Watch Ambassador Hate
One of my favorite parts about perusing watch enthusiast IG is reading the comments section of a post. It doesn't matter the "type" of the post; photo, reel, etc., the opining is abundant. Lately, I have run across Veterans and Active Duty watch enthusiasts who specifically go out of their way to announce that ambassadors have no bearing on their feelings about a specific watch brand. I find this a believable sentiment, if not slightly erroneous, and I will explain why.
Upon returning home from boot camp, I immediately noticed a difference between my high school friends and myself. My friends and I even had an open and honest discussion about the differences, which, looking back, was a pretty mature thing at the time. I no longer saw myself in what my friends were into and vice versa. It is a natural change and one I see in the interaction between military watch enthusiasts and our civilian counterparts. While these lines are sometimes obscure, it is essential to remember that the disdain of watch brand ambassadors is not uniquely a mil/vet topic but one that has been floated around for quite a while.
Credit: Thomas Van Straaten via Fratello
However, the blame for this gap cannot be entirely on the brands. The primary goal of most watch brands is to move as many units as possible and to do so, a broad appeal is required. Look at the stables of some of the most iconic brands: Tag Huer, Casio, Hublot, and Jaeger-LeCoultre. Watch media is getting in on the act and letting you know via list formats as well. These are several examples of watch brand ambassadors, but they hardly scratch the surface of who promotes watch-related brands.
A simple search of "wristwatch brand ambassadors" returns over 4 million search results in Google's "news" tab. While a number like that can be whittled down, it shows that the watch enthusiast space is less niche than we think. Maybe my fellow military watch enthusiasts are turned off by brand ambassadors that are famous for being famous. I offer brand ambassadors like Zodiac Watches' Andy Mann and Bremont's Jason Fox for those who fall into that camp. Here you have two individuals who have earned their celebrity through deeds.
Credit: Zodiac Watches
Simply put, none of us military watch enthusiasts should say we dislike ALL watch ambassadors because there are too many. If we look hard enough, we might begrudgingly admit we see ourselves in some of them. I know I do.
