Let's Talk Pretentiousness in the Watch Community.

I think that LouS really nailed it earlier.

For years I have classified people into a three categories, and like LouS, talk to people all of the time about their watches.

Timex, Seiko, No Watch at all--these people don't care, and want a watch to tell time, that is it. It is a tool a nothing more.

Modern (Insert Rolex, Panerai, Omega, Breitling, etc.)--some, not all of these people, bought a nice watch for the sole purpose to telling everyone else that they have arrived. You can usually tell this type of person based on the way in which they carry themselves in public,

Vintage (Insert whatever watch you want)--these people are very similar to the Timex, Seiko, no watch at all crowd, as they either inherited the watch and wear it because of the sentimental attachment, or they are like a majority of us, and appreciate the vintage pieces.

While there are always exception to the rules, these have been really accurate over the last 15+ years. For the better part of a decade, I started up conversations with people that I met socially in DC about watches, and some of those people became my closest friends...water always finds its level. For rule #2, some of the biggest jackasses I have ever met wore a modern Rolex...and I say that having cut my teeth on vintage Rolex and loving the historic brand.

My wife is from Finland, she just doesn't talk at all, I guess finnish is the easiest language to learn, just say nothing for a long time and on the way out of the door say " kitos"

Sometimes the alcohol makes us witty. The author Dan Jenkins listed the 10 levels of intoxication in the book Life Itsownself. The first level is "witty and charming"
But then Level 6 is "Crank up the Enola Gay".

Yeah, really! What a luxury that would be compared to what we're used to in either NY or Philly where they just don't shut up.

Joisey girls... Don't get me stahted.

Once you've seen a few of them, you know that Fran Drescher wasn't acting. 😜

20 or so years ago I was a booster president for my daughters high school. We had a team from a private boys big city school come play a basketball game. I never saw so much stretched skin, silicon, huuuuge diamonds and fancy jewelry. Now that was pretentious. It would be the same as me wearing my XVI to the grandsons baseball game. Never would happen.

Your only wearing a speedmaster..
Chuhh.. I'm wearing a real mans watch.. A Seamaster!
😁

In similar spirit, I share a line I encountered few years back. I think it was uttered by Oligarch Oleg Daripraska - he was quoted as saying something like: "if you're NOT an Oligarch, there must be something wrong with you". C'est le good stuff, ca.

I previously considered starting a thread called " please hijak this thread", akin to a grafiti safe space or skateboard park. I did not start such a thread, for I suspect half of the fun is in the tangent, reappropriation and in showing up unannounced.

In summary, I think it boils down to one key thing: genuine love / fascination (or at least interest) in watches, or interest in acquiring a status symbol. The modern/vintage dichotomy that was talked about early is generally very true - to 95% of the public, a vintage watch just appears to be an old watch with charm and is rarely sought after as a means of justifying one's place in the world. I think, however, the big difference that is agnostic even to modern/vintage is someone's motivation behind owning a watch - which is usually easy to suss out fairly quickly.

For example, I have one close friend that just got a 3950.50 after researching Speedmasters for the better part of two years. He wore a Seiko for years and wanted a Speedy, but didn't feel as if he'd earned the right to have one yet and waited until a) he had a full appreciation for its history/quality, and b) he had something worth celebrating to mark with the watch. I have a second close friend that saw my vintage Speedies quite frequently, decided he wanted one, and the next day went on eBay and bought an auto Speedy that bears zero resemblance to the moonwatch. He then corrected me a couple weeks later when someone else was discussing it and said that my straight lug wasn't a manual wind. This irked me, quite a bit, and while he'll always be a good friend for other reasons, we never talk about watches if I can help it.

One wears his nice watch because of what it means to him. The other one wears a (modern) Rolex and his auto Speedy because of what they supposedly conveys to others. One is authentic. One is pretentious.

ONLY CAVEAT - I found myself discussing Invicta as a brand with a friend the other day, and I just can't, in any way shape or form, endorse someone's love of the brand as a love of horology in general. They're sh^* products with zero creativity. So am I, indeed, pretentious? If an all-encompassing love for watch brands is the test, maybe I am?

Would this be "redneck" pretentious?

Bashing Invicta is okay by me. 😉

The worst watch related scene I've ever been the cause of was at a BBQ 3 or 4 summers ago. Somebody had a vintage LeCoultre and I was wearing a vintage Longines (or the other way around - I've tried to block the memory) and they made the mistake of asking me about some history behind the brand upon finding out I was a "watch guy". After 15 or 20 minutes of what must have seemed like blahblahyadayadayada on the connection between JLC, VC, LeCoultre, and Longines, I took a good look at the faces of the very polite people who had not yet fell asleep and realized I'll just shut my yap unless somebody else proves to be a WIS instead of another yuppie who inherited his granddad's vintage watch.

Not exactly pretentious, but along the same lines of boorish behavior.

It depends. Is it cold?