To start this thread off, I'd like to begin this discussion with the topic of watches since that's what's on my mind.
Watches seem to be a "manly" thing and for reasons I'm not sure why. I've been digging into/researching this topic and the best explanation I'm finding is that men use watches as one of the few "approved" jewelry accessories that they can wear. Perhaps there's some merit to this but I'm not sure if this summation conveys why I'm personally interested in watches.
Just speaking for myself- I personally find it absolutely fascinating that we can wear such a complicated machine on our wrist which requires literally hundreds of small parts to work in unison to perform a function requiring absolve precision & accuracy. Precision & accuracy.. if there ever was a unifying concept to state with the participants here...
Personally- I've always held a fascination with watches. Not so much from a status symbol perspective but more so from a perspective that appreciates the precision of such a small device.
A few decades ago my first "real" watch was a Luminox Navy Seal model that looked something like this...
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Good lord did I love this watch. It was my first "expensive" watch which took me months to save up for while working retail jobs (yes plural) and when my finances aligned I thought this was amongst the most amazing purchases I had made at that point in my young life. It was far from a luxury watch by other standards but it was amazing to me & what it represented for my income at that stage of my life.
It was an amazing watch too- quartz movement of course but tritium dials on the hands and that made it "special" to me then. I forget how many times I had to replace the batteries & straps because each part just wore out (I lived in that watch for years) but remember when it finally "died" on me and a part of me died with it. I got well over a decade with that watch, it spanned my entire military "career" but I rode it hard and ran it into the ground and it finally had enough. Certainly a sad day for me.
I limped through college with cheap (think Kmart Timex type of watches) but always missed having a "good" watch. Of all people, my little brother gave me one of the best Christmas gifts I'd ever received in my adult life... A Citizen promaster with eco drive aka- solar powered and I was once again smitten with a watch (not even that terribly expensive either). That looked/(s) like this...
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Talk about a cool watch- the luminosity wasn't tritium but rather a high quality luminescent painting that doesn't have a "half-life". The watch was built "tough" and the strap contained kevlar if I remember right... I still have & love that watch. I'm still bitter that I don't have the exact same watch in the Black configuration.
Moving on- my tastes & budgets for watches has expanded & grown but nothing too extravagant either.
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I picked up the above Timex for something like $30 6 years ago. I bought it as a "beater"/"throwaway" but god damn- that watch rocks and I'm still trying to keep life into it. The battery is presently dead as a doornail but I've got a pack of 'em coming to see if we can't breath some life into this "old" girl.
I'm getting long winded so to wrap things up... my latest acquisition is a relatively inexpensive but classic watch.. the Seiko "turtle" which is looks like the below & is an otherwise inexpensive option for an automatic movement driven watch.
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I'm rambling now but to sum things up- there are some things "we" all like that are just inherently "manly". Watches have to be amongst that category. Not even as a flex/opportunity to drop 1,000's of $ on either.
Just on the discussion of "man things" there's certain products that just seem to 'strike that masculine chord' & amplifies one's testosterone while similetanously receiving olympic eye rolls from spouses and lesser lady friends.
-LD
