@rocksinger89 Same here. It was youtube channels like Best Damn EDC and Urban Gentry that initially got thinking about watches as an EDC item and interested in horology. If you'd asked me 3-4 years ago if I would be researching watch history, I would have laughed and shook my head. 

@TheThing1982 Yeah, handguns are going to be even more polarizing than knives. I could see that causing a fuss, for sure. There are unfortunately a lot of misconceptions around the topic. 

Thanks goodness politics haven't made their way here...yet. haha I'm so sick of people inserting their politics in FB groups that have nothing to do with politics. 

@KiltedKarl Sorry, maybe my initial post wasn't clear. There wasn't confusion around the acronym "EDC" that I've seen in groups. The term was never really brought up.

What caused members to get bent was simply someone sharing a watch photo that just happened to have either a pocket knife or other gear in it. Their responses were like: "Why the hell is a knife in this photo?" or "Stop posting watches with knives! This is a watch group!" or similar sentiment. 

They were just angry there was a knife in the photo. My above post was hopefully to point out why some of us post watch photos with other gear, including pocket knives. 

Side note: I'm very active on Instagram, and it's a little funny when people end up on my EDC page when they were looking for posts about the "Electric Daisy Carnival", which apparently is a big music festival in Las Vegas.

@TheSharperTheBetter It shows how little people understand. I love my slip joints, but absolutely, a modern folder is safer to open/close. OTFs get a bad rap because of pop culture association, which is unfortunate. Autos are technically illegal in Washington, where I live, which is unfortunate. 

@TheSharperTheBetter You're absolutely right about the misconceptions around knives. I've noticed that flippers get the worst reactions. It's the flicking noise. Quite a few people associate that noise with switchblades and think you're either dangerous or going to accidentally hurt yourself. 

For a variety of reasons, including the "fear of the flick", I've started carrying/collecting slip joints more and more. People see those as old-timey, grandpa knives and it doesn't seem to have nearly the same reaction as a flipper. Swiss Army Knives are another one that people seem relatively cool with. 

That's great how you circled back around to wearing and collecting watches through EDC! I enjoy reading stories like that, about how picked up the hobby. Before a couple years ago, I hadn't worn a wrist watch in probably twenty years. 

 

@Slepowron I would think so too. The negativity in the FB groups watch groups towards photos showing of watch with any other gear was a bit surprising. It's social media, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, though. There is always going to be the gatekeepers who can't handle anything even remotely different. 

I have chatted with several EDC enthusiasts through watch groups, so we're around, for sure. 

 

@Slepowron Thanks! I actually held off on writing this for a while because I wasn't sure how it would resonate with folks on this platform. It's great to see other EDC enthusiasts in the watch groups, though.

I always carried a variety of item as well, but yeah, since discovering there was an actual hobby around it, I've upgraded my gear far beyond the items I used to carry. 100% agree, this is an expensive set of hobbies. I've mostly avoided the high-end pens, so far, but I'm thinking I want to try a Tactile Turn in Titanium at some point. 

I hate to admit it, if Seiko made a half-decent pocket knife, I'd probably buy it. LOL 🤣