Jun 2, 2025
Watch Propaganda I’m Not Falling For
If you’ve opened Instagram or TikTok in the last few weeks, there’s a very good chance you’ve seen the “Propaganda I’m Not Falling For” trend served up to you in one way or another. The format is relatively straightforward, and involves a creator listing the sacred cows in his or her particular area of expertise that they refuse to buy into. The watch community, of course, is filled with conventional wisdom, ideas passed from collector to collector, rarely if ever questioned. As I encountered these social media clips over the last week, I couldn’t help but think of the watch world propaganda, as it were, that we all just seem to take at face value. Here, then, are four principles I think are ripe for questioning. There are a lot more – credit here to Ben’s Watches and Pulse on the Wrist for being first out of the gate among watch industry personalities to participate. Be sure to let us know in the comments what watch related propaganda you refuse to accept. A Vintage Watch Must Be Unpolished and All Original Let’s get the most controversial one out of the way first. When I started collecting watches, it was an era when it was still relatively easy and straightforward to buy a nice, honest vintage watch on eBay for not a lot of money. Times have changed. The best examples, watches that are truly unpolished and all original, are harder and harder to find, and eBay is filled with watches that have been passed around and sold by pro dealers and amat...