Bites: Appropriation Vs Appreciation: Do you ever have to earn the right to wear a watch?

Man I love this place!

I see one newbie you missed...😀

Thought provoking post!

I'm sure some might feel differently, but personally I don't see watch collecting or ownership (not ALL watch owners are collectors) as the equivalent to being a member of some "exclusive" club (i.e. a 1% OMG), where wearing a particular logo or piece of swag is "verboten" for non-members.

So wear whatcha want or what you were given or inherited with pride! 😎

cracking read again Kaysia, I hope people agreed with my winner 🙏👍

but here goes..........................

With regards the military watch, my opinion would be that if you were given it in the military or handed it down from Father or Grandfather that's acceptable, as you are wearing a piece of family history. If you bought a special edition RAF/SAS watch and were never in the forces it's a bit of a cop out (MY OPINION) 😊 and by RAF/SAS I mean the ones us normal folks cant get, not the Citizen below

You are handed them, for services to the forces. i.e. The Omega Seamaster is one made exclusively for members of the SAS

I know some people collect these, and they got for obscene amounts of money, compared to the normal version.

As for a different angle 😂

thank you Ben ✨

Great post as usual…

So a couple things come to mind.

1. If you inherited a military watch from a family member who served, you should wear it proudly as you are their legacy. No one will ever take that away from you.

2. New military inspired watches are also fine as they’re not claiming any specific provenance.

3. New watches used by service members have their civilian equivalents. Think GPS technology originally meant to military uses are now used everywhere in our daily lives. Conversely, a lot of service members wear G-Shocks, etc. so this goes both ways. Also, just because you don’t play professional basketball doesn’t mean you can’t rock your Jordan’s.

4. If you’re wearing a genuine mil-spec watch, just be respectful and understand the reason why you’re wearing it. It could be as simple as “it’s just a damn cool watch” and you’re good. 👍

There are certain watches I would not touch for that reason, unless they are obvious reproductions or "inspired" by the real thing. A good rule of thumb is that if it was issued and not bought to begin with, I would think twice about it. It's indeed similar to me wearing a military uniform that wasn't mine.

Thinking about it, there would be exceptions for a clear historic context, even though I probably wouldn't wear the watch in that scenario, in order to preserve it.

So yes, from my perspective there are watches that are earned.

There is a huge difference between wearing an item associated with a particular group and claiming to be a member of that group.

• Maybe the item is worn as an acknowledgment of respect for the group.

• Maybe the group found a damn good item and others enjoy using it.

• Maybe the person has no awareness of the item's association with a particular group.

• etc.

I find the people doing the gate keeping are often self-appointed gate keepers who are almost never part of the "protected" group. Patneralism - I hate it.

Of course you have to earn the right to wear certain watches!!!

Reminds me of a time when this clown tried to culturally appropriate something of my clan’s heritage.

• Went to some hipster restaurant with my wife - the kind of tongue in cheek establishment that has large museum quality stuffed big game everywhere throughout the place… “Oh look, it’s a gazelle, and over there is a platypus!”

• Waiter comes up, and he looks like Chris Hemsworth

• “Yo, dude, anybody ever tell you that you look like the guy who plays Thor in those Marvel movies?”

• “Oh, totally. I get that all the time. I’m a huge Marvel nerd”

• Starts to tell me all about his love for the Marvel movies

• Oh, and, by the way, he’s also a volunteer fire fighter

Me…

I’ve been collecting comic books since I was 10. This is what comic book nerds look like…

Comic books are for the fat and ugly! Not for the young, chiseled, and good looking!

How dare you engage in this cultural appropriation??? Have you no shame???

I don't think any watch is out of bounds for an enthusiast if they want it. If CWC and other brands didn't want people who hadn't served wearing a particular watch, it wouldn't be available to the public.

It only crosses the line into appropriation/stolen valour when people use a symbol or item to misrepresent themselves. e.g. using a CWC SBS to claim they were an RN submariner, when they hadn't been.

I personally wouldn't wear a watch with a symbol from from a unit/branch I didn't serve with, but that's a personal choice on my part, heavily influenced by the fact I'm still serving and have branches/units I'm directly tied to.

EDIT: I saw someone else mention issued/gifted watches, and my opinion on them is the same. If you aren't trying to pass yourself off as (insert unit/branch) then you aren't doing anything wrong. If some SAS dude wants to sell their Omega, wear it and enjoy it.

To those who want to gatekeep, don't be a vetflake.

I think you can wear any watch you desire..Maybe not a Gold Rolex Daytona that has 24 hour champion written on it..LOL

If you bought a special edition RAF/SAS watch and were never in the forces it's a bit of a cop out (MY OPINION)

I agree. I wouldn’t wear a watch that displays a badge I didn’t earn, or unit insignia in which neither I nor a close (father, brother, uncle) family member served.

