A Rolex Problem?

No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

...

Each man’s death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.

If other people didn't exist and we found ourselves on our own, the vast majority would not survive for long (sorry Hollywood, and good for you Bear Grylls). 

This extraordinary dependence upon other people compels us to be highly adept at using whatever material is available to us in order to quickly assess, understand and judge everyone we come across in daily life.

One tranche of such material is that which someone chooses to wear. 

Precisely because it is (for the most part) exclusively our choice, we cannot escape judgement for it.  This has a subconscious inevitability that even with the world’s greatest unconscious-bias training cannot prevent.

Even a choice not to care is still a choice, a choice with consequences that will play out in our lives whether we like it or not.  If we don't care what we wear and consequently look out of place, we must live with the fact that this will probably adversely effect some aspect of the quality of our social interactions. And we all know this. 

So when someone says that they don't care what their watch says about them, I take that with a (very) healthy pinch of salt.  I would argue that such sentiment —when stated in absolute terms— risks coming across as either delusional or disingenuous.

Of course we care what people think about us to some extent, because if we didn't we'd be on our way to becoming sociopaths.

All this being said, we cannot predicate our decisions exclusively on how they will speak to other people. 

For a start, it is impossible to perfectly please everyone (and any attempt to do so would surely send us mad).  And consider how miserable we would be to never have any consideration for our own needs and wishes.

In choosing what we wear we aim to please ourselves and are at the very least aware of how our choice might be received by others (and in turn how that receipt could effect our treatment).

The critical question then becomes not whether we should care at all about what our choice of watch says to others, but how much and regarding whom.

On this, I will be the first to admit that I often struggle on the watch front, particularly when it comes to anything that looks like a Rolex.

The Rolex problem here could also be described as the Apple problem or the Nike problem. 

These are brands that have become —in the public consciousness— so pervasively associated with a broadly defined design language that any product straying near their aesthetic aegis risks being branded a copy.

I believe many of us are sensitive to wearing something potentially perceived as a copy.  Copies can suggest a lack of originality, or some measure of insincerity in wishing to signal membership of a group to which one in fact lacks the genuine credentials.

Watches (and smartphones and trainers) are inflicted by the aesthetic limits of strong conventions on how form should respond to function, with the precise origins of many design elements obscured by their close inter-relationship and highly iterative nature.

Does everything look like a Rolex, or do Rolexes look like all other watches? 

While the mercedes hour-hand and and fluted bezel are widely accepted Rolex originals, what of three-link steel bracelets and batton hands combined with batton markers?

Sometimes I wish I cared less about other people and what they might think of my watch choices.  Alas, there's an ever growing list of watches I love the looks of, but never fall in love with.

Many would argue that the obvious answer is to knuckle-down and buy a Rolex, while others would cue "Let it go" and hit the music.

None of us is an island.

———

The silver lining to the cloud of my Rolex-related ridiculousness is that I have come to enjoy a much wider range of watches than I might have otherwise alighted upon.

Foremost here are cushion cases— these have no common association with Rolex whatsoever, look great and wear even better.  I'm a sucker for them.