We all love new things. There’s something undeniably satisfying about unboxing, peeling off the protective film, and admiring the pristine perfection of something fresh. It’s natural to want to preserve that feeling forever.
What Hodinkee and most watch journalists miss in their “Week on the Wrist” videos is the reality of your actual first week with a new watch. For most of us, it’s a week of hyper-vigilance—tucking our wrists deep into sweatshirt sleeves to shield against countertop corners, removing our watch every time we do the dishes, swapping it for an old beater before a night out, just in case shots of Cîroc turn into unintentional wrist abuse.
And sure, we get it. That first scratch hurts—like watching your car get its first door ding or your favorite white sneakers take their first scuff. It feels like you’ve ruined something perfect. But here’s the thing: perfect is overrated.
You might think, as the creators of a scratch-prevention product, that we at 19th& would take a strict “anti-scratch” stance. Quite the opposite, my friends. I’m here to tell you: wear your watches, and yes, scratch them.
A watch without scratches is like the Mona Lisa’s eyebrows—something’s missing. A pristine case might be pretty, but it’s also empty, a hollow shell waiting to be filled with stories. The best scratches are the ones with meaning.
No one wants the soulless desk-diving scratches from hours of typing, the shallow, repetitive scuffs from resting against a laptop trackpad. But a scratch from evading a billy goat on a mountain? From doing the worm in a dance-off? From parasailing with a dolphin? Now, those are worth it.
Your watch is meant to be lived in, just like your favorite leather boots that mold to your feet, just like a well-worn baseball glove, just like the creases in your sneakers that tell the story of where you’ve been.
So go ahead—earn your scratches. Just don’t accept them by default.
And for everything else, there’s WatchPads.