"Causey" Watches

[Victoria]

Upon looking up which watch Richard Gere was wearing in American Gigolo (turns out, it was the Piaget Protocole in blue face, FYI), I was stunned to find he favours a rather discrete marque, the Wyler Vetta.

(Caption: "The truly important thing is inner beauty")

As you can see, he is the spokesman for the Swiss watchmakers (around since 1896) who've pledged donating 30 Euros for every watch sold in Italy, France and Switzerland to the Healing the Divide Foundation.

Gere established this Foundation to combat the various ailments of society today, such as "health, illiteracy, ignorance, intolerance, injustice".

As he puts it, "The time is now to bring that world into being!" (why is there always a watch pun?), and the kindly watchmakers have decided to match that spirit with the equivalent of an RWG Membership.

Seriously, though, full marks for at least trying, Mr. Gere. I'm sure everytime P. Diddy plonks down 50Gs for his Jacob & Co. watches, they don't even set aside a fiver for the kids of Harlem to learn how to read better.

What other causes or ad campaign issues do you know are supported by watch companies? Has this ever influenced you, or made you think about buying said watch?

[KB]

Wyler Vetta make some stunning watches they just need more popularity to start fetching the very high price tags.

Ken