For those of us old enough to remember: yes, we did use to wear clocks, formally known as wristwatches strapped around our, well, wrists. And boy, it seems like that was centuries ago, does it not? For those younger that have no idea of just what it is that I’m am referring to, let me tell you this: the smartphone really did rob you of a stylish experience.
Why? Well, because wristwatches used to be and, to be quite honest, are still very awesome. You just got to know which one to choose. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Or maybe not. If you landed on Megalith’s site, then, chances are, you are well on your way to rediscover wristwatches. If that is indeed the case, let me tell you right now: the designed watch is king among all watches.
What is a wristwatch?
If you have been anywhere around the internet as of this last couple of years, you definitively are familiar with the apple watch. Its liquid crystal display face can surely display much more than just the time, can’t it?
Well, back in the day, a watch you wore on your wrist should technically have to do one thing and one thing only: give you the time of day. And, friend, it better did that right because, again, back in the day, there was no apple watch, no smartphone with an alarm ready to go off.
The wristwatch itself came to be as a product of the industrial revolution. Also, it became a quintessential need for people that lived during that time, afterward, and until very recently even. See, once upon a time, we were not all agglomerating in cities in order to go to work to make money in order to live. When we lived and worked inside smaller, close-knitted communities, we had little necessity to keep precise track of time.
Why Keep Track of Time Anyway?
Why would we? Did we had to catch a bus to be somewhere on time every day? Did someone far away dictate how we would spend our days? Were there some people holding a pen and paper in hand keeping score of when we arrived and left someplace?
Chances are some, if not most, of your ancestors a couple of generations ago concerned themselves with agriculture. If not, with the trade of goods. If not, with a craft that they likely trained locally or traveled to learn and stayed for a long while until they mastered.
The point being: most people were not overly concerned with showing up at the office that much, if at all. They used to set their own schedule, deciding themselves which part of their day went into their profession. Professions that likely resembled self-employment more than your dearly regular 9 to 5 of today.
Industrial society changed that. Now, we had factories that needed manning in order for them to produce more goods than one craftsman could ever produce on their own.
Mass Employment to Mass Production to Watches to Designed Watches.
As the industrial revolution gave way to both mass employment for the production of goods, it also gave way to the mass consumption of those goods. Thus, it gave birth to the 9 to 5, which, to be honest, was more like a 7 to 9 or even later at night. Labor unions like today’s were still not a thing nor workers’ rights, so exploitation and long work hours were very common for a while. Do you know what also became common? Needing people to be on time for both the start of work and signing off by the end of the day.
Not only on the bosses’ behalf but also for the workers themselves. They needed a way to be able to know what time of the day it was in order to be on time for the start of their shift! Thus, a clever entrepreneurial mind quickly realized that one of the goods that would need mass production was watches. Wristwatches, more specifically.
Also, as people became able to afford and purchase things, an underlying and ever-present human craving also arose in the commercial space:
The desire for nice things.
See, if you were one of the first owners of a wristwatch, you definitively thought yourself special. That little feeling of having just a bit of a leg up on your peers is nice. But, as the market demanded, now everyone had to have a wristwatch. And if anyone has one, then there’s nothing special in owning one now!
Thankfully to the ever-present escalating development of more refined and luxurious things, you could still feel ‘special’ in a different way:
By owning one of the better watches, a designed watch.
The Rise of The Designed Watch
Let’s get it out of the way, a designed watch; it’s still a watch. Its main function will still be to tell you the time of day as any other run-of-the-mill watch would! Yet, it will do so with style.
A designed watch is, overall, a piece of craftsmanship in which a painstaking amount of attention to detail and effort went into assembling it. All in order to create a better watch to suit more refined tastes.
Instead of wearing the same as everyone else, you can now make a statement to anyone looking at your wrist that you have a taste for the better things in life.
The reason behind the rise of the designed watch is very simple: we are hardwired to aspire for more and look for the best. Thus, if you were to wear a watch, why not use one that suits your taste in order to showcase your style for all to see.
Is A Designed Watch Masculine?
Yes. That would be the immediate answer, and it would only take you one look into the classic ad for watches and photos of celebrities to confirm that.
The ‘designed’ label often invokes the things of designer clothing, which some people perceive as luxuries. But it is precisely because they are luxurious that they are more exclusive than wearing them becomes a statement.
Beloved movie stars and businessmen both of today and yesterday wore a designed watch often when out in public. These were titans dominating their fields, something that some would have a hard time arguing it’s not ‘masculine.’
As for us at Megalith, we think that the opportunity to wear a great designed watch should not be limited to the fabulously rich alone.
This is why we’ve developed a designed watch brand that looks forward to offering you a high level of craftsmanship at an affordable price. Thus, allowing you to state your taste to anyone looking at your wrist. Have a look at our carefully curated selection of the most exquisitely crafted designed watches for the urban men of today. All of that style at an affordable price as well.