Skip to content
01335 453 453 Phones Open: 8:30am - 6:00pm
Cart Cart

News

Latest Posts

The Zuckerberg Effect: Do you need to dress up to wear a luxury watch?

Watches have always been a status symbol. The earliest watches - essentially miniature clocks worn on a chain around the neck - were useless for telling the time. Their highly inaccurate verge and foiliot movements meant the single hour hand could sprint ahead or fall behind the actual time by many hours within a single day.

 

These watches weren't for timekeeping. They weren't admired for their accuracy or for helping the wearer keep to a schedule. Rather, their appeal lay in their unusual shapes and intriguing mechanisms. Designers vied to make the most unusually shaped watch, and designs ranged from animals to flowers to fruit to books. These clock watches were jewellry items, worn by the 16th century nobility. to denote their power in society.

 

To this day, people wear watches as an overt or subtle statement about their power and status.

 

Yet the world is changing and becoming more democratic. Power and status are shifting. In high places, the old values of the noblity have fallen away, creating space for new ideas and approaches to emerge.

 

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of one of the world's biggest companies, goes to work wearing a hoodie. Some called him "immature" for sticking with his relaxed outfit even on the day of Facebook's IPO. Others praised his no nonsense attitude. "When you’re worth $20 billion, you can wear whatever the hell you like," the New York Post said.

 

The same debate is going on in the world of luxury watches. In 2012, the US imported $2.4 billion of Swiss watches. This is half of the $4.8 billion worth of Swiss watchs imported by Hong Kong.

 

Some have said this is because Americans don't understand style. "With the laid-back, casual, informal attitude of most Americans, it's no wonder that timepieces aren't considered important and sales in the U.S. are lower than Asia," one American watch afficinado said in a forum.

 

Needless to say, he was quickly shouted down.

 

"Americans and Canadians have always been individualistic. And I think that's far preferable to force fitting yourself into rigid rules of outward appearance," was the first response.

 

What do you think? Is it okay to wear a luxury watch with a t-shirt and jeans? Or do you need to develop a more sophisticated style before you're ready to adore a timepiece?

 

Image credit: Mark Zuckerberg by B. D. Solis.

<< Back to magazine

Brands

88 RUE DU RHONE Accurist Accutron Adidas Alexander Shorokhoff Allemano Alpina Alsta Angelus Anonimo Aquadive Archimede Armani Arnold & Son ArtyA AVI-8 Azimuth B.R.M Backes Strauss Ball Watch Company Bamford Baume et Mercier Bedat & Co Bell & Ross Bering Bernard Favre Boldr Breitling Bremont Bruno Sohnle Bulova Carl F. Bucherer Casio Certina Chopard Chronoswiss Citizen Clerc Corum CT Scuderia Cuervo y Sobrinos Cyrus Czapek D1 Milano Damasko Davosa Delma Dent & Co Dent & Co. Dietrich DKNY Doxa DuBois et fils Ebel Eberhard Edox Electricianz Elliot Brown Emporio Armani Enoksen Eterna Faberge Favre-Leuba Fears Fope Fortis Fossil Frédérique Constant G-Shock Garmin Georg Jensen Giuliano Mazzuoli Glycine Gorilla Graham Grand Seiko Gucci Guess Hamilton Harwood Herbelin Hugo Boss HYT Ice Watches Ikepod IWC Schaffhausen Jorg Gray Juicy Couture Junghans King Seiko Laco Longines Louis Erard Louis Moinet Luminox Lytt Labs Marathon March LA.B Watches Maurice Lacroix Meccaniche Veloci MeisterSinger Messika Michael Kors Mondaine Montblanc Movado Muhle Glashutte Nixon Nomos Glashutte Nordgreen Norqain Oris Parmigiani Fleurier Perrelet Polar QLOCKTWO Rado Raidillon Raymond Weil REC Watches Reservoir RJ Watches Rotary Schwarz Etienne Seiko Seiko 5 Sports Seiko Astron Seiko Presage Seiko Prospex Sekonda Seksy SevenFriday Sinn Skagen Snyper Watches Spinnaker Squale Suunto TAG Heuer Technomarine Tissot Tonino Lamborghini Traser H3 Triton TUDOR Tutima TW Steel U-Boat Victorinox Swiss Army Visconti Welder Wenger Wolf Zodiac

 
Loading...
WhatsApp