Anything military inspired, or generally issued (CWC for example) is fine.

i'd like a CWC they look amazing ✨

where is this bar? I'll remember never to take my Chris Hemsworth Loving Wife! 😂

I don’t mind some of their models. The one I posted above, for example. 👌

I forgot, there is one more item. I've seen many watch dials that used cool symbols, even though I'm wondering if the creators were aware of the meaning of such symbols. In particular, I can recall one that used the insignia of an Italian military unit under Mussolini, which is certainly not my cup of tea.

TL;DR

I spent close to 6 years of my life in service and all I got were 3 badges and a single campaign ribbon, none of them are going to be worn or displayed in public. I did get some T-Shirts a few time and I worn them after leaving service, but that's not a big deal here.

I don't see the issue with wearing a vintage military watch or even one that was issued to a servicemen. If you are a civilian you can wear whatever you want and that's your business.

We all know Jae is really Leo :)

I wouldn’t get a “Who dares wins” Tattoo as I have never served in the SAS . That’s the only thing that would bother me , seeing someone actually pretending to be something they’re not . Stolen Honour is a hugely disrespectful thing to do . As long as anyone wearing military insignia, they admitted to “Cosplay” or could actually walk the walk and talk the talk .

Because he knows you won’t pretend, he must like you and know your not a tool :) Your just honouring him by wearing it :)

Concerning your the topic at hand of "earning" or "appropriating" a watch, no. The answer is simply "NO." These are... dare I say it... wrist watches for crying out loud. They exist to tell the time and for us watch addicts and nerds, to wear essentially as jewelry. In no way is a watch the equivalent of wearing military medals you didn't "earn." This is coming from someone who served in the military. If you think a watch is cool to the point you are willing to throw down your own money on it, do it.

At most, watches that are made "for" some branch of the military are literally just pieces of gear akin to a knife or a compass or multitool. Who in their right mind would say "Hey! That special military edition Leatherman multitool that's available to the public has to be EARNED before you can buy it to use on your Amazon packages! STOLEN VALOR!" Preposterous!

No, my friend. Watches are at a minimum luxury jewelry and at most, a simple tool. The CWC you used as an example is awesome. You need zero prerequisites to buy and own that.

I do HATE how some boutiques (and companies) operate to build that exclusivity. If you have the $ whether you are wealthy or you have saved up over years I don't see why you need any kind of buying history. It's ridiculous and just further perpetuating this belief that watch collecting is just for the rich. A hard working person SHOULD be able to walk into a Rolex boutique and buy something they had their eyes set on for a retirement watch or a milestone that they had saved up for. Anyway . . .

Exactly this . . . wearing a watch isn't stolen valor unless that watch is specifically tied to, for instance, having served with a particular platoon or something and can only be acquired by having served. It's very different from walking around the airport in uniform (that isn't yours) just so you can board the plane early.

We've already established many times over that people neither notice, nor care about what watch we're wearing, so...

"Hey, look what watch Captain Marvel is wearin...."

I lost my shit, when I read that 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

In the famous words of our Mug Club Leader, "To appropriate, is to appreciate"

I don’t believe in “appropriation” and buy whatever I like within my budget.

Good question, I own a Kentex JSDF (Japanese Self-defense Force) that I bought from a secondary market. I am neither Japanese nor have I served in military. I don't feel that I made a taboo purchase... However if a model was specifically issued for designation then I might think twice about it. This is a tough one, great head shaker.

Late to this party again I am.

Great article Kaysia. Yes, I get the conundrum. When I visit the US, which I do frequently, I’m struck that I often see some privilege or advantage for active military.

But extending this idea to a watch? If you got a tattoo with a unit number or had some piece of kit that all but shouted I’m active military, that’d be too far. But a watch from a regular commercial website is something anyone can order. And muggles never notice watches anyway.

It’s almost analogous to demanding any dive watch owner should annually Scuba dive at least 30 feet or skin dive at least 20. I’d squeak through on the 20 feet but It’d be nip and tuck. 😬

First and foremost I've never severed in the military. However This question brings to light a conversation my youngest daughter and I had a couple years ago.

There’s a vintage Lewis & Clark letterman jacket in my closet. My daughter asked if she could wear it. I said No it was special and not something she could sport.

Then I thought well, if she would tell the story of the jacket she could wear it. She said Hard pass! Typical teenager!

The story I asked her to pass along was a serendipitous story.

 In 2017 I was hired as an appraiser by an estate sale company. One of the items I came across was a Vietnam memorial bracelet. The confusing thing was the woman who hired me last name was Smith. This bracelet had another past as well....

