Watch Snobbery: An Analogy
Been seeing a lot of posts lately regarding styles of watch-enthusiasm/collecting, always ending with long threads of people telling each other how to partake in this outdated and wildly niche hobby of ours. Thus, I've decided to write up this analogy no one asked for - mostly for me to scream into the void.
That said, let's take a break from doom-scrolling and enter the world of imagination:
It's the end of a hard work week, and your friends (and some acquaintances) have invited you to go to a local food&drink hall. This business operates like a mix of a taproom, cocktail bar, and food cafeteria. Here you all gather and talk your favorite hobby: food and drink! (If you don't like or partake in alcohol consumption, a lot of this analogy may not be for you).
You enter the food&drink hall, and see a series of beer and cider taps lining the wall behind the bar, as well as many assorted bottles of liquor. Your friends and acquaintances gather 'round the bar area to order drinks and from this you can discern there are several types of people who partake in this hobby:
The Classical Drink Enthusiast: this person is after drinks of aged designs whether it be long traditions of hops cultivation lineage, or an time-tested cocktail recipe. You see them sitting in a vintage-style leather booth on the side. They'll spend hours telling you the history of their drink of choice, and why it is the best and only option.
The Beer Fanatic: you see this person questioning the bartend about all of the various beers, and only the beers. They ask to try as many as they can, and eventually settle for a flight of beers. If you'd ask, they'd tell you everything about beers - on a surface level. They've tried it all, and frankly they won't venture out into anything different anytime soon.
The IPA Nerd: they surely know there are other types of beer out there, right? But for some reason they find themselves always drawn to what amounts on the surface to the same flavor profile over and over. Before you can ask why they are so into IPAs, they turn and tell you how it's all you need, and the best for various other reasons. To clarify, you really didn't ask.
The Value Seeker: you find this person on the side of the crowd at the bar, jotting away on a napkin. Upon peering over their shoulder you can see they are calculating the "ABV/$$$" ratios, and it's apparent they are after the taps that provide the best "deal," there is a great chance they whip out a can of lager from the 30-rack they bought last weekend at Kroger's. Their sentiment is expressed very loudly once their decision is made, a big part of the experience for them is to let you know what a great deal they got.
The Niche Drinker: whether from allergies, or just a very picky pallete, this person is seen asking the bartend for substitutions or a very specific drink. These folks tend to be the least likely to impose their views on you, but if they do it's a bit like talking (err... being talked at) with a brick wall.
The Post Snob: behind the crowd hunched over a laptop is a weird troll-looking fellow, you can see him writing a lengthy ramble bout the types of drinkers he sees at this bar, and somehow that equates to his niche hobby and how people interact. What an asshole.
You turn and leave the bar, maybe you'll go home, drink whatever you have on hand that you enjoy, and log onto "Beer Crunch" and discuss the intricacies of the niche hobby with other online beer-goblins. Suddenly you find yourself back to reality on this post here - it was all a daydream.
So what was this daydream? Why the long food&drink hall analogy? All too often on online forums, hobby-groups, comment sections, etcetera, we see people trying to impose their style of watch-enthusiasm onto each other. This is a hobby purely about self-expressionism, and what's important to you may not be important to someone else. Finding the best "value" possible, learning the most obscure and lengthy history, being a movement nerd, a style-only seeker, or maybe a combination of any mentioned and not mentioned. The fact is: different people, are different people.
We all have preferences, and therefore are snobs in our own way. So what kind of snob are you (in watches and at the food&drink hall)?
Neo-vintage and vintage watch enthusiast / Editor and occasional author at ThoseFourWatchGuys.com / Big into martial arts, snowboarding, mountaineering, and motorcycling.
I'm a Casio-goblin. LOL
I'm the guy with surface knowledge of many drinks available and talks with anyone willing about their particular favorite. Sadly that means I leave having mixed many different things, feeling ill and needing the following day off to recover.
I'm the Niche Enthusiast.
I'm the guy with surface knowledge of many drinks available and talks with anyone willing about their particular favorite. Sadly that means I leave having mixed many different things, feeling ill and needing the following day off to recover.
Haven't you heard? Dress watches before divers, never need to take a fiver!
^I tried real hard for that. Feels embarrassing
I am an analogy snob.
I am an analogy snob.
