Humanity has been obsessed with telling the time since it was first noticed the passage of the day could be monitored by watching the sun traverse the sky.
The first mechanical tickers can be traced back to the 13th century and the earliest wristwatches made in the mid-1800s.
Today, with timekeeping accessible on every mobile phone, the practicalities and accuracy of watches are less important and brands focus as much on turning them into must-have style statements.
But is the habit of telling the time by looking at a wristwatch dying?
Pre-owned watch specialist Luxe Watches aimed to find out, as it asked members of the public why they wear a watch?
63.5% of UK watch wearers just want to know when it’s time to go home from work.
It makes sense that more people would choose functionality over fashion, but the ratio was never this skewed.
Over time our work life has become a lot more fast-paced.
We see this very clearly in the design of everything from buildings to smartphones. We think more about how functional something is over how it looks and watches are no different.
What Other Reasons Do People Wear Watches?
When we look at the other reasons people wear watches, we find that fashion is the 2nd most popular choice. This makes perfect sense considering the difference accessories can make to any outfit.
When we compared men and women in our survey, we found that 60% of men valued the fashion aspect of watches versus only 40% of women.
Many celebrities love showing off their jewel-encrusted watches online, but this is not an indication of the watch community as a whole. Watch owners and collectors wear watches because they love watches and not because they want to socially signal to others that they are wealthy. This is shown in the data as less than 2% of respondents chose this as the reason they wear a watch.
When we compared men and women in our survey, we found that 53% of men wear watches to signal social status versus only 47% of women.
We were very surprised to find that only 1.7% of people wear watches due to some sentimental connection to the watch.
Are people losing their love for gifting watches or do people keep their sentimental watches safe somewhere to avoid damaging them? We’ll never know for sure, but all we know is that watches are still getting inherited and gifted every day to people that will cherish them forever.
When we compared men and women in our survey, we found that 53% of men wear watches for sentimental value versus only 47% of women.
We found that around 10% just wear watches every day because it’s part of their everyday look. Some people don’t feel comfortable without a watch.
Whether it ties their outfit together or because they love the look and feel of a watch on their wrist the outcome is the same. You step out into the world every day with a watch.
When we compared men and women in our survey, we found that 53% of men wore watches out of habit versus only 47% of women.
We were also glad to see that people still value fashion over fitness. There’s no denying that smart watches have taken the world by storm primarily due to their health and exercise features, but their main downside is still that they look like a tiny screen tapped to your wrist.
When we compared men and women in our survey, we found that 52% of men valued the fashion aspect of watches versus only 48% of women.
Interesting to the Gender Dynamic, Women traditionally have more Fashion Accessories from Jewelry (Earrings, Necklaces, Bracelets, a Timepiece), then Footwear, Handbags, Scarves, Belts all help make personal statements, this while most of the Male of the species are relagted to a Ring, possibly a nice Writing Instrument and a Timepiece (possibly going back to streotypes of yore, as the ‘working man’ responsible for being prompt and on time, without the benefit of the Home Wall Clock. That all said, a Timepiece is a ‘Pride of Ownership’, a superficial sign of achievement, or that one has arrived, reached some level of accomplishment, perceived or real, see Rolex, historically as a reference. We may be into a n evolution where products like Apple have a functional universality about them, crossing generations, but at days end, the Timepiece determines the feeling one has for ones self, real or imagined, Benchmark (Rolex), Sport (TAG-Heuer, Omega, Breitling), Tailored (Patek), Classic (Cartier), Audacious (AP or Richard Mille), all arbitrary, but also in the eye of the beholder. the demand for Rolex until satisfied, does not mature into a taste for more without “Education, Experience and Exposure.” The ubiquitous flat Cell Phone, provides all manner of Features, the least of which is Time on demand, both where one is or Diego Garcia to Ulaanbataar, but it is a tool and only at it’s elemental entry point, an object of desire, that is the Timepiece personally selected for oneself or as a gift that satiates our imagination and delivers so much History and Memories.
What was the methodology of the survey? Was it professionally done? Without that information, the survey doesn’t hold much water for me.