of your watch everyday in the WRUW with the hashtag #1wc . This is a requirement. Miss a day or a hashtag and you are out.

9. On 1WC + 10 you must write and post an acrostic poem about your watch. The key detail will be given to you later (mostly so @Porthole doesn’t start now).

10. On 1WC +15 you must write a post (not WRUW) that contains a brief history of the brand of your 1WC watch and why you think that your watch is the perfect daily.

11. On 1WC + 19, +29 and +33 you must wear your watch on your other wrist and your WRUW photo must reflect that fact.

12. Your WRUW photo on Thursdays must be a pocket shot.

13. Your WRUW photo on 1WC+36 must also contain strawberries and cream.

14. In the second photo on WRUW, in a comment to your own post, you must state which Cruncher you think is most likely to finish with a medal. You may not select yourself.

15. Within 36 hours of any Cruncher posting a question about whether a watch is too small for his wrist or our opinion of small watches more generally you must post a comment on that post indicating that the watch in question is definitely much too small, and that no real enthusiast would wear such a watch. Tag me and use the #1wc hashtag. (For purposes of this exercise I am going to assume the original poster is a man. This does not appear to be a feminine concern.) Once you have commented on the first such post meeting this description this rule is considered fulfilled and you are not required to comment on any subsequent similar post.

16. When a poll is posted on WC asking the community to choose between two or more watches (“what should I buy next?” that sort of thing) comment with a meme indicating the futility of living one’s life according to the opinions of others. Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Siddhartha Gautama provide useful quotes. Use the #1wc hashtag. Only three participants may comment on any poll.  If you don’t get to post a comment on the first one, be on the lookout for the next one and so on. Once you have commented you do not need to post again on any subsequent poll. This is going to appear cult-like enough without piling on.

17. This works on the honor system, for which a daily WRUW shot is a poor substitute.

Well, that is a good starter kit… Hopefully, the pointlessness and stupidity of this annual exercise will dissuade the non-masochists from joining this year’s Once Watch Challenge. Perhaps some of you will have flashbacks to last year’s glitch which was manifestly unfair (and ultimately necessary). There is no reason to join in. I want all of you to lose.

Until May.

(Edit: I edited Rule 3 for clarity. It did not make sense and this was pointed out to me. I do try to get each rule nailed down so that only my interpretation is correct.)