Friday 5 October 2018

TIME PIECES: WATCHES AND WRISTWATCHES.

Hi guys, it is always a pleasure to write to you guys all the time. Today i will be writing on wristwatches and why it should be part of your fashion style.

No element of men’s style combines fashion and function quite like the wristwatch. Nor does any other male accessory inspire such devotion and interest. Nevertheless, in recent times there have been those who believed the watch had finally met its demise in the smartphone, and would fade away with other sartorial anachronisms like monocles and sock garters. And yet the popularity of the wristwatch persists. To understand why, we need to understand the history of this timepiece, how its past continues to inform its present, and why a man might consider wearing a watch in the 21st century.

HISTORY OF WRISTWATCHES .

While the wristwatch has become a men’s style staple around the world, up until the late 19th century it was considered a piece of jewelry exclusively for women. Men preferred the pocket watch. This wasn’t some arbitrary fashion decision based on taste or gender; there was actually a practical reason for men’s preference for one over the other.
Before the 20th century, watches were extremely susceptible to the elements. Moisture, cold, heat, and dust could easily bungle the intricate gears and springs within a watch, causing it to lose its accuracy. As men were more likely to face these elements, and held positions in the military, business, and government that made accurate timekeeping more of a paramount concern for them than for women, care had to be taken to protect their timepieces and keep themselves on schedule. Function superseded fashion, so into the pocket men’s watches went, only to be taken out when needed.
As with most things in men’s style, it would take a war for patterns to change and for the watch to leave a man’s pocket and be placed on his wrist.
Pocket watches required a free hand to use — you had to reach into your pocket and hold it while you checked the time. In the tumult of battle, a man needed all the hands he could get. So soldiers began improvising wristwatches by strapping their pocket watches on their arm with leather.

The first instances of the use of these improvised wristwatches are said to have occurred among British soldiers fighting in the Burma and Boer Wars in the late 19th century. Called “wristlets,” these leather straps had a cup to hold their pocket watch. By the 1890s, a few companies started manufacturing leather wristlets for soldiers and even made improvements to them, like adding a compass on the strap for navigation. They were often marketed as “Campaign” or “Service” watches.
Just as GIs returning from WWII continued to wear their government issued tees and khakis as civilians, veterans of the Burma and Boer Wars likely continued using their leather wristlets when they returned home. Male civilians, seeing these rough and tumble war vets sporting what was once considered a lady’s accouterment, began following suit.

Seeing that men — particularly soldiers — were wearing their pocket watches on their wrists, several companies in the late 19th century began creating watches specifically designed for that purpose. Girard-Perregaux was the first company to mass-produce wristwatches specifically for men — particularly for sailors in the German Imperial Navy. The Waterbury Clock Company — now known as Timex — also began selling a men’s wristwatch at around the same time. In 1907, jeweler Louis Cartier designed a wristwatch for his Brazilian aviator friend, Alberto Santos-Dumont, which he called the Santos.
While these manufactures were pioneering a new segment of timepieces, sales weren’t that great. The majority of men still preferred the pocket watch, or the leather pocket watch wristlet.

It would take another war for the watches to find a permanent place on men’s wrists.
World War I ushered in modern, mechanistic warfare, and the wristwatch played a vital role in this process. Before WWI, the coordination and execution of orders relied primarily on visual cues — soldiers would often use semaphore signals to communicate with one another. But because battlefronts were so large during WWI and because soldiers fought in trenches, this visual mode of coordination became increasingly unviable. So clocks began to be used to coordinate attacks: officers would sync watches together at a meeting, return to their respective troops, and initiate the offensive at the agreed upon time.
To do this, many British officers continued to use the improvised wristwatch — their pocket watch tethered to a leather strap. But some began wearing a bona fide wristwatch designed to withstand the rigors of warfare, while maintaining a classy, aristocratic look. Watch companies in England immediately began capitalizing on this new need by making and marketing wristwatches specifically for officers serving in the trenches. They called it, unsurprisingly, the “trench watch.” (The trenches of WWI is also where the “trench coat” was developed.)
The trench watch wasn’t a government-issued piece of equipment (the pocket watch was still the officially sanctioned timepiece), so if an officer wanted one, he was expected to supply his own. Because there wasn’t a single watch company providing watches to the military, this opened up a vibrant and robust market with several competing companies making trench watches for officers. Consequently, you can still find a wide variety of trench watches from this era on eBay and various other auction sites as well as antique stores.
This wartime competition spurred innovation in the men’s wristwatch. Watch hands and numerals donned luminous paint to make time reading easier in darkened conditions (like at night or in the trenches), and unbreakable crystal glass replaced the glass covering the watch’s face. Lugs for attaching the leather strap to the watch started to be built right into the watch, which gave it a more finished look. Porcelain dials to set the time, which were common on pocket watches, were replaced with metal. Finally, the watch casings were made much tighter to keep water and dust out of the watch’s sensitive mechanisms.
Like the veterans of the Burma and Boer wars who returned home to civilian life burnishing their leather wristlets, British vets of WWI came back home wearing their trench watches, thus setting a standard for civilian men to follow. By 1930, more wristwatches than pocket watches were being sold in the U.K.
The adoption of male wristwatches took hold a little more slowly in the U.S., though. Many American doughboys wore the wristwatch while in the trenches, but went back to the pocket watch after returning home because of the wristwatch’s lingering reputation as a “lady’s timepiece.” The only way an American man could get away with wearing a wristwatch as a civilian was if he was taking part in rugged activity that required chronological precision like flying or racing. It wasn’t until the mid-1920s that wristwatch sales among men began to gain ground, and much later than that that they finally overtook pocket watches.
After WWI solidified the masculine bona fides of the wristwatch, manufacturers began creating timepieces to be worn on all sorts of occasions. Yes, there were fancy dress watches, but most wristwatch innovation was driven by specific needs of men serving in the military and taking part in risky and dangerous activities like car racing and aerial barnstorming.

