Editor’s Note: Wasson Watch Company is presently offering $150 discounts for preorder.
Wasson Watch Company, a distinctively Christian small business known for their bold stances on cultural issues and guerilla social media strategy, unexpectedly provoked change at Hamilton Watch, a much larger competitor, through a viral social media post.
The small business made a post last week to criticize a picture from Hamilton Watch on the Jared Jewelers website in which two men are posed homoerotically with one of them wearing a watch. The official social media account for Wasson Watch Company reacted that “I guess you just have to ask yourself, what kind of messaging am I sending when I wear this watch?”
The post from Wasson Watch Company quickly earned over 200,000 views and more than 3,000 likes, as well as several hundred comments from users expressing their revulsion toward Hamilton Watch and their newfound commitment to avoid buying another one of their products.
Wasson Watch Company noted days later that the homoerotic picture had been removed from the Jared Jewelers website and replaced with a significantly more neutral image of a man wearing a watch. The small business suggested that followers ask Hamilton Watch and Jared Jewelers to describe “why they decided to advertise with images of gay dudes in the first place.”
Paul Brown, the founder of Wasson Watch Company, reflected on the situation in comments to The Sentinel, observing that “Christians can use their voice to influence the world around them.”
"Here’s this once-great American watch company that is now owned by the Swiss, and they are using their platform to promote homosexuality, rather than something good,” Brown said. “It was revolting, and I couldn’t sit idly by. Usually I don’t like to talk bad about my competitors, but this was different.”
Brown emphasized that Hamilton Watch is several hundred times larger than Wasson Watch Company, pointing to the outsized influence Christians can have in the business world.
“If we can pressure them to do the right thing, imagine what can be done in other industries,” Brown continued. “Christians always have a voice. Yes, there can be negative consequences, but what will you say when you stand before God?”
The successful social media campaign occurred months after Wasson Watch Company, which manufactures watches in Switzerland as well as custom leather tool rolls and other accessories in their home state of Texas, started witnessing rapid growth after using social media to discuss pressing cultural and political issues.
Brown previously detailed in another interview with The Sentinel that rather than making customers uneasy, their posts about abolishing abortion, reforming the military, and celebrating the Christian heritage of the United States have instead drawn new customers to the business.