Omg samesies
I find im becoming a positivity-snob. I resent the posts on any sort of forum where folks just gripe. We gripe about how much expensive watches suck, we gripe about how cheap watches suck, griping about whatever the hell swatch is doing this week, griping about a waitlist, griping about derivative designs, griping about crazy off the wall designs, and in my case griping about griping.
When I see something I don’t want to positively engage with I try and keep scrolling. I don’t always succeed but I usually do.
I just like what I like, period!
I'm into reverse snobbery and I'm tea total..
I absolutely agree with the sentiment here. Very entertaining by the way. But I'd say that here on WC, I don't see that negativity that you are mentioning. It's the reason I'm here and not elsewhere almost every day. They have cultivated a very friendly community atmosphere that is hard to find elsewhere in the digital minefield.
I absolutely agree with the sentiment here. Very entertaining by the way. But I'd say that here on WC, I don't see that negativity that you are mentioning. It's the reason I'm here and not elsewhere almost every day. They have cultivated a very friendly community atmosphere that is hard to find elsewhere in the digital minefield.
For the most part I agree. I do see some people trying to impose their tenets onto others here, it just shows up differently than most forums
I’m the guy that was lost and walked into the hall by mistake. I thought it was still the sushi joint it was before the pandemic. Dang it! They made the best volcano roll I’ve ever had. I’ll never have it again. The pain of having loved and lost starts to creep in, like the rain clouds above me. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Maybe I’ll feel the sunshine on my face again.
But seriously, not exactly sure where I fall within these choices.
The way I see it, the people of whom you speak of are on the horological spectrum. They can only function with absolutes and clearly defined rules, despite those rules being grounded solely in subjective nonsense (i.e. the perfect dimension, the only true Explorer, the only movement that matters, etc).
But, it's good to be passionate about something so whatever. If anything these kind of people act as a forcing function for newcomers to learn about things they may not have ever considered.
And too much positivity and acceptance is unbearable. That's why WatchCrunch can only be taken in small doses. I have to supplement it with "Watches Circle Jerk" on Reddit for a balanced experience.
I'd say I'm the equivalent of the beer fanatic wanting to try everything. Having said that, I used to be the @sshole, with a very narrow minded outlook on what I'd wear on my wrist.
As I've got older I've come to realise that whatever makes someone else happy, shouldn't matter in the slightest to me. Be happy for them, tell them it looks great, give them the satisfaction that we all like when something we have gets complimented. Life is so much easier when people are happy & small gestures from others goes a long way to maintaining that.
Post Snob?
I feel targeted.
As a craft beer aficionado, I’ll be taking the bourbon barrel-aged chocolate infused 12% imperial stout. Thanks.
I’m a beer pig 🍻
I left the bar ages ago, when people started insisting the “s” in Stella was silent.
I probably order an IPA.
I'm into reverse snobbery and I'm tea total..
I don’t understand this reverse snobbery term? Snobbery is snobbery.
I left the bar ages ago, when people started insisting the “s” in Stella was silent.
I'm in Spain, but the "S" is silent.
First of all as a homebrewer I appreciate any establishment that has a true Helles on tap!
I'm the $100 sub guy who appreciates a top fermenting yeast such as Safale Us-05.
First of all as a homebrewer I appreciate any establishment that has a true Helles on tap!
I'm the $100 sub guy who appreciates a top fermenting yeast such as Safale Us-05.
I too prefer German and Belgian beers!
I don’t understand this reverse snobbery term? Snobbery is snobbery.
Nor irony....
I'm a guy in a corner having a non-alcoholic beer and some food. Well aware that overconsumption can hurt you, or that you might end up with someone in the morning who doesn't look that great by daylight.
I'm the "Another watchbox with a Speedy + Sub + Explorer 1 + BB58?" snob.
Has anybody ever actually met a 'watch snob'? Coming up on 5 years in this hobby I've never once met someone who's looked down in disgust at my affordable watches. Is it just a strawman? Do these mythical snobs actually exist?
Has anybody ever actually met a 'watch snob'? Coming up on 5 years in this hobby I've never once met someone who's looked down in disgust at my affordable watches. Is it just a strawman? Do these mythical snobs actually exist?
Think you're just describing a jerk lol the whole point of my post was that snobs are people who try to impose what they think onto others, especially prevalent in online forums.
To answer your question though, weirdly at RedBars I have met some weirdo jerk snobs before.. but that's because RedBar blows 😂