BC Business
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The advent of the cellphone and BlackBerry may have rendered obsolete the functionality of the wristwatch, but its pull as a powerful status symbol has not diminished in the least.
The advent of the cellphone and BlackBerry may have rendered obsolete the functionality of the wristwatch, but its pull as a powerful status symbol has not diminished in the least. Along with the wedding ring, the wristwatch is today the only universally acceptable piece of male jewelry – but it wasn’t always so. Less than a century ago, the pocketwatch was king, while “wristlets” (considered a passing fad) were the exclusive province of fashionable women. However, after this new hands-free technology was credited – along with the machine gun – with leading the British to victory in the Boer War, the wristwatch made the leap from battlefield to boardroom, as captains of industry embraced the manly new accessory.
TOP ROW (left to right)
1. Concord Delirium La Nuit, $17,890, birks.com
2. Birks Signature with diamond bezel, $10,950, birks.com
3. Vancouver’s St. Moritz Watch Corp.’s Stella Maris, $395, st-moritz.com
4. Tiffany T57, $10,300, tiffany.ca
5. Tiffany Grand small, rectangle, $3,350, tiffany.ca
6. Vintage Alfex multi-chrono, $395, Otto Friedl, Hotel Vancouver, 900 W. Georgia St., 604-683-2820
7. St. Moritz Valjoux, $1,295, st-moritz.com
BOTTOM ROW (left to right)
1. Tiffany Atlas small square, $3,800, tiffany.ca
2. St. Moritz Lugano, $995, st-moritz.com
3. Gucci Twirl, $795, birks.com
4. Vacheron Constantin Contemporary Patrimony, $35,600, palladiocanada.com
5. Philip Stein diamond Teslar, $2,605, holtrenfrew.com
6. Omega Vanoc 2010 Limited Edition Seamaster, $4,500, birks.com
7. Girard-Perregaux Cat’s Eye, $31,990, palladiocanada.com