Salon Money | Our watches, our selves

T A B L E__T A L K
Why is it inappropriate to discuss how much you make? Weigh in on salary taboos in the Business and Personal Finance area of Table Talk

R E C E N T L Y

Pot of gold or P.C. money pit?
By Heather Chaplin
Are socially responsibility mutual funds good karma or bad business?
(07/03/98)
Swamped
By Todd Pitock
If everyone is working so hard, why are they always at lunch?
(06/26/98)
Rich pickings, sour grapes
By Linda Tischler
A mother envies her daughter's lucrative entrance into the world of work
(06/19/98)
Get them while they're young
By Kevin Kelleher
Money managers are targeting children as the next growth market
(06/12/98)
Mad about Steve Madden
By Heather Chaplin
Wall Street loves this low-end shoemaker -- and so do fashion-conscious young women
(06/05/98)
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Money archives

OUR WATCHES, OUR SELVES | PAGE 1, 2
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Watches are available with loose diamonds inside, slide-rule mechanisms on the outside, stopwatches, altimeters, thermometers, depth sensors, time-zone indicators, pedometers, pagers, calculators, compasses and just about every other gizmo known to man, woman and watchmaker. Watch technology has become so advanced that it has reached a level of magnificent pointlessness. Bell & Ross now markets a watch that is water resistant to 11,000 meters. Never mind that nothing can survive at that depth, much less need to know what time it is. Luxury watchmakers are producing massively complicated mechanical watches that sell for $250,000 or more. Plain-looking platinum watches are selling for $20,000 to $30,000.
These baubles have become the ultimate status symbols, a Ferrari for the wrist. And ads are constantly reminding us that for just a few thousand dollars, we too can ensnare our radius and ulna in an upscale wrapper. A recent ad for a $4,000 Concord watch said its design "captivates the eye and impassions the soul."
Ads for expensive watches are none too subtle in reminding us that we expect power watches on the wrists of our power mongers. Remember when candidate Bill Clinton was running for office and the press discovered that he wore a cheap Timex? It was a revelation that for a few moments was second only to Clinton's infidelities in terms of prepresidential misdeeds. There are many examples of the power watch phenomenon. Last October, Wendell Murphy, the billionaire pork magnate from North Carolina, was on the cover of Forbes magazine holding a small pig and wearing -- what else? -- a ham-sized gold Rolex.
Kenneth Marcus, the owner of Capetown Diamond, a mail-order retailer that specializes in upscale watches, explains the trend by saying that "erudite, affluent men have always had a preoccupation with time. It's truly our most valuable asset. The more important the guy, the more important the clocks." Marcus says the booming American economy has led more people with disposable income to buy fine watches. But while the fascination with fine timepieces is part of the driving force behind the market, he also acknowledges that there may be a simpler reason. "Isn't that why we buy these things?" asks Marcus, "to make us feel better? The worse we feel about ourselves, the more we need external things to prop us up."
Thus, the watch becomes a type of mirror through which we observe the passing minutes and hours of our lives. And perhaps therein lies the seduction. While our human face becomes wrinkled and gray, the watch face, our "other face" -- which unerringly measures time -- remains constant, unchanged by the ravages of the time that it measures.
Don Young, who markets Xemex watches in the United States, agrees that insecurity and the desire to stand out are, for many people, the deciding factors in watch purchases. "I think we pick a watch that is to some degree a reflection of ourselves," says Young. But in the end, he believes the decision about a particular watch is usually based on "who you want to be rather than who you are."
So the watch companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on advertisements, preying on our desire to be something other than what we are. And while we spend our days figuring out what it is we want to be, our shiny new watches will remind us of how long it will take.
SALON | July 10, 1998
Robert Bryce is a contributing editor at the Austin Chronicle.




T A B L E__T A L K Why is it inappropriate to discuss how much you make? Weigh in on salary taboos in the Business and Personal Finance area of Table Talk R E C E N T L Y Pot of gold or P.C. money pit? By Heather Chaplin Are socially responsibility mutual funds good karma or bad business? (07/03/98) Swamped By Todd Pitock If everyone is working so hard, why are they always at lunch? (06/26/98) Rich pickings, sour grapes By Linda Tischler A mother envies her daughter's lucrative entrance into the world of work (06/19/98) Get them while they're young By Kevin Kelleher Money managers are targeting children as the next growth market (06/12/98) Mad about Steve Madden By Heather Chaplin Wall Street loves this low-end shoemaker -- and so do fashion-conscious young women (06/05/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Money archives		OUR WATCHES, OUR SELVES \| PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - Watches are available with loose diamonds inside, slide-rule mechanisms on the outside, stopwatches, altimeters, thermometers, depth sensors, time-zone indicators, pedometers, pagers, calculators, compasses and just about every other gizmo known to man, woman and watchmaker. Watch technology has become so advanced that it has reached a level of magnificent pointlessness. Bell & Ross now markets a watch that is water resistant to 11,000 meters. Never mind that nothing can survive at that depth, much less need to know what time it is. Luxury watchmakers are producing massively complicated mechanical watches that sell for $250,000 or more. Plain-looking platinum watches are selling for $20,000 to $30,000. These baubles have become the ultimate status symbols, a Ferrari for the wrist. And ads are constantly reminding us that for just a few thousand dollars, we too can ensnare our radius and ulna in an upscale wrapper. A recent ad for a $4,000 Concord watch said its design "captivates the eye and impassions the soul." Ads for expensive watches are none too subtle in reminding us that we expect power watches on the wrists of our power mongers. Remember when candidate Bill Clinton was running for office and the press discovered that he wore a cheap Timex? It was a revelation that for a few moments was second only to Clinton's infidelities in terms of prepresidential misdeeds. There are many examples of the power watch phenomenon. Last October, Wendell Murphy, the billionaire pork magnate from North Carolina, was on the cover of Forbes magazine holding a small pig and wearing -- what else? -- a ham-sized gold Rolex. Kenneth Marcus, the owner of Capetown Diamond, a mail-order retailer that specializes in upscale watches, explains the trend by saying that "erudite, affluent men have always had a preoccupation with time. It's truly our most valuable asset. The more important the guy, the more important the clocks." Marcus says the booming American economy has led more people with disposable income to buy fine watches. But while the fascination with fine timepieces is part of the driving force behind the market, he also acknowledges that there may be a simpler reason. "Isn't that why we buy these things?" asks Marcus, "to make us feel better? The worse we feel about ourselves, the more we need external things to prop us up." Thus, the watch becomes a type of mirror through which we observe the passing minutes and hours of our lives. And perhaps therein lies the seduction. While our human face becomes wrinkled and gray, the watch face, our "other face" -- which unerringly measures time -- remains constant, unchanged by the ravages of the time that it measures. Don Young, who markets Xemex watches in the United States, agrees that insecurity and the desire to stand out are, for many people, the deciding factors in watch purchases. "I think we pick a watch that is to some degree a reflection of ourselves," says Young. But in the end, he believes the decision about a particular watch is usually based on "who you want to be rather than who you are." So the watch companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on advertisements, preying on our desire to be something other than what we are. And while we spend our days figuring out what it is we want to be, our shiny new watches will remind us of how long it will take. SALON \| July 10, 1998 Robert Bryce is a contributing editor at the Austin Chronicle.