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Before you worry, Andrew McCutchen did not leave us for WatchPro. But sometimes you can find his byline there. In his latest column, Andrew delves into his hugely successful ‘Dude With Sign’ style campaign. The campaign features Andrew holding up billboards in various locations around the UK with watch topics and witty watch-related quotes. But there is one in particular that makes some watch enthusiasts uncomfortable.
For example, previous signs read things like “Don’t call me Tudor Rolex’s little brother” and “It’s okay to like big watches.” But, as Andrew shared on WatchPro, the sign that made his followers salty the most was: “No, I’ve never dived with a diver’s watch. Neither have you.”
Andrew said, “The post exploded like a scuba diver’s tank exploded in a bonfire.” The campaign had the subtle but main aim of raising awareness of the soon-to-open new Watch Discovery Studio in London’s Oxford Circus, and has since garnered more than 1 million views and 18,000 comments. It received 460 likes and 460 comments.
In some ways, it is quite surprising that a significant number of viewers ultimately took issue with the derogatory language surrounding diver’s watches and the fact that they do not go far below the surface of the ocean. But then again, niche geeks are expected to race to the comments section to defend what they believe.
“In nearly a decade of gently agitating on various topics in the watch industry, I have never experienced such a wave of hurt feelings and renewed disgust as the day I dared to speak out. I was so frustrated that I wanted to whisper this: ‘In my experience, people who wear diver’s watches generally aren’t actually diving,’ Andrew wrote in his column.
There has always been an element of romanticism in watch collecting, and the motivation for purchasing a watch is often not based on reality, but romantic imagination. The same is known to be the case with diver’s watches, with the commonly used term “desk diver” poking fun at the fact that most diver’s watches are only submerged in desk drawers and not in deep water. However, as hostile commenters have made clear, this does not mean that the Zero Diver’s Watch will be used for its true purpose.
“Most of the responses are, ‘Actually…'” Andrew explains. “Many people have detailed various dives they have completed while wearing diver’s watches. Several have even tagged me in their dive logs with wrist shots. Even now, in some way or another, I have watched my watch underwater. It is mentioned in a post that does.
This whole campaign is aimed at getting laughs and generating conversation, and we certainly don’t believe anyone would try to cancel Andrew or Time+Tide because of crimes against divers and diver watches. That said, Andrew takes the time in his column to consider why some collectors are so passionate about defending dive watches that are used for a genuine purpose. I am. Therefore, we highly recommend reading the full article here.
