Gucci Guns and Hype Watches, or How I Learned to Hate Instagram

When I started at my first real big boy job, my everyday carry gun was worth more than my car. Granted, I had a 2003 Explorer, but I paid about $2,500 for the gun I stuffed into my pants. That's kind of a lot, isn't it? Not to say there's anything wrong with paying for high quality firearms, but it was kind of ridiculous. Why did I pay that much for something I used more for flexing on Instagram than I did its actual intended purpo- oh wait. Hmmm. That's it right there, huh?

  Completely unrelated, I recently bought a Sangin Kinetic II Pilot, partly because I love pilot's watches, mainly because I had bought into the hype. I'd been scouring eBay for months, trying to nab one up before the bidding war between FOG/GBRS/tactical Timmy drip gods got into the thousands. Needless to say, I failed in that venture, so when I saw that Sangin was putting up some Kinetic IIs in mid August, I signed up for email, text alerts, smoke signals, you name it I wanted to KNOW the second those bad boys dropped.

 

  Why did I need every single email and phone number I had notified? Because the last time they dropped, Sangin sold out in about three minutes. Guess who read his "back in stock!" email four minutes after they dropped? Not this time. This time I sat, waiting, watching like a dope fiend waiting for the porch light to tell me the opium den is open for business. I was getting my fix, damn it. I had to show everyone I knew I was a drip god, too.

  Don't get me wrong. I'll drop forty bucks on a t-shirt of Skeletor drinking a Baja Blast with his NVGs on any day of the week. That's funny, that's cool, I'll buy two and a hoodie please. But what happens when drop culture extends into the hundreds of dollars, into a really wide and diverse and deep and exceptionally well covered market like watches? Are bragging rights enough justification to spend hundreds of dollars? (Twice, no less, my partner's birthday is coming up)

 

 Back to the expensive carry gun, if you'll humor me a moment. I spent $2,500 making a Glock 19 into a Han Solo blaster. Compensator, red dot, slide milling, frame modification and stippling, new trigger, magwell, Surefire light. If it was a box on the order form, I checked it. What did I get in return? A Glock 19 that had a little better grip to the frame, a mildly better trigger, and the slide was green. However, the logo and brand name on the slide was cooler than Glock. It was TEXAS shaped, and a bunch of YouTubers said it was cool! I got to flex on the nerds of Gunstagram, all the way until I went to the range and continued to shoot like ass. I spent more on the drip than I did just trying to shoot better with my other Glock, which happened to be my duty gun. Guess how that particular brand is doing now, after the supply chain nightmare and they couldn't keep a product in stock for more than twenty minutes? Safe to say my blaster and my work rifle are collector's pieces more than much else at this point.

 

 I feel about the same about my Sangin. What did I get for my money? Sapphire crystal, Ronda quartz GMT movement, 300 meters water resistance. All great things, no complaints there. Is the dial/bezel alignment off just enough that I think about it when I look at it for more than two seconds? Yeah, I think so, but I'm not heartbroken over it. For what you pay for the thing, one would expect such an issue wouldn't have made it past QC, but that's neither here nor there. I enjoy it, but scarcity doesn't make something great. I'm sure it's a robust timepiece, but I get the same job done with a Citizen Nighthawk, GMT function and all, for less than a third of the price. We won't talk about the slide rule bezel, because 1) that's just too much functionality for the Sangin to keep up with and 2) I still don't know how to use it. 

  The Sangin looks cool, I like it, but did I really have to pay so much for something just to get Internet points? I'm very glad I bought the Pilot, it's easily their most interesting dial, but I could have bought three new Nighthawks. I would have worn them all at one time, because the Nighthawk is awesome. 

 Dan from @noon.atyoursix