Why Did Men Stop Wearing Dress Watches?

#watches #accessories #notsponsored

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VIDEO CREDITS:
→ Scriptwriters: Jack Collins & Nathan Price
→ Camera & Editing: Chris Dummer
→ Visual Supervisor: Preston Schlueter
→ Miramax Films
→ AMC
→ EON Productions
→ 20TH Century Fox

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→ Hodinkee

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Gentleman's Gazette

00:00 Dress Watch Wearing Declined Introduction

We’ll be looking at dress watches and see if we can work out why they’ve disappeared from many a wrist. First, we need to clarify what we mean when we’re talking about a dress watch.

01:00 What Is A Dress Watch?

We’ve definitely seen confusion around how items are defined in recent years. Whilst there are likely multiple factors to this, one of the big ones for me comes from product listings found on eCommerce sites.

By offering a much clearer definition of what a dress watch is:
1. Moderately sized face
2. Elegant design
3. Simple features
4. Quality materials
5. Timeless styling

03:16 Early Dress Watch History

History tells us that in 1571, England’s Elizabeth 1st received a wristwatch, described as an “armed watch”. In 1806, a wristwatch was created for the French Empress, Josephine de Beauharnais. In 1868, Patek Phillipe created the world’s first Swiss wristwatch for Countess Koscowicz of Hungary. Men continued to exclusively carry pocket watches until the dawn of the 20th century and the events of the first world war.

05:35 Modern Dress Watch History

Following the war, with the newfound popularity of wristwatches soared. Rolex has been a notable name in the watchmaking world for decades. The 1930s saw an increase in an active lifestyle, and Jaeger LeCoultre introduced their iconic Reverso watch that could be worn as effortlessly in both formal and sporting environments.

Towards the end of the 30s and for the most part of the 40s, the watchmaking industry is somewhat impacted by the second world war. And moving into the 1950s and 60s, wristwatches take on a simplified, sleek look.

07:02 Why Men Stopped: 1. The Rise of Sports Watches
08:15 2. Cheaper Materials
10:10 3. Digital Watches
12:17 4. Super-Sized Watches
12:23 5. Status Symbol Watches

13:05 So, Are Dress Watches Dead?

Well, we certainly don’t think so! n fact, over the last few years, there’s been an increasing interest in the vintage watch market and that means that all those gorgeous dress watches of yesteryear are an attractive prospect again.

For the price of a modern-day, mass-market watch, you could easily find a selection of different vintage dress watches out there that will not only look great but will also be the real deal when it comes to timeless class, elegance, and quality.

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts about dress watches in the comments below!

13:55 Outfit Rundown

[layouts]

I wear tons of watches but none are what the snobs would call “expensive”. I have a great collection of classic pieces from Timex, Casio, Seiko and Citizen which I wear each day. I also have a pocket watch. I will always wear a watch

[harmoniaartificiosa]

An interesting video! I prefer to wear entry to mid price dress watches, from brands like Longines, Baume & Mercier and Tissot. They all offer good to excellent quality, heritage, classic design, fancy complications in some cases and movements that can be serviced pretty much anywhere. They will not cost you ridiculous amounts of money and above all, you’re not likely to get robbed because of them. The latter is a big and unfortunately increasing problem, if you wear a Rolex, AP, VC, PP and so forth. I am a big fan of Christopher Ward too, which ticks all the boxes except for heritage.

