zippofan
3T WIS
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Hi All,
As a WIS, I do tend to examine other people's watches when out and about. Going to a place like Disney World gave me the opportunity to look at all types of peoples' watches. Disney attendees are from all over the world and in my opinion are of every demographic except maybe the very poor and the extremely rich.
Here are my general observations:
1. The wristwatch is NOT dead. High profile news articles notwithstanding, I would estimate better than two-thirds, if not three-quarters of the people I observed were wearing a wristwatch. They were not all "older" people either, I saw quite a few children, "tweens" and teens wearing watches too.
The problem with the general news articles that many of us have read about the eminent demise of the wristwatch has to do with the research habits of the individual reporters. Their background research (from other major news articles) indicates that people aren't wearing as many watches so that is what they write. Most of these reporters couldn't be bothered to check specialty sites like WUS, PMWF, Europa Star etc.
2. Bracelets are more popular than straps. I was a bit surprised at this, but far more men's watches that I observed had bracelets. The vast majority of women's watches had bracelets as well but that was no surprise. Yes, there were rubber, leather and nylon straps, but well more than half were bracelets on men's watches.
3. The most popular, recognizable brand name watch was Casio. I saw many G-Shocks, Waveceptors, Pathfinders etc. There were more "fashion watches" being worn though, most of which I could not tell the brand. Perhaps I noticed this because Casio makes very recognizable watches. I also saw quite a few Timex Ironmans, but Casio was definitely more evident, and more digital than analog.
4. The overall most popular wristwatch seen on men's wrists were "fashion watches". They all look sort of vaguely alike, the ones I could see close enough were of course all quartz. I picked out Fossil and Nautica as two of these "fashion" brands. I also noted a number of Swatches, though mostly on women. (I own a few Swatches, so don't flame me for calling them a "fashion" watch :D). Of course at a Disney theme park there were many Disney watches too!
5. Recognizable mechanical watches:
Two Seiko Orange Monsters, one on steel, one on rubber.
One Seiko SKX009 Pepsi diver on rubber.
One Rolex gold President. I saw this one close enough to see that it was
not quartz. I don't really know Rolex, so if this was a fake it was a
darn good one. The gentleman wearing it looked well-heeled, so I will
assume that it was real. Though why you would wear an expensive gold wristwatch to a theme park is another question :shock:
6. The only other easily recognizable watch I saw (besides the myriad of G-Shocks) was a white dial Citizen 2100 chronograph.
So, there you have it. Even on vacation, with no access to a computer to surf the watch boards I was still thinking of watches. Did I get a watch while I was on vacation? Of course, and so did my wife! My kids bought me a classic white dial chrome Mickey Mouse hand6.gif The movement is labeled Japan, though the rest is most likely Chinese. As soon as I get a better strap fitted I will be wearing it with pride. I bought my wife a Minnie Mouse watch that she thought was cute. Both are nice for 25 bucks. Interestingly, Disney has more than just one company making watches for them. Not only do they have the lower end character and kids' watches, they also have very nice ones made by Citizen (Eco-Drive), Skagen (looked like titanium) and Wittnauer(!) The Wittnauer piece I handled was nice but it was quartz and $995, way too rich for me on vacation. I had too many toys and t-shirts to buy :D Outside of Disney, there is a place at Universal Studios City Walk that has Oakley watches that I checked out. They have some cool designs but nothing that I would wear enough to justify the price.
Finally, what was I wearing at Disney you may ask? I brought (only) 4 with me, 2 quartz and 2 mechanical. My Luminox went snorkeling at Discovery Cove, I had the kids doing some orienteering around Magic Kingdom with my Timex/Maratac compass watch as they are both Boy Scouts, and the rest of the time I split between my new Seiko Ti Samurai and my modified Sandoz "Tudor" sub. Also, my older son brought 4 watches with him. Most of the time, including all swimming, he wore the Citizen auto diver I bought for him a few weeks ago. He also brought down his Goofy watch (it was mine and I gave it to him because it was a bit small and I got a new one), a Timex digital and his Star Wars watch. Last weekend was the first Star Wars Weekend for the summer at Disney/MGM studios so he had to have the proper watch! A budding WIS, uh-oh, what have I done!?!? :P
I hope you enjoyed my little vacation report.
Cheers,
Griff
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