WHY WEAR A WATCH?

Few men these days need to time the start of a battlefield attack, and technology has come a long way since the Battle of the Somme. We’ve now entered an age where a man can check the time by pressing a button on his smartphone, which begs an obvious question: “Are there still any reasons to wear a watch?”
It’s a fair question, and wristwatch sales did in fact start declining in the early 00s, thanks in part to the increased use of smartphones. But after reaching an all-time low in 2009, wristwatch sales have been increasing at a steady clip year in and year out and will likely continue that upward trend.
What’s going on there? Every man has his own reasons for sporting a wristwatch, but here are a few as to why you might consider joining their ranks:

1. Watches Are Convenient…

Phones don’t keep you punctual. Watches do. A wrist watch is the most convenient way to tell the time.
I don’t need a watch because I have a phone, is a common response from a generation who are now questioning the adverse effects of constant cellphone use. Fishing for a cell phone on regular occasions just to check the time looks desperate. A quick glance towards your wrist is a much classier way to keep tabs on time during a date or a meeting. Not to mention how rude it would seem to your companions if you pulled out your phone during a conversation. On other occasions where it’s advisable to leave the phone concealed – like the beach, a funeral, a wedding, a watch is a much more subtle and convenient way to check time.

2. Watches Are Functional…


Any item inspired by the military has a functional use. Wrist watches included.
Wrist watches were first used in the 19th century by the military to synchronize maneuvers during war. Since then, specialized watches have been used in the depths of the ocean by divers and high up in the sky by aviators. One of the big advantages of a watch – especially over a smartphone – is how long it can operate in the field.  Many watches are made to either be self powered through motion or use a small amount of energy from a battery. Think years of maintenance free time telling…..compare that to a smart phone’s 8 hours! A complicated watch is designed with features beyond the basic function of displaying the time and date. Such a functionality is called a complication. Two of the popular complications are the chronograph, which allows the watch to function as a stopwatch and the moonphase complication, which displays the lunar phase.

3. Watches Provide Simplicity…


The best watches don’t use the latest technology. They are powered by ingenious mechanical clockwork technology that predates electricity. So when your cellphone runs out battery – you can trust the technology that keeps running on your wrist. When you wear a watch – it’s less likely you will fall back on your phone as a distraction. Often, checking the phone for time results in a rabbit-trail of activities including checking every messenger app, email and Facebook. When you need to keep track of something as important as time – a unique device to measure and manage it is justified.

4. Watches Signal Style…

The range of acceptable jewelry for a man is limited. Many men are only going to be seen with three main accessories decorating their hands – a nice watch, a stylish pair of cuff links, and a simple wedding band if they’re married. In addition to helping wearers stick to their schedules, wristwatches make it easier for them to display their sense of style. They are a form of self-expression – reflecting hint of danger, adventure and sports depending on the make of the watch. Watches can communicate a lot about the wearer’s personality. For those that prefer a bit of high-status bling on their wrist, a Rolex can be an understated, timeless and incredibly masculine accessory. As the saying goes – boys look at their smartphones  to check time – men look at a watch. Call it what you will, a quality luxury watch is a man’s equivalent to the engagement ring.

 

5. Watches Embody Craftsmanship…

A wrist watch is more than a time-keeper. It is a symbol of tradition and history encased in a showpiece with extreme craftsmanship. Not many men realize that they are wearing pieces of art on their wrist. Some watch houses have four craftsmen working on one watch for several months – designing complex pieces of technology by hand. It’s detailed art at the higher end of human ingenuity and creativity.
An analog watch has a simple and consistent mechanism. The way of expressing it is where the bulk of the creativity comes in. Watch design is inherently artistic. There is a lot of generic and non-inspiring watch styles out there, but the best stuff is beautiful and how often do you call a tool beautiful? Art on a watch can come in multiple forms. The dial can literally be a painting, or the design of the instrument itself is pure art. For many people – the movement arouses as much fascination as the dial and case.

6. Watches Make Great Heirlooms…

Not only is a timepiece the quintessential gift – it is the quintessential heirloom. No matter what your philosophy is on the end of life, we can all agree that people can live on through the memories of those that knew them. Owning timepieces from a different era is a remembrance of people who lived before you. Having their watches makes you think of them, in a real way. They wore these same watches which show signs of use, care and and love. A watch collection is also a legacy. It doesn’t necessarily have to be worth a mini treasure – but leaving your watch(es) to someone you care about is in essence passing on values that were important to you, to someone else.

7. Watches Help You Create A Relationship With Time…

Since the days of the sundial (and probably before) – men have been obsessed with devices that measure time. A reminder that our time is limited. Wearing a watch has a positive effect on my attitude towards time. I am more attentive to how I spend my 24 hours. Beyond the technical and mechanical intricacies of a watch – men  are fascinated by these devices that claim to mark and control time. There is a passionate community of watch lovers who dive into the details of watch-making and collecting.
The only other obsession matched with the passion for this inanimate object is the passion men share for cars. A watch collection is far easier to maintain and less expensive as a hobby. Everyone can rock a watch. Wearing a watch is a great way to add interest to an outfit, especially if you’re a guy. Find a wrist watch that really stands out from the rest.
It could be the beginning of a long friendship.