2 watch men of the past
I’ve heard the stories. A man would typically either receive a nice watch as a graduation gift after college or buy one himself soon after entering the workforce. He would then wear that one watch for decades.
At retirement, his company would gift him a watch or he would buy one himself. These were typically gold.
This was before quartz drove down the price of watches. Before the vintage watch market existed. Before a man said “No” to polishing at the Rolex service center.
Are these stories true?
Men and ladies of WatchCrunch, could you limit yourself to 2 watches in your lifetime?
20 comments
Sort by
Francisco Scaramanga
Just a watch lover with a modest collection.
Member since
Last active: 2 weeks ago
15.49 cm
If it were the right watches, sure.
Isn’t that a lot of the search to find that one watch, the one you can wear for everything. Or I think maybe I convince my self that’s it and all the watches I’m buying along the way are placeholders for the one.
I could do it but I would choose not to. I enjoy variety and appreciate being able to pick from several watches depending on mood, activity, setting, etc.
Of the era you are describing, there wasn't really a lot of variety (black or white dials were the overwhlmingly predominant options) & for the majority of wearers, watches were tools; useful but not necessarily fashion oriented. Because men's fashion was mostly very conservative - white dress shirts, black or blue suits for the office and jeans or dungarees with nondescript shirts for working class - no one really had to try to match a watch to their attire. They just did.
Because, watches were more tools than fashion pieces, one watch worked for them. It wasnt something they really needed to think about.
Now, with fashion opened up for men, watch designs have followed suit (pun intended) and we have gren, red, yellow, turquoise and more dial colors to match whatever mood strikes us on a given day.
It's a different world now.
Yep. No problem. I went from 30 or so down to about 5 and wear 2 of those 95% of the time.
Out of my current collection of 5 I could easily live with only 2 (a diver and a dressy sports watch). However, I doubt that I would have kept a watch bought about 25 years ago when I entered the workforce and would still happily wear it for a couple of years until it's time for the retirement gold watch. Although a VC 222 would make up for the lack of variety. Being self-employed, I would have to reward myself though, so I prefer more and more affordable watches to keep myself motivated.
Yep. No problem. I went from 30 or so down to about 5 and wear 2 of those 95% of the time.
Ah yes the Pareto distribution in action. What two pieces?
I could if I had to. Hope I never have to.
Ah yes the Pareto distribution in action. What two pieces?
Explorer I at graduation, gold Day Date at retirement
I've gone years of my life with just one or two watches, so know I can do it. But if forced to do it again, I'm gonna cuss the whole time 😠
I could do this, my CW Dartmouth to begin and a Nomos club sport to end.
Explorer I at graduation, gold Day Date at retirement
Would your company gift you a gold watch at retirement? In my industry I’d be lucky to work for the same company for 4 years without getting laid off.
Would your company gift you a gold watch at retirement? In my industry I’d be lucky to work for the same company for 4 years without getting laid off.
It’s times gone by, I’ve always wanted to acquire vintage retirement watches that were engraved
Like limiting yourself to two pair of boots 🥾 no pass .
Of course. I'm an old-fashioned adult that realizes that one takes off their wrist jewelry when doing dirty work and doesn't feel the need to go dunking the thing. Several of my round little three-handers would easily suffice. If you have impractical watches, that's a you problem.
Yep, I could do two watches. Not a big stretch as my fool collection contains several of the same damn watches.