[xianpan]

if you want to have a mechanical watch for the first time but don't want to spend a ton, a Seiko 5 is always a good option

[iqballintang]

My dad owned some pretty cool watches but the ones that caught my eyes are his Luminor panerai and IWC. My dad just passed away and now my mom gave them to me as mementos because she knows that i love those watches. So now i've been trying my best give those watches some love by taking care of it and sometimes wear them on special occasion. So i guess this video was right. Those watches really do remind me of my dad and everytime in wear them, it makes me feel nostalgic and proud and whenever someone asks me about those watches, i always tell them that it's my dad's and i'm just safekeeping it until hopefully one day, i can give them to my future kid as well

[stevenrose]

Given the presenters difficulty with “whilst” and “Leicester”, it’s probably for the best he opted to say “JLC”

[NonPlayableCharchter]

I only have two dress watches, a very old Cartier Louis Tank which was my uncle's, and a Vacheron Fiftysix, and I believe even that is too much; I believe you can have just one very formal watch for special occasions like weddings, black tie events, etc., and wear your regular sports watches with a more casual suit attire or a business casual attire. I personally love my Grand Seiko Spring Drive GMT because I think it's the perfect watch and it goes perfect with almost everything.

[gregoryleek]

I have 4 dress watches, An Orient Bambino, Tissot Gentleman, Seiko gold square dress watch from 1982 and my most recent, a 1977 Rolex gold Datejust. All are on leather straps. Love them all.

[mokalovesoulmate]

I am no gentleman yet but I do wear Seiko Presage cocktail series. They are extremely good and I believe it fits everyone's budget

[xyzabc]

I own 2 dress watches currently -

1. Orient Bambino Gen 2 Version 2 - Cream Dial with Blue hands
2. Vintage Timex Marlin from 1968

These are the brands I can afford to buy and are within my budget. The remaining of my collection contains some watches from all the 4 Japanese Big Boys - Seiko, Citizen, Orient & Casio. I also do contain 1 or 2 fashion watches, since they have been gifted to me they carry a sentimental value more than horological value.

[Retired_Gentleman]

I have my father's Swiss made Estelle branded automatic from the early '50s and my grandfather's Swiss Geneva branded automatic from 1950(?). I also have vintage Timex Electric (mid '60s) and Bulova Accutron (early '70s) in my collection. All dress watches and all run beautifully.

[waynemarkc]

Love watches...especially Hamilton Tanks....I have watches from the 1920's through the 1960's in each decade...fun collection.

[michaelcarter]

Great video. Thank you for including the bloopers.

[joshmiller]

Good to see some more of Nathan, very confidently and naturally presented!

[nigelmcmorris]

One of the most iconic dress watches is the quite affordable Junghans Max Bill. The guidelines suggested by some purists are that a dress watch should be thin (to slide under the cuff) have one or two hands and no other clutter, have a white, silver or beige dial and be on a leather strap.

[the_ent]

More videos on dress watches please. Keep up the amazing content 🙌

[cristian-rocha]

Very interesting that Nathan hosts this episode. Valuable appraisal on the subject as well.

[marc]

I'm aiming to get a cartier tank. But while saving up, I got myself a seiko sfp606p1 with the same dimensions of the tank to really consider if I wanted to use a watch that size. Now I don't even know if I should get the cartier, I'm loving this seiko already!

[pitiedvod]

My dress watches go as follows. The oldest are my Citizen ecodrive and it’s nice solar charging and a bulova that is just so thin and lightweight. Quality watches for not that much money. I later added a Seiko Presage and my first breakout to an automatic watch and just upgraded this year to an Omega Seamaster aqua-terra with my bonus for the year. Oh how I love that watch so, but it really difficult to spend that much money in one go.

[dojocho]

I still wear lots of watches. Some where handed down to me by my men in my family. I have a Rolex from my dad..who was a corporate executive for IBM. He left ww2 as a Navy Intel officer with no money my grandmother spent it all that he sent home....He slept in a tent on the campus of Fordham University and got a MBA..and worked his way up the ladder. He was a the greatest dad a boy could have.

[morganwin]

I collect mainly 50s and 60s watches which mean my collection is primarily dress watches. I can say without a doubt my 1963 Seamaster with a date window is probably my favorite it’s meaningful as my grandparents bought there home in 1963, but it also looks great with a suit or a tee shirt just depends on the band which really sums up the one watch look that the video discussed.