I love high end watches. A Rolex, Panerai, Breitling, or Bell & Ross watch isn’t in my budget right now, but they are all mechanical engineering masterpieces. The high end watch designs are innovative and the history of watchmaking is interesting. While I’m dreaming of a Bell & Ross watch, for now, I usually wear interesting, but commonplace, watches from brands like Casio, Armitron, and Timex. From time to time, these watches a treated with disdain by the wearers of more upscale timepieces. This watch snobbery is often a thinly disguised passive-aggressive attack on one’s social status. Fortunately, there are a few verbal judo moves that work well against watch snobs.
First, no matter what watch you wear, there is almost always a more expensive, more prestigious watch brand somewhere in this world. An Invicta may trump an Armitron, but a Bell & Ross beats an Invicta. In turn, a Bell & Ross is less prestigious than a Breitling which in turn is less prestigious than a Rolex which is probably less prestigious than a Ulysse Nardin. If you know your watch hierarchy, when someone trashes you Timex, you can simply look at their watch and say, “Oh, that’s an Invicta not a Breitling?” Suddenly your watch snob is revealed to be a cheapskate.
Second, European-made watches are usually more prestigious than Chinese made watches. If you find yourself on the defensive, squint a the six o’clock position of your snooty adversary’s watch and say,”Oh, that doesn’t say ‘Swiss Made’ on the face.” Of course, if the watch is European, you can always question the wearer’s patriotism by asking why they didn’t support American watchmakers. A Towson or RGM watch is a world class American-made timepiece.
Finally, if someone is criticizing your choice of a Timex, Casio, Armitron, or store brand watch, you can simply ask them one question, “What time do you have?” When they look at the high dollar objet d’art on their wrist and tell you, you can simply glance at your own $20 Timex Expedition watch and confirm that the time is correct on your own watch. “It’s 11:45 here, too.” Then, the watch snob is forced to wonder why he paid $4800 more than you did to arrive at the same answer.
Fortunately, outright watch snobbery seems rare in the world of real watch enthusiasts. In online watch forums like Watchfreeks and MyWristwatch Forum, participants are most interested in enjoying the many diverse watch styles in the marketplace. Cheap watches that are cool are recognized for their value propositions, vintage watches are revered for their history, and fine jewelry watches are recognized for their artistry. Every one agrees that it’s no fun to use a cell phone to tell time.
Other articles by this contributor:
How to Find Great Watches at Walmart
“Ya’ll” Should Be Considered Proper English
A Wristwatch Review: The Relic “Wet” Multifunction Men’s Watch
