Senate I Want to Believe-The Senate's Social Thread and Secret Society Roundtable

Very nice, Vivec.

Bulova is owned by Citizen, right? (Omega's parent is Swatch, for example).

You use your phone for the time?

I usually wear shirts from either Herringbone (the Australian brand, not the weave) or Thomas Pink. My ties are usually Hardy Aimes, Herringbone, Polo Ralph Lauren or Rhodes & Beckett - I wouldn't spend more than $200 on one.

Go Megadeth!

Yeah it is, Ender.

You can see some of the mechanical workings from the back of the watch, which is really cool for physics nut like myself.

LoH I still love that you wear 'deth t-shirts to work on Fridays. Our in-house legal wear jeans, shirt and tie, boots and a vest. Ugh. I occasionally wear a Red Bull or McLaren team shirt on Fridays but a metal shirt? Not brave enough!

Vivec - as a physics nut, why aren't you into Formula 1?

Also: http://www.omegawatches.com/gents/speedmaster/moonwatch-co-axial-chronograph/31130445001002

Geek out

I would never wear a gold watch, or a gold/diamond encrusted type one. I think what I have though looks good with casual or dressed up attire.

Ahem...

Sure it looks nice, but at the end of the day it does what any cheap watch can do. Certain status symbols/luxury items I understand (cars for example), but a watch (clothes too)? Meh.

I haven't worn a watch in a decade. My phone tells time and even keeps track of what time zone I'm in, so I don't have to, which is good, because it can get confusing.

I ditched wearing a watch when I got my first cell phone (January of 2006)... haven't missed it at all.

I used to have a Seiko Kinetic that I loved, but I sadly lost it a long time ago. That is, I left it somewhere and when I remembered and went back, it was gone.

This is the one. Maybe he is the bastard who found it.

Then I bought a Citizen Eco Drive. It runs on light, which is neat. And that's this one.

I bought a Swatch watch a couple of years ago because I wanted a pretty watch to wear to parties. One day, on the way to the lab at the hospital, I tripped on a piece of plywood, (Yes it had pretty orange cones around it, but I misjudged the distance) and broke the watch. Tried to get it fixed, but it was too expensive. $75 to get it fixed, it only cost $80.

So, I got my sport watch fixed and I wear it all the time. I hate using my cell phone to tell time. I never get confused about which time zone I'm in. Or what day it is. My sport watch kinda looks like a guy's watch, but it's a Timex and it keeps on ticking. It's shock-proof and water resistant and it's five or more years old.

My son got a fancy diver's watch, even tho he's not a scuba diver.

I don't wear clothes or shoes or watches that are status symbols. Just not who I am.

OK, but... there's a certain "pride in your appearance" factor which kicks in here. Nice doesn't always equal expensive, mind you (UK brand Ben Sherman make some really nice clothes but they're hardly elite). There's a guy at my work who clearly wants to create the impression he's come from money, but he hasn't. So he wears the biggest TAG Carrera he can find, and dresses like he's in a Polo catalogue. Thumb through the online Ralph Lauren catalogue and you'll see what I mean - it looks fake. Nobody dresses that way; the models (who can easily be confused with mannequins on many levels ) are wearing these clothes to showcase the range.

So, to be clear, are we talking about brands for brands sake, or simply nice, sophisticated looking ensembles?

Ever since I got a cell phone over a decade ago I never needed to sport a watch of any sort.

Ugh.

It's so bland and derivative. Not that combat boots and cargo pants and a torn Darkthrone t-shirt isn't either, but you can dress well without looking like a blithering idiot.

This is the social thread. I can dress nicely without buying expensive clothes. In America, we don't have people who can tell if you've had your umbrella rolled by a machine or if you rolled it up yourself, like they do in certain other countries.

I haven't been a fashionista since I read "The Agony and the Ecstasy" by Irving Wallace. An interesting comment was supposedly made by Michelangelo about the fashions of his day: "If it were the height of fashion to go around naked in public with your butt painted purple while walking on your hands, would you do it?"

I have to say, it's disappointing how many adult males cannot tie a tie properly. There is only one way; a windsor knot. Half-windsors are passable with certain fabric types but the schoolboy knot of a few loops around then over? Not done.

Calling @GrandAdmiraIJello..!

Don't get me started on ties, Ender. As for the watches, it's always been a bit bizarre to me that some people use it as a status symbol (Rolex comes to mind), when it's there for a very simple, practical purpose. $10-30 would be my range in terms of an acceptable price to spend on a watch.

Start on ties, Tunes! STARRRRRRRT!

As much as I hate wearing a tie I have to agree that if you are going to wear one it has to be a windsor knot. A medium sized knot looks best, not too small (or you look like a schoolboy or used car salesman) and not too big or you will look like one of those clowns on the footy show.

I'm 43 years old, so I grew up in the 80s with big hair, spray on jeans, hi-top basketball shoes (Converse), leather jacket /sometimes with denim cut-off over the top with Motorhead patch and Iron Maiden T-shirt. That's what I know and I find it hard to move on. At Uni, I had a nose ring and long hair. I had to cut my hair short a couple of years before I finished so I could get a job.

I was simply never made for lawyering life.

I'll bet ten usd that he rocks a clip-on.

Apart from not caring about the status of wearing specific brands, I frankly find the Swiss made watches to typically be bland looking. Actually, I find that high end brands in general are much slower to change their designs, whether it be watches, cars or whatever. I guess to keep the instant subconscious connotation to prestige alive, they gotta keep some signature design cues intact forever, lest the consumers forget that the purchase of said item instantly increases one's value as an asset to the human species. Also, tradition.

I just watched about an hour's worth of Mona Lisa Smile starring Julia Roberts. It gives a very good look at the social mores of the early 50's in America. What the fictional Rose Dawson lamented in Titanic is again presented this film. The upper classes are very stuffy, to say the least.