Watch Spotting is More Fun than Facebook

A Rolex Datejust spotted on the Tokyo subway

Get your eyes up and away from your phone.

Do you think that you’re the only person wearing a Breitling, A. Lange and Sohne, Panerai, or Frédérique Constant? Yes, you actually are the only one who’s wearing a great watch...but only if you don’t look around.

Let’s twist the famous philosophical question, “If a tree falls in a forest and there’s nobody around to hear, does that tree make a sound?” With watches the question is, “If somebody is wearing a luxury watch and nobody notices, does that watch exist?”

The answer is: You cause watches to exist by spotting them.

There are lots of interesting watches on random people’s wrists, and it’s lots of fun to find them. Remember playing Licence Plate when you were a kid, that game where you try to spot licence plates from different states as your parents drive from restroom to restroom on the Interstate? Watch spotting is the adult, watch collector’s version of License Plate.

Some watches are easy to spot, like Mondaine Railway Watches, with their distinctive second hand.

A subway riding Mondaine.

Others, such as Rolexes, are harder. Not because Rolex doesn’t have a distinctive look. With its classic faces, cyclops date lens, and iconic crown logo, Rolex certainly does. But so many watch companies have copied Rolex’s looks that without getting close, it’s hard to know if it’s a Rolex or not.

I’ve found Panerais easy to spot, but Breitling and Longines have a similar enough looking logo that it’s sometimes hard to tell which is which on a shaking subway. As you watchspot more, you’ll discover which brands of watches are easy and which are hard to spot.

You might also keep your eyes out for somebody who’s trying to spot your watch. It’s probably already happened without your knowing it.

Start watch spotting. Your train trip will be a lot more fun and seem a lot shorter.