Credits: Article and images by Tamim Almousa @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/02/26/no-watches-are-not-jewelry-cutting-through-the-million-dollar-question-one-layer-at-a-time/
—————————————————————————————————–
And if you’re walking around with a 200-carat chandelier dangling from your neck, everyone will know just how well you’re doing. Of course, all this comes at an extraordinary cost, but that’s precisely the point. To live like a “baller.” To be the envy of your friends. To showcase your wealth: What, this old thing? Taste gives way to status, reason to vanity, sensibility to glitz and glam. One thing’s for sure …
No one (I checked) is wearing a million-dollar necklace because they’re passionate about jewels. Ever walk into a name-brand jeweler’s boutique and see any of their customers hunched over a desk, pouring over a piece with a loop in hand, inspecting the fit and finish? I’m guessing not.
Ever heard any of them talking shop with one another, discussing their version of Omega’s dot over 90? Again, probably not. Aside from industry folk, the people who wear jewels are a frivolous bunch, disinterested in the minutiae and intricacies of what they obsess over. As long as it’s cute, patently expensive, and “all the rage right now,” they’re good to go. Unlike ours, their pursuit is a superficial, materialistic mindset, not a hobby.
Yes, people wear watches for similar reasons, but for every Chad who does, there’s a hobbyist who likes a watch for what it is: a microcosm of engineering, craftsmanship, design, and history. That’s you and me. Our trained eyes recognize the blood, sweat, and tears that go into putting such things together. They linger on the finer details, marveling at the finish, counting the interior angles.
Watch manufacturers understand this and, in many cases, accommodate. Display case backs allow us to peer through the clockwork; to follow moving parts as they turn, jump, sweep, and oscillate. Our ears listen intently to what our precious little machines have to say, privy to their every tick, click, snap, and rattle, and serenaded by melodious rings and chimes.
Enter any watch forum at your peril, lest you drown in a torrent of jargon, intelligible only to die-hard enthusiasts. We get together and wax poetic about grand feu enamel, freehand engraving, mile-wide anglage, and lathe-turned guilloche. We drone on about “free-sprung” this and “position-adjusted” that and delve deep into the physics of “variable inertia” and “constant force.”
We’re a bunch of geeks, far removed from the well-to-do fashionistas and socialites whose lives revolve around keeping up appearances and outdoing one another in the spending department.
Tiret Kanye West
So, how did we get lumped in with the Audrey Hepburns and Grace Kellys of the world? Well, you can thank the slightly less elegant ilk of DJ. Khaled and Producer Michael for that. In fact, you can blame anyone who describes their outfit as “drip” and their watch collection as “shines.” You know, the type that subjects a Nautilus or a Royal Oak to the handiwork of a 47th Street gem setter.
—————————————————————————————————–
Credits: Article and images by Tamim Almousa @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/02/26/no-watches-are-not-jewelry-cutting-through-the-million-dollar-question-one-layer-at-a-time/
