My New Terrorist Watch
Wednesday, 19 December 2012I’m old enough to still like having a watch on my wrist, although I do look at my phone when I want to know what time it is somewhere else. Is the UK 9 hours behind or 11?
Earlier this year I dropped in to the watch museum at Glasshütte in the once-upon-a-time East Germany and looked at the story of the local watch business. At the end of WW II the Russians seized the town’s entire watch-making equipment and shipped it all off home. The hard-working watchmakers of Glasshütte had to start all over again. Then they had to handle the switch from mechanical to digital watches and the upheaval when the wall came down and they had to compete with the west. Which they do very well by manufacturing very expensive watches.
Back in London I paid a visit to a fancy watch shop on Bond St in Mayfair and enjoyed a brief lesson on watch categories. Expensive watch categories that is, not Swatch or Casio watches. Mass market expensive? Rolex make a million watches a year. Exclusive expensive? Patek Philippe make 45,000. And the Glasshütte manufacturers? ‘Very exclusive,’ Lange & Sohne, one of the Glasshütte watchmakers, turns out 4500 a year. And what do they cost? They start at around £11,000 (say US$18,000) and go up to ‘whatever you want.’
Last week I read an article by Stephen Bayley in the British magazine Prospect, which noted how each classy men’s brand follows some meme – wear a TAG-Heuer and you’re racing cars with Steve McQueen. A Ulysse Nardin and you’re crossing oceans in a yacht. Omega if you’re an astronaut. Breitling for ‘aeronautic-porn’ as Mr Bayley puts it. And Casio if you’re a terrorist.
That’s right US security identifies the Casio F-91W digital watch, scarcely changed since it was launched in 1991, as the watch of choice of the world’s terrorists. In fact wearing a F-91W immediately makes you a person of suspicion, after all Osama bin Laden wore one. Presumably if you drive a Toyota Hilux as well, all it needs is a couple of suspicious stamps in your passport and you’re on your way to Guantánamo Bay.
Although, the article noted, it’s no trick to spend €250,000 on a fancy watch you can pick up the terrorist favourite for less than US$20. Clearly I had to have one and it cost me A$17.95 plus A$7.95 delivery. My other watches? Well there’s nothing expensive, no Rolexes in my collection! A number of T-shirt watches, ie giveaway watches with some sort of message on them. A TAG-Heuer coming up for its 20th birthday which cost me US$750 all those years ago. A Mondaine ‘Swiss Railway Watch’ (US$730), a Braun (US$300), a Danish Design Martin Larsen (US$240) and a weird Japanese art watch – a ‘Chaotic’ from the Nuts Collection with the numbers all jumbled up – and they rotate.
Although, the article noted, it’s no trick to spend €250,000 on a fancy watch you can pick up the terrorist favourite for less than US$20. Clearly I had to have one and it cost me A$17.95 plus A$7.95 delivery. My other watches? Well there’s nothing expensive, no Rolexes in my collection! A number of T-shirt watches, ie giveaway watches with some sort of message on them. A TAG-Heuer coming up for its 20th birthday which cost me US$750 all those years ago. A Mondaine ‘Swiss Railway Watch’ (US$730), a Braun (US$300), a Danish Design Martin Larsen (US$240) and a weird Japanese art watch – a ‘Chaotic’ from the Nuts Collection with the numbers all jumbled up – and they rotate.