Article from the Washington Post I found:

MIA BRACELET FINDS ITS RESTING PLACE

By Eric Charles May November 9, 1989

For 17 years, Darrah McCann wore a bracelet inscribed "Capt. Bud Smith 1/6/68" on her right wrist. She had been a sixth grader in 1972 when her father, a Metro project manager, brought her the silver band bearing the name of the Air Force pilot missing in action in Vietnam. She knew little about the war and even less about the lost serviceman, yet something compelled her to wear the bracelet, one of many made in the waning years of the war to raise money for POW-MIA efforts. McCann, now 28, is an artist who lives in Georgetown. She said she thought for a long time of returning the silver bracelet to the serviceman's family but had no idea how to find them. In 1982, she and a friend had gone to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and with the help of a volunteer at the POW-MIA tent near the wall, found a Hallie William Smith listed as missing in action on Jan. 6, 1968. "In a way, it was like a release," said McCann. "At first you didn't want it to be there at all. But then I thought, 'It's over. I found his name.' " Still she wore the bracelet. "I thought I was always going to wear it," McCann said. Then two months ago, a lunchtime customer at Amelia's Restaurant in Crystal City, where she works, overheard her talking about how she wished she could let go of the bracelet, and offered to help. Mary Jean Chaney, an analyst at the Naval Air Systems Command, told McCann she would do some checking at work. Soon Chaney returned to the restaurant with the name of Bud Smith's wife and the Texas address of the Air Force's missing persons section. McCann wrote a letter and sent the bracelet to Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, where it was forwarded to the Portland, Ore., home of Smith's wife. " . . . It's not that I want to stop wearing it or that I don't want it anymore, as a matter of fact, it will be hard to give this bracelet up . . . it's really just a part of me. I never met Capt. Bud Smith, but I think I fell in love with his spirit . . . . All I want to say is the bracelet is yours. It's my gift to your past husband . . . . " Smith's wife had remarried in 1975. She is Judy Huddleston now, a fifth-grade teacher in a Portland public school with a 12-year-old son from her second marriage. "I got teary reading it," Huddleston said in a telephone interview this week. "It wasn't a sad kind of teary. . . That someone who I had never seen, never met and probably would never meet, would show that much concern." She wrote McCann back that same evening and sent a photograph of Smith, too, the last formal one taken of him. She had met Bud Smith when they were freshmen at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, she said. Her maiden name was Smith, too, and they had sat next to each other in class. An only child who had asthma as a boy, Bud Smith had played baseball and basketball at Lewis & Clark. They were married after graduation and Bud joined the Air Force, graduating from flight school in 1965. "He wanted to fly. His goal wasn't to be a fighter pilot. He wanted to fly for an airline ...I was just devastated when he got orders for Vietnam." "{But} he told me that, 'I have a job to do, I'm going to do it the best I know how and let's hope the year {in Vietnam} goes by real fast.' " Bud Smith arrived in South Vietnam in November 1967. He was on a reconnaissance mission over the Central Highlands on Jan. 6, 1968, when his RF-4 Phantom jet went down. Pieces of the craft were later recovered, but the bodies of Smith and his navigator, Lt. Charles Bifolchi of Quincy, Mass., were never found. Huddleston became active in efforts on behalf of American POWs and MIAs. In 1970, she led a small delegation to the North Vietnamese Embassy in Paris to petition for humane treatment of American prisoners and for the release of information on missing servicemen. "There isn't a day that doesn't go by that I don't think of him . . . I have been searching for one {bracelet} with Bud's name on it for nearly two years," she wrote McCann. "I walked upstairs and read the letter and I started to cry," McCann said. Huddleston said she wears the bracelet every day, and has shown it to her class of 10-year-olds, several of whom are the children of Vietnamese immigrants. While her life has gone on, Huddleston said, "In my own mind, I still have trouble telling myself he's dead . . . . When you don't have a body returned to you, there's a little spark of hope that refuses to go out." Huddleston keeps McCann's letter in a special album with other photos and mementos of her MIA activities. "That letter is special. I wouldn't trade anything for it." McCann keeps Huddleston's letter and Bud Smith's photograph in a special place too -- a keepsake drawer in her dresser. And while she misses the bracelet on her wrist, "I knew it went to the right person," she said. The two women say they have no plans to meet, but McCann said she feels they have "a special thing." Likewise, Huddleston said she thinks of McCann as a "kindred spirit." For her, the exchange has been "a lesson in living." "Of all the great things you do in life," McCann said, "for me, this is an incredible payback."

Once I realized what was happening, as the sale came forward a lot of items I never saw started to appear for sale. All of Bud’s military item’s, college stuff, high school albums.

I thought her husband had made it home, turns out she remarried another guy with the same last name. Bud was still missing! So I immediately collected all of his belongings and purchased back a couple items. The letterman’s jacket being one.

It broke my heart to see this mans life just being sold away in pieces! I’m currently trying to find a home for the display. So Crunchcrew if you have any suggestions I’m all ears.

 I wear a memorial bracelet to honor him and to keep the fire to find a home for his medals and belongings.

FYI I tried to return the original bracelet to Darrah via Facebook but haven't never heard back