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A
leading watch magazine, which shall remain nameless, asked the
following question: “Watchmaking shares the belief with the car
industry that mechanics is primarily a male domain, women having
little understanding of the world of oil, gears, power,
transmissions, exhaust, and all the rest. Is this myth or
reality?”.
An interesting
question, but somewhat anachronistic in an age when women work side
by side with their male colleagues in most technical sectors, from
watchmaking to space exploration.
Nevertheless, the journalist
does not leave the question unanswered, but arrives at the following
conclusion “…While opinions vary, one conviction clearly emerges:
complicated mechanics are a male domain”. How reassuring! Everything
is as it should be! “God’s in his heaven – All’s right with the
world!” And the conclusion, based on sound syllogistic reasoning, is
per fectly clear too: complicated mechanics drive complicated
watches, complicated watches are a male domain, therefore
complicated mechanics are truly a male domain!
In actual
fact, our writer is not so wrong, it is just that his conclusion
errs on the side of simplification. A watch, particularly a
complicated one, is the only jewellery men allow themselves to wear
today, and it is very important to them! |
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Also, there are far more men than women
interested in complicated mechanics. But why should technology,
particularly watch technology, be the prerogative of men? And is
there any evidence that women are born without the capacity to
understand this culture?
To answer these questions, we have to go
back to our childhood and look at the influence of our
family
environment and background, those
early years at school which helped determine our choice of
profession, personal tastes that developed through contact with
people and places, and so on.
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Lady Chronograph, 2004 model
Lady Vintage1945 "Souveraine", 2004 model
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Once we have done so, it doesn’t take
long to realise that, when we are talking about the watch culture,
we are talking about knowledge and know-how which has been passed
down. Until quite recently, everything was still more or less
“programmed” to initiate boys into the world of technology, or at
least to encourage them to be interested in it.
Nowadays, the
two sexes are pretty well assimilated in every area of society, with
women taking an interest in technical matters if they want to, and
men no longer feeling obliged to. Pre-war stereotyping is a thing of
the past. Another remarkable sociological trend is
that the professional lives of career women are modelled on those of
men. Working alongside their male colleagues on an increasingly
equal
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footing, women discover that the rules in the
work place are those laid down by a predominantly male management.
To these they add a feminine touch, while taking on board some of
the men’s attitudes and codes of behaviour.
A watch is one of the
best examples. Women are now showing an interest in fine, mechanical
watches, while others, admittedly a small minority still, are
starting to dream of grand complications, perhaps even the equation
of time.
It is possible that, with their growing purchasing
power, women will start
buying the watches they want, maybe even
one or more models currently in fashion.
Or, in a display of both
passion and knowledge, they might wish – just as men do – to acquire
a watch that combines timeless beauty and the very highest technical
quality, one that possesses real added value, what financiers call a
“safe investment”, or is simply an external sign that one belongs to
an exclusive cultural club. While it is perfectly true that women
have not yet had the opportunity to become initiated into the watch
culture, anyone who imagines that this state of affairs will last is
dreaming.
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Lady Richeville, brand new 2004 model
more informations about this model
Lady Vintage1945 mid-size, new 2004 model
Ladies making Gent's dreams... |
Gent's watches make Ladies dream... |
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- Text and pictures by Nadia Gherbi and Girard-Perregaux
- additional pictures by PeterCDE
- for Peter Conrad and ThePuristS.com
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