The “Dude With Sign” Instagram post that surprisingly offended #watchfam…
Zach BlassBefore anyone worries, no, Andrew McUtchen has not left us for WatchPro. But, every now and again, you can find his byline there. In his latest column, Andrew digs into our very successful “Dude With Sign” style campaign – where Andrew, in various UK locations, holds up a sign with a horological hot take or witty watch-related one-liner. One in particular, however, set some watch enthusiasts off.
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For example, previous signs have had verbiage such as, “Stop calling Tudor Rolex’s little brother” or “It’s ok to still like big watches”. But as Andrew shared on WatchPro, the sign that got followers the most salty was, “No, I’ve never dived in a dive watch and neither have you”.
As Andrew put it, “Like a scuba diver’s tank in a bonfire, the post exploded.” The campaign, which had the subtle yet main purpose of bringing awareness to our new Watch Discovery Studio in Oxford Circus, London which will open its doors soon, has since amassed over 1M views, 18,000 likes, and 460 comments.
It is in some ways very surprising that it was the language that poked fun at dive watches, and the reality that most never dip far beyond the surface of the ocean, that a sizeable contingent of viewers ultimately took issue with. Then again, any nerds of a niche can be expected to race to the comment section in defence of what they believe in.
“In nearly a decade of gentle agitation on various subjects in the watch space, I have never experienced a wave of hurt feelings and freshly minted haters quite like the day I dared to allege that, and I feel like whispering this, so chastened was I by this experience, people who wear dive watches, by and large, don’t actually dive,” Andrew wrote in his column.
Watch collecting has always had an element of romanticism, with motivators that drive purchase decisions for watches often romantic imagination rather than being based in reality. Such is known to be the case with dive watches as the commonly used term ‘desk diver’ pokes fun at the fact that most dive watches only submerge themselves in desk drawers rather than the depths of the ocean. But as the antagonised commenters revealed, this does not mean zero dive watches are used for their true purpose.
“’Actually…’ most of the retorts begin,” Andrew explains. “Many went on to detail the various dives that have been completed with dive watches on. Several tagged me in diving logs, with a wrist shot. To this day, I am mentioned in posts with watches underwater in some form or another”.
This whole campaign was meant to incite laughter and generate conversation, and by no means do we actually think anyone is out to cancel Andrew or Time+Tide for crimes against divers and dive watches. That being said, in his column, Andrew takes the time to reflect on why such a segment of collectors were so passionate in their defence of dive watches being used for their true purpose. So, we highly encourage you to read the full story here.