Wedding day watch

Michael C

Great Thread!!! I had a small collection of vintage watches that I started acquiring a couple of years before my wedding. My soon to be wife gave me a gift of the Eterna Matic Kon-Tiki 20 that she caught me looking at in a jeweler’s shop that had a decent collection of vintage watches the Christmas before we got married. It was the perfect watch for the wedding. I still have it but it needs a service and I haven’t worn it in over 5 years. Been married 19 years and still have that watch. Lately,

I have been lusting over a gold watch and I think a 1960’s or 70’s gold watch would be a perfect wedding watch!

Eve

Thats actually an interesting point and a good advice to the ones who are planning on getting married, never wear your most expensive watch to the wedding 😁 👍

Canuck

My 1964 Bulova Accutron 214 which I wore on our wedding day, April 16, 1966, at Expo ‘67 when I got caught in a torrential downpour while in a line up at the Czech pavilion, on the day in 1971 when our son was christened, on April 16, 2016, at our 50th wedding anniversary banquet, and on April 16, 2021, when I took the missus and our son out to dinner to celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary. Still looks like new, and runs like new! I think I might wear it for WRUW, on Wednesday.

Vanallard

My wedding day watch - an 18k ref OT 14.327 chronometre. I reached out to the original owners daughter who had posted on OF asking about the watch. Worked out that I was able to pick it up when my (now) wife and I travelled to NYC.

Canuck

Speaking personally, nobody, ever, takes note of the watch I happen to be wearing! How can a watch of choice for wear on one’s wedding day be right or wrong? I didn’t realize until our 50th wedding anniversary, that on our wedding day, my bride was wearing a silver six-pence coin in one shoe.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and a Silver Six-pence in her shoe! Meant to signify good luck and prosperity. No doubt nobody took note of the watch I was wearing, on that day, either.

gbesq

On the other hand, it was Pierce Brosnan playing James Bond who popularized wearing a Seamaster Professional diver with a tuxedo.

Canuck

Then what makes it wrong in your view?

kkt

... Bond would have known that rule ...

kkt

Wrong because watches should not be worn with evening clothes at all, and Bond would have known that rule. Wearing a watch implies that part of your attention is on making sure you're on time, that you might have other engagements to get to.

WATCH IT - ONE MUST CHOOSE THE RIGHT TIMEPIECE FOR FORMAL OCCASIONS.

Judith Martin
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Oct. 16 1991

Dear Miss Manners-As competitive ballroom dancers, my boyfriend and I have frequent occasion to wear evening clothes. Of course neither of us wears a wristwatch when formally dressed, but this has resulted in our being late more than once.

I am thinking of buying him a pocket watch. How is this properly carried? And is there any way for a lady to carry a watch in the evening?

Gentle Reader-Miss Manners` sympathy about your dilemma-and experience in solving it-is remarkably personal.

Naturally, she is as devoted as you to the rule against wearing wristwatches with evening clothes. Not only does this violate the traditional dictates of fashion, but it violates an etiquette rule against ladies and gentlemen seeming to keep account of the time when they are supposed to be at leisure.


This problem is so far recognized by etiquette that pocket watches are indeed considered proper for evening dress. However, it is not correct to string the chain across the vested tummy, as is permissible during the day. The chain of an evening watch properly goes from the watch pocket to the regular pocket on that side.

If this is a problem during dancing (an exciting idea to Miss Manners, as she tries to imagine how vigorously you dance), the watch may certainly be tucked away, with or without a chain, wherever the gentleman pleases.

Now we come to the lady`s problem, with which Miss Manners has so much experience.

One solution Miss Manners tried is a long neck chain with a tiny watch at the end, which is tucked out of sight into the decolletage. The folly of this only hit her when she unfortunately needed to know the time smack in the middle of a black-tie dinner, and, thinking she was being subtle about it, slowly hauled up the chain.

Only when she realized that no one else at the table was talking or even listening, did she notice that her little gesture spellbound the entire table of guests.

So much for that idea. Miss Manners has long since switched to a version of the pocket watch-keeping one of her lapel watches, or a nicely cased miniature traveling clock or even a credit card-sized modern digital watch in her evening bag.

A bracelet watch, in which a cap over the watch face is a secret part of the design of an innocent-looking bracelet, is another solution.

DoctorEvil

Bond needed to keep that watch on his wrist because it contained the explosives detonator and a laser. You never know when these things may come in handy when you're a spy. 😁