Quote Originally Posted by Lantenac06 View Post
This seems to me the right perspective to have. Life is too short to worry about how your watch brand is perceived or if people you might not like on Instagram also own your watch. I don't know that being concerned about such things is necessarily any better than buying a watch specifically because of how it will be perceived by others. In either case, what's lost is that a watch should be purchased and retained for its own sake, how it makes you feel, and, over the years, for the memories it evokes.

My current daily wearer is a Black Bay 58, which I love for its own sake and wear with pride for that reason. The fact that it's not a submariner or the relationship between Tudor and Rolex doesn't mean much to me. I just like the watch. I have a couple of Rolexes and feel the same about them. I might not like the hoops one has to jump through to buy a new Rolex these days, or the fact that for some people a Rolex is no doubt largely about showing off the brand name. But these things don't however change that Rolex makes some great watches, and I love mine.

I think it's a fairer point that one might prefer to be low key and dislike the 'flashiness' of the Rolex brand. Yet I don't think this is a recent thing, regardless of Instagram. Rolex has been sufficiently known and idolized as the layman's grail watch as far back as I can remember.
Good post; I too now use the BB58 every day; it's a great watch and suits my needs very well. It's still and expensive watch but relatively modest.

When I grew up Rolex was the watch worn by heros; now it is a brand worn by celebrities and wannabees ... well that's my perception of how the brand has changed over the years ... All those adverts in NG set the tone for the brand for me as a kid ...

These are the ads that evoked my thoughts of the brand worn by heros; the one showing Rodney Patterson sailing in an FD was on my bedroom wall.