Statement Pieces
It has to have personality. Boring watches are those without personality. Personality is a function of character, which is a function of having distinguishing characteristics which separates one creature from a herd. Watches with personality aren’t just functional or pretty, but they have something else which calls attention to them. Those extra elements are interpreted by us as having an emotive quality. Black and white dialed watches are sometimes called tuxedo dials, or panda dials for certain chronographs. Watch lovers have given endless names to an endless array of watches given design features which remind them of other things and that add emotive qualities to the ownership or wearing experience.
I’ll easily admit that I wear watches because of the message they send to people. I like it when people notice my watch – regardless of whether they say anything to me. I choose the watch I wear because I am trying to send a message. Maybe I feel a particular emotion that day, or I want to call attention to something I find interesting. I think most watch lovers will agree that being able to send a message with their watch is important to them. If you agree that sending a message with your watch is important to you, then make sure you choose a watch that sends a message.
Recall that the more generic the design, the less specific the message the watch sends about you. This is because popular items lose the ability to indicate something personal about the owner – because ownership of those items is so democratized. Take for example a Rolex Submariner. The popularity of this watch means that the wearer could just as easily be a serious watch collector or someone that knows nothing about watches save for the fact that they like luxury items they can wear on their wrist. The generic nature of the Rolex Submariner means that while it is an impressive item, it fails to make a specific message about the wearer. The more distinctive the design of the watch, the more specific a message it says about the wearer.
I use this same logic when choosing what watch to wear to determine how loud I want to be on any given day. I might wish to choose a Rolex Submariner because I don’t want a lot of personal attention. The watch does send the message I know about nice things, but it also allows me as an individual to be more discreet because it doesn’t offer too specific a message about me. Alternatively, when I want to make a more pronounced, high-volume message about myself, I will choose to wear a timepiece that is not only distinctive (uncommon design), but that also has a loud design itself.
Looking over my wearing habits, I find that most of the time I like to wear highly expressive watches. I mean, I do review watches for a living, right? I might as well show-off the fact that I have specialized and accelerated interest in the area. Given this preference, I tend to look for watches with character, since it really increases the pleasure of wearing a high-end timepiece. If you don’t have pleasure wearing your timepieces, then you are wearing it for the wrong reasons.
Decoration Done By Hand
The least accessible feature I look for in watches that I like to collect or admire is human-made decoration. It isn’t specific enough to merely say “decorated” or “artistic” watches. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made it very clear how important good design and decoration is to me. However, what I’m talking about here isn’t just the artistic element, but the organic application element. The human eye can mostly detect the differences between something that has been drawn or made by hand and something that has been done by a computer. Organic design always has a degree of imperfection to it, and certain types of shapes and curves are certainly more featured than in computer-aided design.
When it comes to decoration on a watch, the situation is the same insofar that organic creations seem to have more appeal than mechanical creations. Thus, any polishing, engraving, painting, etc. done by hand will always look different and more appealing than something done by a machine. That means a watch dial that is painted by hand versus printed on will have a distinct look, just like hand-polishing on a movement will have a different look than polishing which has been applied by a machine.
It is difficult to explain why many people have a preference to look at things produced by hand versus machine. My theory relates to the above conversation that the human eye is good at detecting organic things, and is further attracted to organic things because we seek familiarity. Computer design often feels lifeless because life isn’t perfect. Small imperfections or inconsistencies in symmetry are ironically appealing. Of course, too much imperfection and decoration feels sloppy. Pleasure is in finding that artistic blend of highly skilled hands and extremely subtle hallmarks of organic application.
The most money spent on new watches is spent on watches which are mostly made by hand. People wait years from hand-made watches produced by masters such as Roger Smith – who creates a small handful of traditional timepieces each year. Why is it that a watch collector is willing to put down over $100,000 and wait several years for one of these creations? The answer may be in the appeal of a hand-made product that is nevertheless a performance machine. Producing a timepiece becomes increasingly difficult or time-consuming the less one relies on machinery to help. So yes, there is an appreciation of the skill and effort required to make a timepiece the “old fashioned way.”
With that said, I don’t want to discount the visual appeal of wearing a timepiece that has hallmarks of an actual human’s touch. Above that, a skilled and masterful human’s touch. Part of being a collector is appreciating the work of highly skilled people who excel in a particular area. Wearing a wrist watch with hand-decoration is the same as voicing approval of just craftsmanship. Beyond that, there is an egotistical element to wearing the fruits of another person’s labor on your body. There is status in being able to actually wear someone else’s efforts. The more effort, the higher the status.
Seeking out watches with human-made decoration is clearly more expensive than the alternative (machine or undecorated watches). With that said, I find that as time goes on, I increasingly fantasize about watches I would have others make for me, or that use particular decorative techniques. The notion of wearing art on my wrist is compelling, especially when that art also makes a statement about myself as the wearer, and happens to do something useful such as tell the time.