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Published on 06/02/1999 All articles from this issue

A Side of Clyde

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By Clyde Noel

Is the watch on your wrist ready for Y2K?

Expensive men's watches are in, and the timing is right on. Rolex, Patek, Cartier, Vacheron, Audemars, Breguet, and other high-grade expensive watches look good on wrists.

Everybody is talking about Y2K because we're ticking down toward the millennium and we want to look nice when the zeroes turn over. What better way than wearing an expensive watch to tell when the minute in question arrives.

I asked Pamela Smith, manager of Gleim Jewelers if people were buying watches for graduation gifts. She said a mother just bought her son a Rolex. That's time well spent.

High-end watches are glittering past the usual schmo-wear that most of us strap on our wrists. Men's magazines are bulging with ads for expensive timepieces and the trendy Neiman Marcus catalog featured more than 20 pages of expensive watches a couple of months ago.

The timing is right. The failing yen has caused Swiss watch companies to market more products the United States. The concentrated advertising and huge mall inventories push men to accessorize their bodies instead of looking toward Jaguars and Porsches.

Some 257 million watches were imported in 1997, up 13 percent from the year before, according to the Department of Commerce. Almost all watches sold in American are imported. Just two percent come from Switzerland, which enjoys the largest share of the total dollar value of imported watches ($800 million wholesale).

You put all those Swiss watches together and they couldn't hold a tick next to the sales of Seiko, which makes the cheaper, quartz movement watches from Japan. And consider Timex, which also makes millions.

Let's face it, there is a male ego problem here. Men have watched with envy as women adorn themselves with expensive accessories while the men make do with just a cheap wedding ring and a functional watch. Now when you walk in a jewelry store, you will see a large inventory of fancy wrist candy to help you eloquently express yourself.

I spoke with a representative in Tiffany's in Stanford Shopping Center recently. He said men are dressing up more and a great-looking watch is the perfect accessory. Men now wear different watches for work, weekends, sports, and formal wear.

"Watches," he said. "have everything to do with first impressions and style. They define someone's image in much the way a Porsche tells something about the driver. Some men won't buy a watch unless someone else in the country club, boardroom or office can see it and know what it is."

Getting back to watches as graduation gifts, I fell into that class years ago when I received a large Hamilton pocket watch on a cord. I had to wear it in the fob pocket of my pants. Whenever I wanted to check the time, I had to find the string and pull out my Hamilton.

For that graduation gift, buy your graduate an expensive watch. It sounds timely to me.

Clyde Noel is a longtime contributor to the Town Crier.