Horological Meandering

KMII
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Corporate / industry watch culture

Regularly reading the forum has made me perhaps somewhat more observant of what is going on around me watch wise. And as quite some of us - myself definitely included - spend a good portion of our time at work, this has become the prime hunting ground in the watch watching game.

As elsewhere, I suppose in the arena of watches there are industry as well as company peculiarities that all affect what is acceptable, laudable or a complete no-go.

I work in the automotive industry, for one of the large, globally active tier one suppliers. In the meantime it would be fair to say that if your vehicle is under five years old, the chances are between slim and remote that it does not have at least some component manufactured by my employer. There are two parts of the business, one focused primarily on OE (original equipment, i.e. what goes into or onto a new car) and one on replacement (i.e. wear and tear parts that get replaced during the maintenance cycle) and both exhibit relatively different watch cultures.

The OE side is somewhat simpler to describe, so I will start there first. The majority of the senior staff - the watch aspiring class, if you wish - are engineers of some sort and the choice almost always boils down to Rolex. Generally it is GMT Masters and Submariners, and I have yet to see a single Cellini on a wrist anywhere in our company. The few finance guys in that part of the business who have gotten all the way to the top usually have the same brand preference but tend more towards precious metals, so you will see more Day Dates there.

The replacement side is more interesting, as the type of customer differs, meaning that there is at the same time both more of a need for signalling (or keeping up with the Joneses) and more need for restraint (i.e. making sure the customer does not think you are fleecing them). What you get when dealing with what are often owner operated businesses.

Here the primary differentiator is between HQ and markets, where one is expected to be subdued at HQ and a bit more flamboyant in the markets. At HQ, the mantra is to most certainly not flaunt it. So the majority of watches you will see will come from a very narrow selection. Tag Heuer (Grand) Carrera is a golden standard (not a Monaco in sight), Omega Seamasters and Planet Oceans another one. And while many will have a Moon Watch at home, these are almost never worn to the office, for some inexplicable reason. Lately, there has been an explosions of Nomos watches of various kinds, which should probably not surprise, given, where the company is from. There is only one individual daring to wear a Rolex here, and that is the head of finance

The markets are different. Here again you get the flashier type of watch, with Breitling and Rolex vying for supremacy, the odd gold accents being very much in vogue. In one daughter company the sales team wore Rolexes ranked according to seniority - a Daytona for the sales director, going down via Submariners and to GMT Masters for the lower levels.

And then we have our Swiss colleagues. As they generally have no HQ ambitions they tend to enjoy their watches just as they like them, and they do that a lot

Wondering how that differs where you work...
This message has been edited by Dr No on 2015-04-27 11:04:46 This message has been edited by ThomasM on 2015-05-05 10:27:58